I definitely encourage people to visit this park. Some interesting tidbits I've learned about the place since my visit....
The Ricketts family originally owned most of the land that the park sits on today, starting with Elijah and his brother Clemuel purchasing 5,000 acres around Long Pond (now Ganoga Lake) in 1851. Eventually, over 80,000 acres were owned by the Ricketts family in what are now Sullivan, Luzerne, and Columbia counties, and included the as-yet-unknown glens. The glens and waterfalls were not discovered until 1865, 14 years after the original purchase, when two of the Ricketts' guests decided to hike down Kitchen Creek to do some fishing. Can you imagine their surprise?
Elijah's son, Robert Bruce Ricketts, was a colonel in the Civil War. He returned to the area when the war ended, and began purchasing the land from his father. He renamed Long Pond as Ganoga Lake, and named the falls after Native American tribes, family, and friends. Colonel Ricketts died in 1918, and his heirs sold 48,000 acres of land to the Pennsylvania Game Commission. This eventually became most of what is now a game management area west of the park. In 1942, R.B.'s heirs sold a 1,260 acre parcel surrounding the glens to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and Ricketts Glen State Park was opened in 1944. Through various land transactions with the family and nearby landowners, the park today is 13,050 acres in size. 10,000 of those acres originally belonged to the Ricketts family.
(summarized from various online sources, including Wikipedia and Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources)
I also noticed in the Wikipedia article that they list "Kitchen Creek [Falls]" and "Shingle Cabin Falls" as two of the park's 24 named falls. We saw Kitchen Creek Falls as well, but didn't count it because it wasn't one of the named falls. That brings our stats to 23 falls, adding 9 feet to the ascent and descent totals. I took some shots but they came out horrible. The falls is actually under Rte 118 and required crawling under the bridge to view it. It is directly above Adams Falls, and is not labeled on the park brochure maps. Nor is Shingle Cabin Falls, however Shingle Cabin Creek is. I can only assume that those falls are on that creek. There are several off trail tributaries that look like they may hold more falls based on topo maps. I think it'd be worth exploring those as well.
Ok, I'm done rambling....
