Ricketts Glen State Park

 Vanlog, Ursinus College parking lot, Collegeville, PA

September 20, 2020

We woke up at 7:00 to an outside temperature of 34 degrees on this last day of summer. We were on the road by 7:20 AM on our way to Ricketts Glen State Park in Sullivan County. Hoping to avoid the mobs of non-mask-wearing tourists we read about and have previously witnessed at this rather popular PA state park, we hit the trail at 8:30 AM. For the first two-thirds of the Falls Trail, which passes by 19 named waterfalls in 3.2 miles, we pretty much had the trail to ourselves. I have been to Ricketts Glen SP many times growing up and it was my favorite place on earth before I discovered Yosemite NP in 1992, but this experience was by far my best. Jessica and I were here last June and it was just mobbed with obnoxious hikers, discarded diapers, free-roaming dogs, and we were both sore and sorely disappointed. This time it was heaven. A brisk 36 degrees when we started hiking, we never built up a sweat. We entered into this almost surreal hemlock forest with sedimentary rock dispersed throughout, a glen if ever there was a place to live up to that name. It wasn't long before the waterfalls started showing up one after another and the best thing was that we had them all to ourselves with no one else around! Eventually, we passed a few other hikers and then as we crossed back through the woods on the Highland Trail through the Midway Crevasse we started to see more and more people just heading out on the trail as we were coming back. 

We got out the charcoal at 11 AM and cooked a steak on the grill overlooking Lake Jean for our noon-time meal as the crowds started to pour into the park and fill up the parking lots. But we had our fill already and were just on our way out, heading back down to Ursinus College and home after another successful #vanlife experience.