The fun part about planning travels in Skoolie Life is that you can take as long as you want to reach your destination. So when a family wedding cropped up in June, we decided to take a week to make the 4 hour drive and take a nice, long detour through Pennsylvania. Another adventure, and another state magnet for our board!
We started off our journey with some family time, stopping for lunch with my lovely Great Aunt Rose and cousins. My Aunt Rose and my Nana loved their gambling, so I knew I’d have their good luck vibes as we headed to our next stop, Mohegan Sun Poconos. Craig had seen that overnight RV parking was allowed in their lots, so we figured that would be a really fun place to spend the night and get in some casino fun. Even though neither of us are big gamblers (I can’t stand to lose!), we figured we could enjoy some free drinks and slowly lose our $20 while we had some fun picking roulette numbers and figuring out how the hell to play slot machine poker. But, thanks to Nana, luck was on our side, and we walked out $10 richer! Making our millions slowly! Plus, we enjoyed our free drinks and got a delightfully delicious pretzel and jalapeno mustard at one of the restaurants. In my opinion, that makes for an excellent night of wins.
The Mohegan Sun Poconos parking lot was a surprisingly nice place to spend the night. It wasn’t too bright from parking lot lights and it was decently quiet. There were a few nice spots to walk Reese and Winston around in the morning and it wasn’t too crowded. I would definitely recommend this as a spot to stop, and it put casinos on our radar as a good place to plan for a day or two of free sleeping!
We headed out the next morning to Ricketts Glen State Park. I knew this park had a waterfall loop trail, but I was stunned at how gorgeous every view was on this trail. It started off with a gentle path through the woods and came to crossroads. We went right, opting for the shortest path to our first waterfall. It’s hard to describe how beautiful this whole loop is, since there are 21 named waterfalls here, and with every corner you turn, there’s a new amazing sight to appreciate. There were small waterfalls and tall waterfalls, cascading down the rocks in a variety of formations. The trail was remarkably well maintained, with defined slab stone pathways leading to tended stone steps that led you around the waterfall loop. The trail is listed as “most difficult”, but this seems to be because it ultimately becomes a lot of stairs and the rocks can be damp and slippery. Nothing a slow and cautious approach can’t remedy! And it’s absolutely worth it to see the sights on this trail. Even expecting an amazing day filled with waterfalls, I walked away completely wowed at how gorgeous and fascinating nature can be.
After soaking up all the waterfalls, the trail leads back to the crossroads on the nice and easy Highland Trail. I liked the way we did the loop, seeing all the amazing sights at first and then letting them all settle in as we enjoyed our cooldown stroll back to our little home in the parking lot.
We were a little tired after our night on the town and our day amongst the falls, so we opted for a relaxing afternoon and evening. As we were mapping our way to our Harvest Host, we passed a Dominos, and decided it was a great day for pizza and breadsticks and a lazy afternoon in the parking lot watching Jurassic Park. So that’s exactly what we did! We also considered how funny it would be to order delivery to their own address, but went with carry out, since it was a quick journey 😛
During our evening, we plotted out our plans for the next day. I had just started playing around with the Roadtrippers App, and it showed us some fun oddities and parks to try. I’ve been having a lot of fun figuring out how to plan our adventures. I’m learning to balance seeing all we can, with pockets of rest and stability. It’s also its own adventure trying to find places to go and see! We like to balance state and national parks with odd Americana with dog-friendly fun with “must see” stops. So finding these places in each state is its own interesting challenge. The Roadtrippers App helped us find a few cool spots in PA, so we’ll definitely be checking that out for cool places in the future!
Our agenda was all ready for us, so the next morning we were up and ready to go. The first stop was courtesy of Roadtrippers - when I saw “Giant Cow” listed as a local attraction, I knew we absolutely had to swing by. And it was as promised, a giant cow!
Next up was Seven Tubs Nature Area in the Pinchot State Forest, where we read about the natural swimming holes and more beautiful waterfalls. It was a warm morning, and it’s always fun to splash around in a body of water, and after Ricketts Glen, we were hooked on Pennsylvania’s abundance of beautiful falls. The Wheelbarrow Run walking path that led along the stream was unblazed and difficult to follow at times, but it generally followed the water, so we figured out our way around. It connects with the yellow Audubon Loop Trail at points, so that made it a little bit confusing to know exactly which way to go.
