Ricketts Glen: The Falls Trail
18 stops· 36 min· 6.6 mi
Deep in the mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania, two branches of a mountain creek tumble off the edge of the Allegheny Front in a staircase of waterfalls — twenty-one of them, one after another, the tallest a ninety-four foot curtain of water called Ganoga Falls. This is the Falls Trail at Ricketts Glen, rated by many the single finest waterfall hike in the eastern United States, and it is the whole reason you came. Ranger Quinn walks you the entire famous loop — up the lower glen past the first falls, up through Ganoga Glen to the great falls themselves, across the high old-growth forest, and down the wild, steep Glen Leigh — naming every fall, reading the ancient rock and the five-hundred-year-old trees, and above all keeping you SAFE on a trail that has taken lives. Because this is the truth about Ricketts Glen: it is breathtaking, and it is dangerous. It is Pennsylvania's 'most difficult' trail — seven-plus miles and nearly a thousand feet of wet, slick stone steps cut into the cliffs beside the water. Wear real hiking boots, stay on the trail, keep well back from every edge, and you will have the hike of your life. Ranger Boone Merrick walks with you too, with the true stories this glen keeps — the Gettysburg hero and lumber baron who bought this mountain to cut it down, and couldn't; the five men who spent four years hand-cutting these steps into the cliffs; and the names, carried on the water, of the nations who came before. Come in fall for the color, wear the boots, and take your time. The glen has been here a long time. It will wait for you.
