Nesquehoning Mountain[3] or Nesquehoning Ridge[2] is a 15–17-mile-long (24–27 km) coal bearing ridge dividing the waters of Lehigh Valley to the north from the Schuylkill River valley and the several near parallel ridgelines of the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians barrier range all local members of which run generally WSW-ENE in the greater overall area.

Nestled above a creek sculpted ravine across from the even less negotiable sides of Broad Mountain the flanks above Nesquehoning Creek reach a sharp bend cut by the water gap of the Lehigh River and merge with the ridge of Pisgah Ridge to the south into a common terminal mountain, Mount Pisgah within sight of the Poconos in a region once touted as "The Switzerland of America" along the eastern edge of the Southern Anthracite Region, all several ridge lines north of Blue Mountain,[4] which in part provides the source waters for Nesquehoning Creek, a tributary of the Lehigh River in the Poconos in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

While US 209 and PA 93[a] both climb watercourse ravines on opposite sides of the valley, the Nesquehoning route is very steep and was not anything more than a mule road before the systematic attempt to create a U.S. highway was put through alongside the creek.

Urban development is concentrated in the Borough of Nesquehoning and Hometown along the climb to Barnesville, where the transportation corridor can drop down into the Mahanoy Creek Valley.

It then continues to the northeast in a relatively narrow valley flowing past the ravine now traversed by U.S. Route 209 climbing up Room Run to the upper foot of Mount Pisgah above the divide from Panther Creek.