Ricketts Glen State Park Guide: Epic Waterfall Hike, Camping, & More

Ricketts Glen is a fantastic place to spend some time and relax. The park is best known for its premier hiking loops with the Falls Trail, which covers over 3.2-7.2 miles, depending upon your route on the loop, and goes through two different waterfall glens, with 24 different waterfalls, ranging from a few feet in height, to up to 94 feet tall. Also contained within the 13,050 acres of the State Park are other trails, including one that leads up to an abandoned fire tower with views off of North Mountain. Natural beauty abounds at this treasure of a state park that straddles the borders of Luzerne, Columbia, and Sullivan Counties. 

One of the many beautiful Hemlocks at Ricketts Glen.

On this visit, we camped at the park's beautiful campground. The camping area is largely surrounded by Lake Jean and has many campsites that can accommodate tents and campers. The campground also has some modern cabins. Fishing, kayaking, and more are easily accessible from the camping area. The beach and food concession, and falls trail loop, are also located within easy reach of the campground. Be sure to take in a sunrise, or sunset, do some birding, and look up at the stars when you are at the lake. 

An osprey out on a little island in the lake.

Approaching sunset...

I did not quite have enough juice with my lens to get a good shot, but out on that dead tree you can see a bald eagle on top.

A look up at the stars..

And a campfire!

Heading over towards the beach area from the camping area. Picnic areas abound alongside the pretty lake.

The beach area is home to a boating concession that has canoes, kayaks, stand-up paddle boards, and more available for rental.

Along with a decent food concession and bathhouse.

The beach area is especially pretty and can accommodate large crowds. What better way is there to cool off after a hike than taking swim in the lake? 

The Hayfields. This is located near the northern boundary of Ricketts Glen, which is a pretty meadow that is a noted birding spot. We saw some hawks, eagles, and some small birds, butterflies, and dragonflies. 

In the background you can see the FAA radar station, which is a remnant of the Cold War Era Air Force Station that was once located in this spot. Many of the buildings are now part of the Red Rock Job Corps Center, which offers free vocational training to young adults from ages 16-24.

The Grandview Trail leads out to where Ricketts built a lookout tower. The site is now occupied by an abandoned fire tower. While views are not super easy to get, with lots of the area fully grown in, the park would be wise to invest and develop this area of the park. This section was one of the initial draws to the area for Ricketts when he first welcomed tourists to the area. DCNR would be wise to rehabilitate this fire tower and make it a popular attraction, like the ones at Cook Forest State Park and Mt. Davis. It would be very helpful to the park in spreading out the crowds from the Falls Trail. The park has lots of room to develop on in each direction of the property.

Breakfast time with some donuts from the Red Rock Corner Store before heading out on the trails.

Descending to the Falls Trail, I like the way this shot came out. I had forgotten to adjust the speed on this shot and I really like the final result. 

Heading out on the trail! A slight threat of rain loomed on the day, which was great for keeping the crowds down on the trail. We opted to explore other places at the park on our first day because the crowds looked pretty heavy. It was a great choice, for the cloudy weather, with intermittent sun, was wonderful for taking photos. 

he Glens Natural Area was designated as a National Natural Landmark in 1969, and was slated to become a National Park in 1935, but the financial struggles of the Great Depression and World War II ended up in the plan not coming to fruition. The area became a State Park, along with the other areas with similar plans in Pennsylvania, including Blue Knob, Raccoon Creek, Hickory Run, Laurel Hill, and French Creek.

