Ricketts Glen: A Hidden Gem

My wife and I went on a driving tour around Pennsylvania this past weekend. One of the highlights was our stop at Ricketts Glen State Park (commonly misspelled as Rickets Glen). This scenic state park is located in northern PA, past the town of Benton. The Ricketts Glen state park address is: 695 State Route 487 Benton, PA 17814 (30 miles North of Bloomsburg) if you’re interested. The main reason for going is to see the twenty plus named waterfalls found inside of the park. We ended up hiking over seven miles on the Falls trail.

The tallest waterfall in the park, at nearly 100 feet, is Ganoga falls, which is pictured below. Although it was a hot summer day the cool breeze and mist radiating from the waterfalls combined with the shade created by the old growth forest kept the temperatures on the trail down and tolerable. Many hikers even took the opportunity to cool off by jumping in the river. For more pictures check out my Ricketts Glen slideshow video embedded below.

Ganoga Falls

There is a proper lake in the middle of the park which can be used for swimming or boating. Ricketts Glenn camping is offered as well as a number of cabins for rent on the grounds of the park itself. If you’re lucky you might even run into some of the local wildlife which inhabits Ricketts Glen state park. Notable species include black bear, river otter, bobcat, white-tailed deer, porcupine, turkey, and more! For more animal and wildlife pictures visit my Zoo Tails blog.

Pictured below is the 2012 Rickets Glen State Park map and Falls trail map.

Our original plans called for us to visit Worlds End state park too but it is even more north than Ricketts Glen. After hiking and climbing over seven miles we were pretty exhausted and decided to head right to our hotel outside of Bloomsburg. This turned out to be a great decision because shortly after checking in a giant thunderstorm rolled through the area with frightening lightning that knocked out the power at the hotel several times. Oh well, now we just have an excuse to go back sometime soon!