Pennsylvania has a wide variety of small waterfalls, with a few giants that are mainly located in northeastern Pennsylvania. This page offers you the tools for the most comprehensive guide to visiting the 345+ waterfalls that have been documented within the state. Some of these falls are on public and some on private property and a large number of others that have not been documented. When I am looking at regions to visit waterfalls, I consult these resources. Here is a list of our 25 favorite waterfalls. We feature a bunch of waterfalls in our archives, including Ricketts Glen State Park, neighboring State Game Lands 13, Ohiopyle State Park, and the Delaware Water Gap's Silverthread and Raymondskill Falls and more. All of the following resources will have you covered for visiting the waterfalls that the state has to offer. The following two websites are community driven, giving a group effort on documenting the state's waterfalls, and thus they have the most thorough listing and set of details that is offered on waterfalls located within Pennsylvania.
The most comprehensive listing of falls can be found at the World Waterfall Database, which contains oodles of statistics and exact locations of waterfalls across the whole state, and the world. Its advanced mapping tool also gives you a pin map of direct locations of waterfalls and whether or not they are on public land, open to the public, or unable to access due to property rights.
Pennsylvania Waterfalls is home to the most detail when it comes to descriptions on access to waterfalls that are primarily in the northeastern region of the state. They also note whether the falls are open to the public or not and what effort is needed to get to them.
The following website, like ours, is the result of an individual effort, meaning that while it does not cover every single waterfall in the state like the community driven and collaborative efforts of Pennsylvania Waterfalls and the World Waterfall Database, it still does a great job of covering the places that it visits. The Endless Mountains Experience is an excellent hiking blog that largely covers the northern tier of the state. They feature fantastic descriptions of hikes, waterfalls, overlooks, geologic features, and more. I enjoy their write-ups, and if you enjoy ours, you will definitely enjoy theirs. Their stuff is great and will give you ideas on waterfall adventures.
Lastly, there are two books that cover waterfalls that I thoroughly recommend. Pennsylvania Waterfalls by Scott Brown is the first book that delved into this topic. While some details are not quite on the mark, all you have to do is go to the internet to check on the current status of places to visit them. He covers the true highlights of the collection of waterfalls that the state has to offer and basically set the blueprint for charting the locations of the state's waterfalls. He covers the waterfalls that are well worth going out of your way to visit. Johnny Molloy's Hiking Waterfalls in Pennsylvania delves into most of the same waterfall highlights in the state. Both books offer crisp, in focus, and clear photography with accurate historical background on the falls.
While I often seek out waterfalls, I feel like the best way to find them is to simply hike and explore. Many of the falls that I have run into have actually been secondary to just the adventure of hiking. If going and focusing on the waterfalls is the only objective of what you are doing, you just might miss beautiful old growth forests, old historic remains, beautiful scenic overlooks, rugged and rocky geologic formations, and more. I take a holistic approach when it comes to my adventures. One of my most recent adventures involved going to the beautiful Charles F Lewis Natural Area in Galltizin State Forest near Johnstown. I did not expect to run into a beautiful waterfall gorge with slopes covered in white trillium. I went on the hike for the sheer elevation gain stats alone. I ended up finding beautiful little waterfalls and the most dazzling display of trillium I have ever seen. When doing your explorations, be sure to take in the whole picture, otherwise you just might be missing out on something else that is equally great. Disconnect yourself for a bit and just take in nature and any stresses you may have in life will just melt away.
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5.17.2020
Guide to PA's 345+ Waterfalls: A Free Guide to Visiting Every Waterfall in the State
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Hiking
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Pennsylvania State Parks
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Waterfalls
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