RETURN TO RICKETTS GLEN

Christy wanted to spend Thursday visiting family, but she turned me loose to hike. It was expected to be a cloudy day, so I decided to make the 5-hour round trip drive from Clearfield to Ricketts Glen State Park. The park is famous for its waterfalls. Kitchen Creek and its two forks have 22 named waterfalls, ranging in height from 11’ to 94’. Incredibly, it’s possible to visit 21 of them in a 4-mile loop hike. I had hiked that classic waterfall loop there once, four years earlier. It’s such a great hike that I was excited to do it again.

I started my day with my first visit to Sullivans Falls, which is in a state forest near Ricketts Glen. The biggest challenge was finding the trailhead, as Google Maps routed me up the wrong road. I eventually figured out the correct route, and I made the short walk to the top of the falls. From there, I followed a steep trail down to the base. Sullivans Falls is an impressive sight, particularly if you include a visit to the brink. It looks like it would be a great spot to swim in warmer weather.

It only took about 15 minutes to drive from there to the state park. On my previous visit in 2017 I started from the lower trailhead on route 118 so that I could see Adams Falls. From there I crossed the road and hiked upstream past the other three waterfalls on Kitchen Creek. Then I did the loop up the west fork and down the east fork before returning downstream to my car.

This time, I took the shorter, more traditional route from the Lake Rose parking area. The park was fairly quiet, being a cool, cloudy Thursday, but the trails were still fairly busy. I can’t imagine what summer weekends are like here.

From the parking lot, I made the quick approach hike before descending the west fork of Kitchen Creek. From Waters Meet, I continued down to Harrison Wright Falls, Sheldon Reynolds Falls, and Murray Reynolds Falls. Harrison Wright is one of my favorites, and by the time I got there, I figured I might as well hit the other two. I then doubled back and hiked up the east fork, before completing the loop on the Highland Trail.

I was expecting ideal conditions for photography. However, water levels were extremely high. Too high for a lot of the waterfalls. Some of them featured heavy spray, and others had foam in the pool at the base. The good news is that I made better time on my hike, since I wasn’t spending as much time on photography. It was still an enjoyable hike, and a great way to spend a day in Pennsylvania.

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