The 37 foot tall Mohawk Falls

As stated earlier, the Falls Trail is 3.2 miles long, and depending upon the route, can go up to 7.2 miles and passes at least two dozen waterfalls, ranging from a few feet tall, up to the 94 foot tall Ganoga Falls. Twelve of these falls are over 30 feet tall and the trails run right through the steep glens. Due to this, it is HIGHLY IMPORTANT that you exercise caution while hiking. While not an excessively challenging hike, common sense has to be exercised, with the use of STURDY SHOES, ideally HIKING BOOTS, along with STAYING AWAY FROM THE TOPS and BASES OF THE WATERFALLS and STAYING ON THE TRAIL. I cannot stress this enough. This is a scenic and stunning place to explore, but the lack of common sense exercised by some of the visitors, that we saw on this trip, has me highly concerned that this place may face the same fate as Glen Onoko Falls, which had to be closed down because visitors did not exercise caution and severe injuries and death frequently occurred, leading to the state having to close down access to the location.

With that being said, my goodness the Falls Trail is so beautiful. It should be tops on the list for anyone who is into hiking, sightseeing, photography, and overall natural beauty.

Oneida Falls is only 13 feet tall, but it is one of my favorites on the trail. 

(From another visit last fall, on the cusp of winter) With higher water, it looks almost completely straight with some slight bumpy layering. 

With lower water, like on this trip, the layering is just stunning. Note just how much less water there was on this visit compared to that other visit. 

Cayuga Falls, 11 feet

I am a huge fan of the definitive book, Pennsylvania Waterfalls by Scott Brown, but he describes these falls, Cayuga Falls, as just "not photogenic," but I have to disagree. The two eccentricity of these falls, coupled with the moss covered stones on the left side of the falls, make these falls one of my absolute favorites on this hike. 

Looking down from the top of the 94 foot tall Ganoga Falls.

A look at the park's tallest falls, Ganoga Falls. The majority of the falls were named by Ricketts in honor of Native Americans, who highly revere the beauty of the Glens. 

I didn't bring any of my zoom lenses with me, but here is a bees nest!

The geology of Ricketts Glen is unique, with the falls heading down the Allegheny Front with different rock formations being made visible by the waters that are slowly wearing away the landscape. 

Harrison Wright Falls, 27 feet tall

Harrison Wright is the first set of falls down from Waters Meet, where Ganoga Glen meets with Glen Leigh. So far, we have gone down Ganoga, and now we are heading down Ricketts Glen proper. 

This waterfall is just gorgeous, with the top looking like a straight fall, but then multiple layers making themselves visible as some of the water partially free falls down, while the rest of the water tumbles off of protruding rocks, creating some very pretty layering. 

Sheldon Reynolds Falls, 36 feet. 

Sheldon Reynolds Falls is a beautiful mix of both a straight waterfall, and a bridal veil falls near the landing pool..

A butterfly wanted to come along on the hike with me.

Brit at Sheldon Reynolds Falls

I did end up running into the "not photogenic" falls issue that Scott Brown talked about in his book, but in this situation, it was not the falls, but rather the people that opted to risk a 16+ foot drop off of the top of Murray Reynolds Falls. I would not mind if they put in a little split rail fence near the top of some of the falls to prevent people from taking falls of their own. 

My lens was so often trained upon the falls. The trail itself is just beautiful. 

Just off trail, across the road and further down the glen, you can find Adams Falls. This is often missed because it is not part of the main falls trail loop, but it is well worth checking out. You can either follow the trail to the parking area at the bottom, or if you are parked at the bottom, you can just keep following the creek. It is very similar to Murray Reynolds Falls, but almost twice the height. This eccentric waterfall is really neat and worth checking out. 

Now we head back up through Glen Leigh. On this trip, we opted to go back up Ganoga Glen to take in the views from that direction. On our prior trip, we went up Glen Leigh and across the top. We will do that for the remainder of our virtual hike on the Falls Trail.

The end of Glen Leigh has a stunning view of its first few falls, Wyandot Falls at 15 feet, and Benjamin Reynolds at 40 feet. On this visit, it was technically still autumn, and signs of this existed with the freshly fallen leaves, but the first snow of the season had also fallen and the first signs of freezing were occurring. It was so beautiful! Frigid, but stunning. The trail was closed for regular hiking within the next week. Ice climbing and hiking equipment and registration at the park office is required to do any hiking on the Falls Trail when the freeze starts to set in. 

