Worlds End State Park Camping Trip - Day 4

Tuesday, June 20, 2023

Our plan for this day was to give our legs a rest from major hiking and go hunting for waterfalls that were closer to the roads. But you know what they say about making plans...

First we drove over to Hillsgrove where we visiting the Hillsgrove Covered Bridge and the Hillsgrove Country Store. The Hillsgrove Covered Bridge was built in 1850 and crosses over the Loyalsock Creek a little north of Hillsgrove. It’s one of two longest single span covered bridges in Pennsylvania still open for autos. It was hard to get a good photo of it since there was a lot of trees and brush on both sides of it, but I managed to get a pretty decent shot of it.

Hillsgrove Covered Bridge

The Hillsgrove Country Store was very old and quaint. It had a small supply of groceries and souvenirs, and you could order some food there to eat in their small dining area. We bought some Snickers Ice Cream Bars for an after-breakfast treat and headed on to find the day’s first waterfall.

Mill Creek Falls is tucked alongside one of the many dirt/gravel roads that crisscross throughout the Loyalsock Forest. We found the road we needed just a short drive north of the country store and found the falls quite easily with the directions I’d found. After parking the truck along the deserted road, we made our way down a short trail to the falls. Although the falls were only about 8-10 feet tall, they dropped down into a grotto with a deep pool surrounded by rocks just perfect from jumping from. The water looked very inviting, but it was much too cool for our taste! We headed back up the trail to look for the next waterfalls.

Mill Creek Falls

These daisy's along the trail reminded me of our three granddaughters

East Branch Waterfall

East Branch Falls are 20-25 feet tall and were also easy to find (thanks in no small part to that Purple Lizard Map we purchased previously). Getting to the bottom of the falls was a little tricky and involved some bushwhacking, but we were determined. We took our time and made it safely. Once again, we found ourselves alone at the base of the falls where we could freely take as many photos as we wanted.

We found a couple of other waterfalls while wandering the back roads that day, all of them close to the road so we only had to pull over and hike a short distance to see them.

Unknown waterfall

Unknown waterfall

We were getting hungry, so we decided to head back out to the main road (Rt. 87) and drive to Dushore, Pennsylvania, where we had lunch at the Jolly Trolley, a restaurant and variety store. Dushore has an annual outhouse race that must be quite the event to attend. Also included in the festivities is a toilet seat cover painting contest. We were amused to see many of the winning paintings proudly displayed in the restaurant right above our heads as we ate our lunch.

The Jolly Trolley

A humorous take on "A Starry Night"

After lunch we decided to go to Dutchman Falls, near Laporte. The 27-foot tall falls are very popular and are located just off Rt. 87 along the Loyalsock Trail. There were several cars in the parking lot when we arrived, so we knew this time we wouldn’t have the falls to ourselves.

Although the trail was short, it was steep and quite rocky. It was well marked and easy to follow from the parking lot down to a sign that directs you away from the Haystack Rocks and toward the falls, which we could clearly hear. We passed some other people making their way back up the steep trail, but there was only one other group of 4 people at the falls when we arrived at the top of the falls. One of them, a nice young woman, told us how to get to the base and we followed her and her family down. Then she kindly offered to take a photo of us with the falls behind us.

Dutchman Falls

We followed the women back up the trail to the sign directing us to the Haystack Rocks via the Loyalsock Trail. We really had no idea how much of a hike it would be and we were only wearing sneakers, but we thought “we’re here now – why not?” The trail turned out to be longer than we expected – about 4.68 miles round trip and it was mostly a lovely walk along an abandoned rail-bed through the forest. Until the last 500 feet at the Haystack Rocks. The trail there was very steep and narrow, but once again we took our time and made it safely.

Loyalsock Trail

Moutain laurel was in full bloom along the trail

The Haystack Rocks/Mounds/Boulders are found in the Loyalsock Creek. The boulders are much harder than the surrounding sandstone which has mostly eroded away, leaving the Haystacks – so called because they remind some people of haystacks in a field. In the spring, when the creek level is much higher, rapids form here as the water tries to squeeze through the narrow spaces between the Haystack rocks.

The Haystacks Loyalsock Creek

Mini waterfall between the Haystack Rocks

Because the creek level was quite low when we visited, we were able to pick our way out into the stream on the rocks, where we sat down to rest and splash some of the cool water on our faces and necks before heading back to the truck.

We’d had quite an adventurous day, so we headed back to the campground for the usual showers and dinner. We spent some time planning our next days’ adventures and letting our bird friends entertain us some more before turning in for the night. 

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