Hiking Ricketts Glen State Park in Pennsylvania

Hiking Ricketts Glen State Park in Pennsylvania is a bit more difficult in the winter time. We have been to a few other state parks in the state before, but that was before we got the idea that we should document them so others could see.

ANOTHER CHILLY HIKE

It was quite the chilly day when we arrived towards the end of December. Here at Ricketts Glen State Park I believe it was around 7 degrees, at least that is what I said in the video…so I suppose I can trust myself.

It had snowed a couple days earlier and they got a dusting the night before we got to the park as well. The roads really weren’t all that bad, just had to take it slow in the park itself (which we should regardless).

SNOWY BEACH

After parking the truck at the “beach 1” parking lot, we started hiking down a path/road towards the beach area. Obviously not quite the day to go swimming, but frozen lakes can be very beautiful. We were also checking out our YakTrax for the first time. Once I get the review completed I will put that in this post as well.

Deanna and I were kind of hoping to see a bunch of frozen waterfalls during this hike, but since we didn’t have the proper winter hiking gear we decided against it. Not to mention you can actually get fined for hiking the Falls Trail without the proper gear.

COLD BUT HAPPY!

Although you can’t see it due to her scarf, Deanna is actually smiling in this picture. 🙂 She wasn’t extremely thrilled to go hiking in below freezing temps, but her love for nature convinced her otherwise. Well, I may have played a part in that as well. 🙂

SPUR OF THE MOMENT HIKE

Deanna didn’t bring her really nice camera along with us on this hike. This was kind of a spur of the moment decision to go check out this hike on the way back from visiting friends and family in the midwest. So we didn’t really have the proper clothing or even all our camera gear, but luckily I always seem to take my GoPro with me.

She did take this really cool picture of the lake above with her phone though! We didn’t chance walking across it, but my assumption that at 7 degrees it is probably pretty well frozen. I usually just wait to see if people are ice fishing on lakes before I ever even chance it though.

SLIGHTLY CONFUSING MAP

This map kind of confused us because we thought we could take the Highland trail (I inconveniently covered up with my arm in this picture) back around in a loop.

However, once we got to that turn off it looked like it was closed off due to dangerous conditions. Luckily there are still plenty of other cool trails we hit up by taking the trail that happens to go off this map haha.

TRAILS ROPED OFF DURING WINTER

Just in case you didn’t believe me, they really don’t want you going this way without the proper gear. I’m guessing some “thrill seekers” aka unprepared individuals tried to do this on their own in the winter and got themselves into a hairy situation. Please do not attempt that trail unless you know what you are doing.

Deanna and I are fairly experienced hikers (at least I’d like to think so) and we decided to skip this one to see what else this park had to offer. We will definitely need to head back this direction when it warms up though to check out those falls (all 22 of them).

FROZEN FALLS

Speaking of falls, we did get to see a few dinky guys along the same trail. Still not 100% sure what this structure originally was for, maybe a dam of sorts.

Right now it looks to be neighboring some wetlands and a creek formed down the slots of the wall. I hope this is further proof of how cold it really was that day haha. Deanna definitely took one for the team as cold weather is not really her thing.

PROPER HIKING EQUIPMENT NEEDED

Some folks had ventured down to the sides of this frozen cascading waterfall/creek, but we decided to keep our distance. The sides going down to the creek were also all frozen and we didn’t have any rope with us to help get out of the ravine if we were to fall down into it. It is such a beautiful area though during the winter.

If you have the proper equipment and experience I am sure it would be even more beautiful up close. Let us know if you have a website or links to some of the frozen waterfalls in the comments below. We would love to see them!

MAYBE BEST FOR ALL SEASON BUT WINTER

Besides it being a wee bit chilly at Ricketts Glen State Park, it was still an amazing hike. I was really glad we could get out there that day and explore that very small portion of the state park. We will definitely need to find a RV park nearby and set up camp so we can explore all of the trails in the future.

Based on my research online, this is one of the most visited and best rated state parks in the state of Pennsylvania. We can definitely understand why now.

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