We crossed the main bridge into the tubs area and started up the unblazed path around Wheelbarrow Run. This half of the trail was higher above the water, so we first got to enjoy the stunning scenic views of the waterfalls, pothole-like tubs, and the river water tumbling through the ravine below. We descended a set of stairs to find a mysterious tunnel and dead end to the trail, so it was here we realized we needed to get on the Audubon Trail to return. Since this side of the water was lower, we were able to find a spot to descend to one of the natural pools and enjoy some swimming! Talk about magical; we were splashing in the sunlight, in a natural pool, beside a waterfall, while our pups sunned on the rocks. The water was cool and refreshing, and since it was a quiet morning at the park, we had this little swimming hole all to ourselves. It was difficult to leave, but there were a few more fun spots to explore here and we had another stop or two on our agenda. We finished our loop and splashed a little bit more in the shallower pools near the entrance bridge. In a review online, someone mentioned natural water slides, and it seems like this would be the spot for that, although we didn’t try it ourselves. As we were leaving another sublime spot, we talked about how delightfully surprised we were at the relative density of such natural beauty in Pennsylvania. But we had a few more surprises ahead to really round out how diverse and stunning the beauty is in this state.
In our original plan, we had planned for a visit to Hickory Run State Park, but this stop was cast aside in favor of a family luncheon. But when we saw it fell directly on our route, we decided we had time to at least see what we thought would be its oddest and most interesting attraction. Hickory Run State Park is home to a large boulder field, which is the largest of its kind in the Appalachians and is remarkable for its flatness and its size. At over 16 acres, this strange and fascinating site was unbelievable to see in person, and the pictures do not at all do justice to how crazy it is to see and explore this with my own eyes. We took the bumpy Boulder Field Road out to the parking lot adjacent to the boulder field.
The boulder field is a relic of the last ice age, when water dripped through the cracks in large slabs of bedrock and the cycles of freeze-thaw slowly fractured this one giant slab into many smaller boulders. During the ice age, there was a thick layer of permafrost made of mud, sand and water that created a slurry that moved boulders up to one mile from their original spot. Finally, a process known as frost heave, caused by the water in the soil freezing, pushed the largest boulders near the top, which is what we see today!
It was quite a sight, this vast open expanse of boulders, like a sea of rocks rolling out in front of us. We started our exploration with our pups, but these boulders were too large and difficult for their little paws to walk on, so they waited in bed for our return. We had a ton of fun hopping around on the rocks and being awed by the strange field in front of us. We had almost skipped this site, but I’m so glad we happened to pass by and stop - this was an incredible sight to see in person.
We headed out of Hickory Run to our next planned destination - Crystal Cave. I always loved visiting caves as a child, and I’m sure I’ve stopped by here before, but I was excited to see it again! And excited to plan more cave stops on this trip, they’re fascinating geological wonders. We went late in the day on a weekday, so we had a pretty small tour group and got lucky with a lively tour guide. He entertained us with a lot of punny jokes and fun cave history, including the weddings that occurred there and the grand pianos that had to be hauled down for the ceremony. The tour was on the short side, but it was still interesting to hear and see. The tours for this cave fill up quickly on the weekends, so check ahead before a visit to this popular stop!
Our end goal was more west in Maryland, so we decided to keep heading out in that direction and planned for a night at a Cracker Barrel. We found one in Harrisburg that was one of the nicest we’ve stayed at; it was quiet and off the main road, and adjacent to a nice little shopping plaza. After dinner, we took an evening walk through the plaza where we found an ice cream shop that served up delicious Penn State Creamery ice cream. It felt like a wonderful way to wrap up our Pennsylvania travels!
The next morning, our route took us through downtown Harrisburg and alongside the Susquehanna River. As we were admiring the waterside linear park, we noticed large sculptures and were delighted to be able to recognize the artist - Frederick Franck! We’re familiar with his work because his major creation is a sculpture garden and park adjacent to his home in our hometown, Warwick NY, called Pacem In Terris. We’ve strolled this beautiful and peaceful garden many times, and have gotten used to Franck’s identifiable style. But it’s always exciting to see one of his pieces out in the wild! And to be able to recognize a piece of art, makes us feel cultured.
Our journey through Pennsylvania was short, but packed full of natural beauty. I was shocked by how numerous and varied the geological wonders were in just our quick trip though PA. We saw waterfalls, boulder fields, caves, swimming holes, and lovely forests. And there was ice cream! We expected we’d see enough to check Pennsylvania off our list, but this visit instead made us realize that Pennsylvania has so much to offer, and I don’t think we’ll be stopping at one trip. And I’m sure that as we travel to PA again, we’ll find new wonders to admire and waterfalls to splash near!
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