We probably spent the most time in the lower portion of Glen Leigh. Here is Brit on the first bridge.

B. Reynolds Falls is just stunning.

The opposite view of the first photo, with a look towards Waters Meet. 

A look back down the glen, showing the beautiful wooded setting in the mountains.

The falls named after the namesake of the park R. B. Ricketts. His distinguished life included fighting for our freedoms for the Union Army and fighting in Gettysburg, and creating a lumber company that had the foresight to save the old growth forest that now makes up much of the land of the state park that was named in his honor. He created the first version of the Falls Trail from 1889 to 1893, and also brought early modern tourists to the area with his North Mountain Hotel.

Ozone Falls, 60 feet. It was named after the Ozone Hiking Club out of Wilkes Barre. All of the curving cascades add up to 60 feet, making this the second tallest set of falls at the park.

The view from the top Ozone Falls. A wooden bridge crosses just above the falls, giving this awesome view.

The top part of Huron Falls. This section cascades and then the rest goes through a slide like chute. It adds up 41 feet total.

Shawnee Falls measures in at 30 feet and basically consists of two sets of straight falls on its descent. 

F.L. Ricketts Falls, at 38 feet tall, is really Pretty. I opted for a high speed shot on this one.

And a slower shutter shot on this one. 

I love the Highland Trail connector between the top of the two glens. It lets you focus upon the beauty of the trees, rock formations, and more. 

You can really tell I got to the roots of it all on this hike.

Some of the old growth on the trail.

Midway Crevasse is a neat rock city at the center of the Highland Trail. 

The sun setting on a crisp and wonderful day.

Now back to this trip!

We had a pretty great lunch at Fishing Creek Lodge. It is not the first place you would think of for a great seafood meal (along with lots of other options) but it is excellent and affordable. 

And back to the campground for a campfire. Ricketts Glen is a wonderful place that you should check out. It has just about everything you could ask for from a destination in the outdoors. Additionally, there are a number of other waterfalls within a short distance, and Worlds End State Park is within short reach. As far as outdoor recreation goes, it is tough to top this region in the state. Be sure to check it out! For more information, check out the state park's website here.

It is that time of year again and we have now released our 2020 Interesting Pennsylvania Calendar! If you enjoy our articles and content, be sure to support us and get one of our 2020 Pennsylvania Calendars.  It is available through this link.

Josiah Hess Covered Bridge Columbia County

Just up the road from the East and West Paden Twin Covered Bridges in Columbia County, is the beautiful Josiah Hess Covered Bridge. This span crosses Huntington Creek, just upstream from the Twin Covered Bridges. Similar to the Twin Bridges, they have put in some picnic tables in the middle of the bridge, if you are looking for a bucolic and romantic place to have an afternoon picnic. 

The wooded and mountainous setting is immediately evident when you first lay your eyes on this bridge.

The bridge was built in 1875 and employs the use of the Burr Truss. It measures in at 105 feet. Another thing that is immediately noticeable about this bridge is that it appears to be much taller than most other covered bridges, reminiscent in height to Knapps Covered Bridge in Towanda.  

The bridge was restored and rededicated in 2005 and is truly a beautiful community asset. Columbia County takes such great pride in their 23 beautiful covered bridges.

Coordinates: 

41.113910, -76.339156

This covered bridge is well worth checking out on any tour of Columbia County's beautiful covered bridges. It is located a little more than half way between Knoebels Amusement Park and Ricketts Glen State Park, and it is well worth checking out while touring the beautiful countryside. 

East and West Paden Twin Covered Bridges Columbia County

Columbia County has so many covered bridges, but these two are just awesome. The East and West Paden Twin Covered Bridges are the only two remaining covered bridges that are setup in this practical manner. Instead of building one giant span, or connecting two spans with a bridge pier, they instead opted to build two smaller covered bridges off of each side of a middle bridge pier. 

