Ricketts Glen State Park

Camped here a couple weekends ago and it was an awesome experience! You can bring your kayak right up to your campsite from the lake if you have the right site. Early in the morning we hiked to be alone in the waterfalls. Unforgettable!!

My mom used to hike the Falls Trail with me strapped to her back. Now I have man legs that carry me along quite well and over the years, I've been to Ricketts countless times. This was my gateway park (if that's a thing) and kicked off my interests in hiking and backpacking.

Beautiful? Only in every season. Majestic? Is spotting a solitary bald eagle from a kayak in Lake Jean majestic? Unfortunately, the lake is currently drained (Summer 2015), but the waterfalls are still in full swing and the Falls Trail is still the perfect loop for a quick day hike.

We targeted this state park to see the gorgeous waterfalls and we were not disappointed! The campground is located at the top of a small mountain - approaching from the south there is a long, steep grade to climb to reach the campground. The trail descends for a couple miles before looping around to climb back up. The trail has many stone steps making it easily navigable and the waterfall views are amazing!

The campground itself has spacious sites with good space in between, though you can see your neighbours through the forest. The footing at the site was a reddish dirt that got mucky and tracked everywhere when it rained. We were there in May 2015 and had no cell signal on our Canadian carriers - I understood there was no coverage there for any carrier but call ahead and ask as this could change.

A quirk of the Pennsylvania State Park system is that they only allow dogs on designated dog campsites, which clusters them all in the same area on a limited number of sites. We have a dog and when I asked what would be the option if there was no dog site available, the ranger said there is a kennel down the road! They also restrict dogs in certain areas of the park but there were still plenty of places we could take her including the waterfall trail. If you have a dog, best to call ahead and be sure a dog site is available.

This park was recommended to us by someone we camped near the night before - the waterfall hike was gorgeous!!

As stated in the previous review, the road in is very steep and rather narrow (and we're used to the Colorado Rockies!) and there is NO cell service in the park. We were able to get reception about halfway down the hill.

We felt the price was high for a tent site in October, but the sites were nice with lots of trees and the bathrooms/showers were clean. The only flat place to set up a tent was on the parking pad, but it was big enough and we were able to get stakes in easily. It was very quiet.

Be aware of a $6 "transaction fee" added onto the out-of-state rate if you don't make a reservation and pay the reservation fee!

The biggest draw to this state park (which no one in Pennsylvania I spoke with seemed to know about) is the 22 waterfalls! We saw 18 of them on a four-mile moderate hike, but if you want to see the additional four, you could make it a seven-mile hike. The trails are very well marked.

We stayed in the large loop, which is a peninsula on Lake Jean. Many of the sites have lake views. The bathhouse was clean but not adequate for 73 sites. The campground was about ¾ full and there was often a wait in the bathroom. Showers looked reasonable but I did not use them. There were many tent campers in this loop, which does not allow pets (the other, smaller loop does allow pets). There are no hookups at all in the park. The water had been tested earlier in the season and unsafe levels of manganese were detected. All water spigots were shut off and covered but we were told it was safe to wash our dishes and brush our teeth. However, the water for the dishwashing sink was turned off as well as the water in the restroom at the trailhead. Since we had a reservation, we received a phone call in advance of our stay letting us know about this.

There are trails to the beach, but we woke to rain the next morning, so we did not explore this.
One trash/recycle area a distance away from the campsites which seems typical for PA state parks. Alcohol is strictly forbidden – we were warned that if a ranger saw any alcohol outside of our vehicle, we would be cited. Quiet hours are 9 pm – 8 am, which is more restrictive than other state parks, however, some did not observe these quiet hours (a guitar-playing singing camper thought he was talented, but I disagree!)

As with most campgrounds the loops are one way, but the site we were on (17) had the campsite angled the wrong direction for a one way road. We nearly wrecked our 30ft TT trying to back it into the site. With the help of the 3 or 4 other campers spotting for us we were able to get the trailer backed in but only because the site across the road from us was unoccupied at the time. If anyone reads this, *ignore the one way road in front of site 17*. Drive the wrong way and save yourself a lot of trouble and potential damage to your rig.

We stayed over a weekend and did have one noisy neighbor across the way but by quiet time they had settled down. In fact the whole campground was quiet after quiet time.

Ricketts Glenn is all dry camping. They do allow generators and do have water available at various places around the campground however most of them are on the wrong side of the road if you follow the one-way roads. Almost seems like they changed the one-way directions after the campground was built. There is also a dump station on the way out.

The park itself is beautiful. We stayed there in early October and the foliage had already started to change color.

Lake Jean is a great place to paddle if you are into that. There's a huge beaver lodge visible from the boat ramp on the opposite side of the lake. If you go in July/August, the entire lakeshore is lined with wild blueberry bushes so bring a basket!

Don't miss the Falls Trail if you enjoy hiking. Park at the Lake Rose lot and hike from there. The hiking can be difficult. Bring poles if you have them. Expect a lot of elevation change (at least 1000 ft), but the falls are worth it.

From Lake Rose lot follow the Ganoga Trail to Waters Meet and bear right (don't cross the bridge yet). There are 3 or 4 more waterfalls past Waters Meet. Then turn around and cross the bridge when you come back to it and follow the Glen Leigh Trail back up to the Highland Trail. Go left on Highland for a little over a mile to head back to the parking lot. In all there are 21 water falls on this loop ranging from 13 - 94 ft.

Fantastic campsite for boondocking. Our Rv (24’) and extra car fit without any issues. Campsite has access to lake to drop kayaks. No cell service via Verizon or ATT. Zero bars.

This was a pleasant surprise. There was a warning posted on the website suggesting the approach from the south was very steep. It was, indeed. Our trusty Jeep Trailhawk tugging a 184BS Jayco Jayflight managed just fine. The office had closed at 4pm, but it was easy to find our site, which was full hook up (#132) in the small loop. The sites are very easy to back into and a nice distance apart; level, with a picnic table & fire ring.

After a little exploring, we found firewood & ice could be purchased at the concession stand at the beach on the lake until 4 pm. Although there is no cell service anywhere around, the beach concession has spotty wifi, which allowed us to at least check in with our family via text. On the lake, there are also kayak, canoe, paddleboat & paddle board rentals - open until 6pm.

The main attraction here was the Falls Trail, which boasted almost 2 dozen falls within one hike. Although definitely not an easy stroll, well worth the trip.

Where we were parked was very quiet until one afternoon someone yelled “BEAR!” Everyone came out & watched as a bear wandered through the small loop & disappeared into the woods. Nobody got very upset — just watched it lumber through — and went back to what they were doing.

We thoroughly enjoyed our few days at Ricketts Glen State Park. We’ll be back.

I showed up without a reservation on a Sunday night. Office was closed but it was easy to find out which sites were available. Sites were large and level. Good hiking trails. Bathroom was clean. The only drawback was the lack of cell phone coverage. Zilch! I would have stayed longer except for that.

Absolutely zero cell signal on AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon. We enjoyed a great 2mi out and back hike to the Ganoga Falls and passed 3 other falls along the way. The sites were decent sized with nice picnic tables and fire pits. The shower house had lots of hot water with good pressure even though the curtains in between the dressing area and shower were falling down.