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| Ganoga Falls |
I've hiked all over Pennsylvania. The farm country of south central Pennsylvania when I lived in Lancaster and worked in Harrisburg. The woods of north central Pennsylvania when I was in school at Penn State and when visiting my brother in Lewisburg. Allegheny National Forest and all of western Pennsylvania when I lived in Pittsburgh. The Delaware Water Gap and far eastern Pennsylvania since moving to New Jersey. The one part of the state that I have never hiked is that area around Scranton and Wilkes Barre. I just NEVER go there. That's probably why I'd never once been to Rickett's Glen State Park in all my years hiking around the commonwealth.
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| The First of the Falls - Murray Reynolds |
My brother and I decided to meet at Rickett's Glen on a Tuesday morning as early as possible since we knew the place would be swamped. I had to leave at 4:30 a.m to make the 2 hours and 40 minute drive to the trail head... and even then, cars were rolling in at the somewhat early hour of 7 a.m. We resolved to do the heavily-trafficked waterfall trails first and then head out to the peace and quiet of the eastern reaches of the park via some less-traveled paths. Fortunately, the plan worked great and we only saw a handful of hikers around the falls and then had the rest of the day all to ourselves.
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| Fern Woods on Highland Trail |
The falls trail really is spectacular. It's a long, steep ascent on stone steps from the trail head passing no fewer than 13 named cascades on Kitchen Creek... and that's only the western section of the hike through Ganoga Glen. The main trail that we took up from PA 118 splits at a place called "Waters Meet. We turned northwest up Ganoga Glen. The northeastern route - up Glen Leigh - has even more waterfalls. Most people do the loop of those two sections, but we opted to skip Glen Leigh altogether in order to escape the coming hoards.
The highest of the falls is the 94 foot cascade Ganoga, which is amazing in sheer height, but many of the other, smaller cascades, have a real picturesque quality about them so I actually liked them much more.
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| Harrison Wright Falls, just before Waters Meet |
After the steep ascent of the falls trail, we looped around the north end of the park on the appropriately named Highland Trial, which follows the wooded ridge line, and then followed the long descent on the Old Bulldozer Road.
We liked the last section of the hike so much that we resolved to return to Rickett's Glen, skip the waterfalls entirely, and complete a long loop hike that would incorporate some more of those quiet, lonely trails on the east side.
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Andy and Arlo at Ganoga Falls Overlook
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Trail: Western Falls and Old Bulldozer Road Loop
Distance: 8.3 miles round trip
Elevation Gain: 1,315 feet
Route: Falls Trail (West branch) to Highland Trail to Mountain Springs Trail to Old Bulldozer Road
Conditions: Mostly sunny, 95 degrees F
Notable Flora and Fauna: Winter Wrens
