There’s something magical about a waterfall and any hike with a waterfall destination feels like a great reward!
On any given day if you asked me to pick my favorite place for waterfalls, I’d like shout out, “Maui’s road to Hana”, but that’s likely because it’s Maui and not because it has the best falls. My top pick, just based on waterfalls is Silver Falls State Park for 3 reasons – the falls are so varied, the trail is incredibly beautiful incredible and takes you behind some of the waterfalls (see post here).
Having said that, the falls at Ricketts Glen State Park are in my top 5 and so far, the trail is the best way to see the most waterfalls in the shortest distance. They say there are 21 in the 7.2 mile loop and 18 of them in a 3.2mile loop! My pictures show we saw 19 on our 3.3 mile hike.
The Falls Trail hike follows two branches of Kitchen Creek as it cascades down the canyon. The hike as you’d expect goes straight down and then returns back up.
We’d driven northwest from Edison’s Menlo Park New Jersey lab (post here), back into Pennsylvania, through the rolling hills and farms of Mount Bethel Township, over a narrow road in the Delaware Water Gap, skirting the “Dirty Dancing” famed Catskills, and past Tunkhannock to reach Rickett’s Glenn.
Mount Bethel 
Tunkhannock 
This was one of those hikes where I took WAY too many pictures. Digital photography in the palm of your hand is a blessing and curse. Remember the days when you had 24 or 36 film exposures and you were so careful with each and every precious shot? Those days are not just in the rear-view mirror anymore, they feel like they’re part of a different lifetime.
Reviewing my photos for this blog, it appears that I was so overwhelmed with the beauty of these falls that I snapped a photo of every waterfall from a distance, close up (iPhone 2X zoom), and 2 iPhone “live” shots – one to create long exposures (for that romantic soft look) and one looped to look like a very short video. That’s 4 photos of 19 waterfalls = 76 pictures before I added in selfies, pictures of Doug, pictures of both of us, Doug’s photos of the same waterfall (but probably framed better) and pictures of the trail. Ay, caramba!
I won’t bore you with 76+ waterfall photos, but even pairing them down may be too many waterfall shots to hold your interest in this blog. Don’t be too judgy though. I bet when you take this hike, you’ll end up with a similar problem and I definitely won’t blame you. 😉
Murray Reynolds 
F. L. Ricketts 
Erie
Ganoga
