Ricketts Glen State Park

This weekend was full of all sorts of adventures, so I’m linking up with Erin over at Her Heartland Soul for Weekend Snapshots! I’ll be sharing a super pretty hike (Falls Trail Loop in Ricketts Glen State Park) today too!

I hung out in 4 states over the past two days, so today’s post is actually just going to cover…my meal from Friday evening to the first half of my Saturday.

My friend and I decided to take a break from hospital food (though lovely and free) to check out the downtown area! It happened to be First Friday, so there were lots of shops and stands open later than usual, as well as a whole lot of people. :O We decided to go for barbecue!

I got the pulled turkey. :]

It was our first weekend out from our current rotation, so we decided to go explore the area! The hospital has tons of absolutely gorgeous pictures on the walls, and several of them feature waterfalls that look pretty magical. After finding out that they were from Ricketts Glen (~45 minutes from where we are at the moment), we decided we had to take a trip there.

We packed up sandwiches from Subway, loading em’ up with the driest greens they had so that the bread wouldn’t get soggy, and I brought along a container of guacamole so we could use that to spice em’ up when we stopped for lunch. :]

This is your advance warning that I’m going to be assailing you with 30+ pictures of pretty waterfalls, scenery + outdoor shots! <3

Falls Trail Loop in Ricketts Glen State Park

We took the Falls Trail because it’d send us along pretty much all the waterfalls. It isn’t technically recommended for beginners, which I guess we aren’t, except that it’d been such a long time since either of us had been regularly active that we might as well have been born-again beginners. :o (What matters is that we made it!)Distance: 8 miles (loop)
Elevation:  1102 ft
Difficulty: Moderate
Duration: ~3-4 hours
Trailhead Address: 41.30039, -76.27212
Parking: Lot available
Fee: None (free!!!)

We decided to tackle the harder end of the loop first (the one with more elevation) so we wouldn’t feel like dying later on.

I actually did legs day on Wednesday and was sore through Saturday (…). Twas a good thing I hadn’t gone with my original plan to work out legs on Friday though!?

Most of the hike was shaded by all the trees, so although it did get hot, it wasn’t unbearable in the least, and it wasn’t even all that humid! :]

There were plenty of other people on the trail (it’s easy to see why this place is such a popular one to visit!), but there were only 1-2 times where it got slightly congested with large groups of people. It definitely could’ve been worse!

I got a kick outta this one! :P

Normally, I cut out all signs of human life in my pictures, but I left her in for scale!

The entire hike took us a little under 3 hours, with plenty of stops for photo opportunities laced in between (as you can probably tell…). I definitely wouldn’t mind going back here again! :] It’s gorgeous, and it’d be really cool to capture pictures of this place with every season! I might send someone to go in my place for winter though. :P

Before we left, we went to check out what the “beach” area was…

There was sand and everything! :O

Whilst eating our lunch, Liz spotted someone off in the distance with treats! So we tracked it down and got ice cream. :]

Stay tuned tomorrow for the rest of my weekend adventures! :]

• How was your weekend?
• Have you traveled anywhere recently?
• Where’s your favorite place to hike?

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