Except for the fall of ’85 I spent in Missouri and the summer of ’12 in Alaska, I have lived in Maryland exploring the east coast of the US. Even after the 40 some odd years, I am still finding and exploring cool new places. Recently we took a long weekend trip up to Northern Pennsylvania to visit some friends and hike around Ricketts Glen State Park.
Onondaga Falls
Ricketts Glen State Park
Ricketts Glen State Park harbors a National Natural Landmark known as the Glens Natural Area. This area contains a series of wild, free-flowing waterfalls, each cascading through rock-strewn clefts. The 94-foot Ganoga Falls is the highest of 22 named waterfalls. The Old growth timber spared from timbering many years ago gives the falls hike an added wild touch.
The bog before the Falls
There are 22 named waterfalls ranging in height from 9 to 94 feet in Ricketts Glen State Park along Kitchen Creek as it flows through three steep, narrow valleys, or glens. Ricketts Glen State Park is named for R. Bruce Ricketts, a colonel in the American Civil War who owned over 80,000 acres in the area in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Ricketts was a lumberman who made his fortune clear cutting nearly all his land, but spared the old growth forests in the glens from clear cutting.
Nearly all of the waterfalls are visible from the Falls Trail, which Ricketts had built from 1889 to 1893 and which the state park rebuilt in the 1940s and late 1990s. The Falls Trail has been called “the most magnificent hike in PA” and one of “the top hikes in the East”.
If you enjoy photographing waterfalls, Ricketts Glen State Park in PA has 22 falls to try different angles and shutter speeds on.
In 1889 Ricketts hired Matt Hirlinger and five other men to build the trails along Kitchen Creek. It took them four years to complete the trails and stone steps through the glens. Having climbed some of the stone steps, I am once again reminded how tough and hard men once were and how soft I have really become.
The view from atop one of the many falls at Ricketts Glen State Park.
Our weekend in PA centered on visiting with friends, enjoying good food, wine and conversation around a peaceful campfire. Not all adventures require blistered feet, stuck trucks, camping in monsoons or trampling by buffalo. While, we did venture out and hike to some of the falls, we did not hike the full trail. The 7.5 mile hike is now on my list of things to do and following more days of afternoon local walks, I’ll be ready to tackle the very steep, and loose footing miles. If you enjoy taking photographs of waterfalls like I do, then Ricketts Glen is a must visit.
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