This is the Grand Point View on route 30 on top of Mt. Ararat, elevation 2464 feet. The lookout tops Bedford County Pennsylvania. A once grand hotel stood here called the Grandview Hotel. The hotel, built in 1932, was shaped like a ship and afforded guests unparalleled views of seven Pennsylvania counties and three states. Famous visitors to the hotel included Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Calvin Coolidge, J.P. Morgan and Joan Crawford. The hotel burned to the ground on October 28th, 2001 after having been abandoned for years. The opening of the PA Turnpike had the effect of re-routing much tourist traffic leaving the hotel to languish and eventually go out of business. You can see old photos of the area and hotel that someone took on this page.
I shot this as seven hand-held bracketed RAW frames and then combined them into an HDR and tone mapped the image with Photomatix Pro. I wish there had been less haze down in the valley on this day but God was not cooperating with my photographic wishes :–)
