5 Scenes from Ricketts Glen Hike and Waterfalls

Earlier this week I took another hiking adventure. I really enjoyed my time at Bushkill Falls so decided I would try to tackle hiking the falls at Ricketts Glen.

Well let me tell you,
if I thought Bushkill was a challenge, then Ricketts Glenn was double challenging. This was made for serious hikers and it's kind of dangerous!  I did the hike with my mom on Tuesday and then later that night had to ice my right knee and hip because they were sore. I hadn't run since because I can tell something has been aggravated on my right side.

It was beautiful and I really enjoyed it though. I'd love to go back again! So for this week's Friday 5, I am sharing 5 scenes from the falls.

The first thing we did was stop at the Ranger/Visitors station and get a map.  If you do this hike you will definitely need a map. The trail breaks off in several directions and in my opinion it is not clearly marked. Also, there are no restrooms, first aid stations, or ranger stations along these paths.
Ricketts Glen is a very large state park and there are many, many miles of trail. Our main objective was to see the waterfalls so the ranger mapped out a route for us that was suppose to be about a 3.5 mile loop allowing us to see 18 out of 21 waterfalls.


This fall is actually a lot larger than what it looks like. I had to do some major hiking to get to the top of it. I am only standing on it because as you can see, we are in a bit of a drought!  Apparently I did not know that before I decided to visit waterfalls!

The hiking trails at Rickets Glen are pet friendly and we did see a few dogs but I would never bring my dog here to hike the trails we did because the terrain is just too dangerous. I wouldn't want my dog to throw out a hip!

This is one of the larger falls. Again, you can tell that we are in a drought. There was enough water pooled at the bottom though that people were taking their shoes off and playing it in.  I bet this is beautiful when there is actually a lot of water running down it!


 Here are my Garmin stats from the hike.  I know it says "running", but I can ensure you there was NO running involved! I'm not sure how exactly the elevation is calculated. When I open up the details of this "run"  I see an elevation loss of 717 ft, minimum elevation 1,532 ft, and maximum elevation 2,231 ft.  All I know is that we were up very high!


Since this was a loop, we ended up right on the other side of where we started, which was the parking lot where my car was.


 My mom was smart enough to pack us a lunch so we drove over to the beach area and ate our lunch. We didn't know this at the time, but there is actually a concession building that sells snacks and ice cream.
So who wants to go back and hike this with me when there is actually more water?  -M

                                  We will be linking up with the gas from the Friday 5.

41 comments:

  1. That looks awesome!!! I could hike every day. We just got back from Big Sur and it was AMAZING! I love waterfalls. :)

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  2. This looks gorgeous! Ricketts Glen is one of Dan's favorite parks but I've never been there. He's been trying to get me to go, so I might have to take him up on that! Thanks for sharing!

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    1. You should go this fall and hopefully there will be more water on the falls!

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  3. That waterfall looks absolutely breath taking!

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  4. Looks absolutely stunning. Hiking is something I haven't done much of, although we did some in Greece last summer that was amazing. But you're right, it can be quite dangerous.

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    1. Yes it is, especially with water on the rocks that can make them slippery!

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  5. Looks so pretty! We did a lot of hiking in Yosemite last spring. The locals told us that the waterfalls were less spectacular than usual, due to the drought in California. They looked pretty amazing to me!

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  6. Gorgeous! I'm jealous of all these waterfall scenes. North Texas is rather flat and boring, maybe I need to get down to hill country for a change of scenery.

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  7. Thank you for these posts. Because of you my hubby and I are planning a trip to Bushkill in the Fall!

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    1. O yay! Please let me know how you like the Falls! Are you local?

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  8. MEEE!!! I want to go :)
    I love nature just for places like this. That's the way to work out!

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  9. So pretty!! I love hiking in the summer months!

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    1. It is beautiful. I found out that people hike this in the winter too. I bet that is even more dangerous in snow and ice!

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  10. So pretty! We don't have anything like that around here.

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  11. All good to know, especially about trails not being well marked. The BF & I are headed that way in October. Ricketts Glen is about an hour & a half from where we'll be staying. But it's a park we really want to explore, so we plan to make the extra trek over!

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    1. Oh yay! Be sure to stop at the visitors station and have the Ranger highlight a route for you.

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  12. I've never hiked anywhere like that at all! Looks gorgeous and challenging

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  13. I've done this hike too and it did scare me a bit! Some very narrow, steep trails. I would like to go back better prepared with hiking boots rather than just sneakers. Plus, when I went we were not in a draught - and the downside of this is while the falls did look beautiful, a lot of the surrounding areas were slick from the water. I was so scared of falling!

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    1. I wore my Altra Olympus which are thick soled trail running shoes and I was fine. I am glad I did not wear my normal running shoes though. Yea, even though we were in a drought, quite a few of the rocks we climbed up were wet and slippery. If it is like that now I can't even imagine what it would be like when the falls are in full swing! Hope you get to make it back there sometime!

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  14. These views are just beautiful! I would happily go for a hike every day if I could!

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  15. We went here a couple years ago. I would love to go back!

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  16. So beautiful! We have some amazing trails around here as well, which are not marked well either. Good times trying to navigate the woods sans map... ;)

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  17. I LOVE ROCKETS GLENN!! It's one of my favorite parks in Pa!! We have been there three times , because we love it so much, and we are already talking about going again! Because we want to see the falls again.

    It makes me so sad that the waterfalls are so dry! I've seen them when they are fuller, it's beautiful ! The hike is hard, but we enjoy it so much !

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  18. Very pretty ! My hips and knees often protest after a hike... but the ''cross training'' is probably good for them.

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    1. Oh mine are still protesting. Hoping they get over it soon!

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  19. Love that place! I didn't know you guys were going through a drought over there. The waterfalls are awesome! You're right, some of the steps are pretty dangerous and steep, and even more so when it rains. Great job hiking the trail!

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Fairytales and Fitness is a personal blog authored and edited by us, Meranda and Lacey. The thoughts expressed here represent only our own and are not meant to be taken as professional advice. Please note that our thoughts and opinions change from time to time. We consider this a necessary consequence of having an open mind in an ever changing society. Any thoughts and opinions expressed within our out-of-date posts may not be the same, nor even similar, to those we may express today. Some links may contain affiliate links. Some links are just to pages we'd like to share.