MMXVI is for chasing waterfalls. In three months, I have hiked 24 waterfalls and it is just the beginning. Granted 21 of those waterfalls were along the Falls Trail at Ricketts Glen State Park over the past weekend.
Ricketts Glen State Park is located across 13,000 acres across Luzerne, Sullivan and Columbia counties in Northern Pennsylvania. Just a short, but scenic drive from where the Adobeau and I had a hearty brunch at Canteen900 in Forty Fort. (We highly recommend getting a fresh pressed orange juice and the protein smoothie bowl if you're ever in the area.) The park is named after Robert Bruce Ricketts, an American Civil War colonel who owned the land.
My research of the trail told me that it was a difficult trail to hike, but Adobeau and I found it pretty easy. However, it is pretty wet in most spots from waterfall mist and winter's melted ice so shoes with good traction will probably be your best friend. We took the seven mile hike is a loop down Ganoga Glen, a little downstream from Waters Meet and back, up Glen Leigh, and then back to the Lake Rose Trail Head through the Highland Trail. With so many waterfalls to stop and stare at, the 7 miles doesn't feel so long.
The tallest of the waterfalls in the park is the 94 foot tall Ganoga Falls. Robert Bruce Ricketts named the waterfall for what he thought was the word that meant "water on the mountain" in the Seneca language. But it ended up that "Ganoga" is the word in the Cayuga language that means "place of floating oil". Woops! Well, "Water on the Mountain" sounds more poetic anyways.
We will definitely be coming back with some friends, maybe even make it a weekend camping trip and hitting up the other trails in the park. Wonder what other goodies we will find before leaving the east coast for the PNW? Stay tuned for the next adventure. For now I'll leave the obligatory #yogiinthewild pic here. Vriksasana with happy sun welcoming branches. On a tree for added redundancy.