The first and larger span, measuring in at 112 feet, is a rebuilt replica of the original bridge, which was built in 1884 and destroyed during a flood in 2006. 

The second span is one of the originals, dating back to 1884 with a 75 foot length. Here you can see how the other span is almost indistinguishable from the original span. 

The bridges and surrounding grounds are used as a beautiful picnic grove, with capacity for many in a bucolic setting.

The bridges are impeccably maintained and are truly an excellent place for a picnic.

Some of the surrounding picnic grounds, known as Twin Bridges County Park.

A view of the twins.

The bridges are named after John Paden, who operated a nearby sawmill. They were built by W.C. Pennington and employ the use of Queenpost construction. It crosses Huntington Creek. 

These two covered bridges are just awesome and we highly recommend checking them out if you are in the area.
Coordinates:
41.106683, -76.356068

It is that time of year again and we have now released our 2020 Interesting Pennsylvania Calendar! If you enjoy our articles and content, be sure to support us and get one of our 2020 Pennsylvania Calendars.  It is available through this link.

2020 Pennsylvania Calendar

Thanks again for your support! Our 2020 Calendars are sold out for the year!

It is that time of year again and we have now released our 2020 Interesting Pennsylvania Calendar! 

Our 2020 Pennsylvania Wall Calendar features scenes from across the state, including views of Center City Philadelphia, Downtown Pittsburgh, Ricketts Glen State Park, Brady's Bend Overlook in Clarion County, Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney, the Rockville Bridge across the Susquehanna River near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania's Elk Herd, Erie's Waldameer Amusement Park, Lamb's Scenic Overlook in Bradford County, Freedom Falls in Venango County, Kennywood Park near Pittsburgh, and Koziar's Christmas Village in Berks County. The calendars open up to be 17 inches tall by 11 inches wide.

It makes for a great gift for someone or for yourself.

Also available is our book on Pennsylvania's historic amusement parks, Great Pennsylvania Amusement Parks Road Trip. It features Knoebels, Kennywood Park, Hersheypark, Dorney Park, Waldameer, DelGrosso's, Lakemont, Dutch Wonderland, Idlewild, and Conneaut Lake Park.

Purchases of both items can be made through the PayPal menu at the bottom of this page, and at the top of this page. 

Thanks for your ongoing support!

Philly's Macy's/Wanamaker's: World's Largest Musical Instrument & Iconic Department Store

Macy's Department Store in Center City Philadelphia in an absolute gem of a downtown department store that is just stunning to explore. It is home to world's largest playable musical instrument and is a destination that is well worth checking out.

The grand urban department store is a breed that is rapidly dwindling. First, changing retail tastes took a major chunk out of downtown department stores and shopping out to suburban malls in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Many department stores closed, but at least one or two others were still able to hang on in the major cities. Consolidation in the industry from the 90s through today brought in outside ownership to many of these department stores in which outside companies did not feel the same attachment to the often illustrious pasts of these old stores. Pittsburgh lost its last grand department store, Kaufmann's, a few years ago. In 2002, Cleveland lost its flagship department store, Higbee's, which was prominently featured in A Christmas Story. Philadelphia was once home to at least four major flagship department stores:

• Lit Brothers, which closed in 1977
• Gimbels, which created the first Thanksgiving Parade in the country, closed in 1993,  
• Strawbridge's was able to hold on until 2006, 
• Wanamaker's

The latter, and grandest, of those stores lives on to this day as Macy's. Both Strawbridge's and Wanamaker's were acquired by the May Company in the mid 90s. When Macy's purchased the May Company in 2006, they promptly closed the old Strawbridge's flagship in favor of retaining the Wanamaker's store. They have thankfully kept Wanamaker's and its illustrious history alive in Center City Philadelphia. Lots of the old Wanamaker's touch and old signage remains throughout the store. 

