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 Ricketts Glen State Park - Pennsylvania Posted by:  CM-14
N 41° 17.964 W 076° 16.494
18T E 393264 N 4572777
Ricketts Glen harbors Glens Natural Area, a National Natural Landmark. Take the Falls Trail and explore the Glens, which boasts a series of wild, free-flowing waterfalls, each cascading through rock-strewn clefts in this ancient hillside.
Waymark Code: WM22DY
Location: Pennsylvania, United States
Date Posted: 08/23/2007
Views: 68
Info taken from: www.dcnr.state.pa.us
Twenty-one waterfalls are along the Falls Trail within the Glens Natural Area, while one (Adams) is only a few hundred feet from the Evergreen Parking Lot off of PA 118.
There are three parking lots that provide access to Falls Trail. Lake Rose is at the end of the dirt road across from the campground and provides the closest access (5-10 minutes), but fills up quickly during peak times. An alternative is to park in Beach Parking Lot #2, leave the lot and walk down the Cabin Road (first road just outside of the lot), past a park gate, and onto a section of trail to the first intersection where you go right (15-20 minute access). The parking lots on PA 118 are 1.3 miles from the first waterfall upstream on the Falls Trail, but allow a good view of old growth trees.
Park Type: Overnight
Activities:
Hiking - Horseback Riding - Picnicking - Swimming - Boating - Fishing - Hunting - Waterfalls - Winter Activities - Organized Group Tenting - Cabins - Camping
Background:
At the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, Robert Bruce Ricketts enlisted as a private in the U. S. Army. Fighting for the Army of the Potomac, Ricketts led Battery F during the Battle of Gettysburg.
Ricketts swiftly moved up in the ranks and when the war ended, was discharged a colonel.
Colonel Ricketts at one time owned outright or controlled over 80,000 acres of land in this area.
His heirs, through the Central Penn Lumber Company, sold 48,000 acres to the Pennsylvania Game Commission from 1920-24. This left them with over 12,000 acres surrounding the Ganoga Lake, Lake Jean and Glens area.
Although the area was approved as a national park site in the 1930s, World War II brought an end to this plan for development and in 1942 the heirs sold 1,261 acres, the Falls and Glens area, to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for a state park.
Additional purchases from Colonel Ricketts’ son, William Ricketts, in 1943 and 1949, resulted in a park nucleus of approximately 10,000 acres of former Ricketts holdings. Additional purchases from other individuals have brought the park to its present size.
Recreational facilities first opened in 1944. In 1950, the former Department of Forests and Waters replaced Lake Jean Dam with a larger, earthern dam, which combined Lake Jean with Mud Pond, creating the current 245-acre lake.
Other facility improvements and constructions have been done over the years, like the beach house, restrooms and cabins.
Date Established?: 1944
Link to Park: [Web Link]
Park Fees: Not listed
Additional Entrance Points: Not Listed
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