The corner of Macy's/Wanamaker's, which has stood tall in Center City since 1902. 

John Wanamaker set out to create a "new kind of store" and opened the world's first modern department store in 1876, in time for the centennial celebrations in the city. He expanded in 1902 with the construction of this opulent retail palace that was designed by legendary architect, Daniel Burnham.

Wannamaker's touch with retailing was in making shopping an extravagant experience for his customers, with the addition of many cutting edge technological innovations. Technologies that we take for granted today, including electrical lighting, and telephones, were quickly implemented by John Wanamaker. He even played a huge role in the creation of Mother's Day in 1908.

Additionally, and possibly most importantly, he appreciated the dignity of his workers. In a commercial sector not often known as being generous with its workers, Wanamaker offered his employees free healthcare, recreational opportunities, profit sharing, and pensions. He also demanded that his management treat every employee with respect. He was a religious man and believed that if "every man was equal in the eyes of God, then they all should pay the same price," which meant that he pioneered the concept of price tags. Prior to this, haggling was the norm in retailing. 

John Wanamaker was a gilded age entrepreneur that did not let greed get in the way of treating his employees and customers with basic human dignity. He even dabbled in politics, serving as postmaster general under President Harrison and introducing the first commemorative stamp, though his record in that office was generally mixed. He advocated against unions because he believed that they were not necessary if a business were well managed. He never dealt with labor issues because he treated his workers well. He also was a firm believer in building community and opened the Sunday Breakfast Rescue Mission, Philadelphia's largest homeless shelter and the third oldest remaining mission in the country, with the help of several other regional philanthropic entrepreneur's, including W. Atlee Burpee of Burpee Seeds, and John Stetson of Stetson Hats. Wanamaker was a different kind of Gilded Age industrialist whose benevolence was both outwardly visible in the community, and with his workers, in contrast to other gilded age industrialists that would put on a big show philanthropically, but then treat their workers without human dignity behind the scenes. 

The classic cursive script initials of John Wanamaker, put into a mosaic in the entry way to the store.

By far though, the most famous and recognizable aspect of Wanamaker's is the organ. This is the largest operating musical instrument on the planet, with 28,500 pipes, six ivory keyboards, 729 color-coded stop tablets, 168 piston buttons (under the keyboards) and 42 foot controls. The largest pipe, made of three-inch-thick Oregon sugar pine, is more than 32 feet long and the smallest is a quarter-inch long. (Source: Friends of the Wanamaker Organ and Macy's)

The organ was built by the Los Angeles Art Organ Company for the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. It put the initial manufacturer out of business with an initial price tag of 105,000 dollars, an absolutely obscene amount of money in that time period. John Wanamaker got the organ for a bargain and loaded the organ onto 13 fright cars in 1909. It took two years to build it. It originally had 10,000 pipes, but John Wanamaker judged this to not be loud enough to fill the enormous Grand Court of his department store, so he created a private organ factory to add another 18,500 pipes to the organ up through 1930.

The keyboards for the organ. The organ is played every day of the week except Sundays. During the holidays, the Grand Court is lavishly decorated with a light show that accompanies the music that is played on the organ. 

"Meet me at the Eagle" is a phrase that Philadelphians have said when it came to meeting in Center City at the Department Store. The eagle came from the German Pavilion at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. It is perched right in the center of the elegant Grand Court at the department store. It weighs so much that the floor needed to be reinforced.

This elegant department store was also the primary filming location for Mannequin. 

The bronze eagle is beautiful, along with the rest of the Macy's Department Store.

For a shopping experience from a day gone by, Center City Philly's historic Macy's is the place to go. For me to make a statement about going to a department store, and enjoying it, says a lot about the place. The organ, eagle, and architecture are not to be missed. With it being located right across the street from City Hall, and just a few blocks from Reading Terminal Market, One Liberty Place Observation Deck, the Franklin Institute, and so much more, you need to be sure to stop in and check it out, especially during the holidays.