Frances Slocum State Park Camping Trip

October 6 to 9, 2023

Of all paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt.

- John Muir

Frances Slocum State Park

Our last camping trip for the year was to Frances Slocum State Park in northeastern Pennsylvania. Rainy weather was forecast, but we were determined to get one last trip in before winterizing the camper.

Frances Slocum State Park is located in Luzerne County, north of Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania. The park includes a 165-acre lake that allows boats with electric motors and non-motorized boats, kayaks and canoes.  There is a campground with 85 sites. One loop has electric hookups but there are no water or sewer hookups. The campground also has a swimming pool, and there are 5 miles of mountain biking trails and 13.7 miles of hiking trails. Located nearby are Lackawanna and Ricketts Glen State Parks. We planned to spend some time at each of them.

Colorful Fall Leaves

Lake at Frances Slocum S.P.

Lackawanna State Park

It was raining pretty heavily in the morning of the next day, so we tried waiting out the rain until after lunch. Unfortunately it was still raining after lunch, so we drove to Lackawanna State Park to check it out. Because of the rain, we only drove through the park to take a look at the lake and the campground for future reference.

Lackawanna State Park is located about 40 minutes northeast of Frances Slocum State Park. The park has a 198-acre lake for boats with electric motors, non-motorized boats, kayaks and canoes. There is a campground with electric and non-electric sites, and a swimming pool. There are also about 20 miles of multi-use trails in the park in addition to 18 miles of hiking trails.

Waterfall we passed along the road leading to Lackawanna State Park

Ricketts Glen State Park

Our next stop was Ricketts Glen State Park.

Ricketts Glen State Park is about 40 minutes west of Frances Slocum State Park. The park has a 245-acre lake for boats with electric motors, non-motorized boats, kayaks and canoes. It also has a 120-site campground, a lake-side beach, and 26 miles of trails.

However, the main attraction at the park is the Glens Natural Area, a National Natural Landmark. The Natural Area was created by two branches of the Kitchen Creek cutting deep gorges into the landscape and creating a series of waterfalls that unite before the creek flows down through the glen. There are 22 named waterfalls ranging in heights from 11 to 94 feet within the Glens Natural Area, and the trail leading to the falls is rated “most difficult”. We highly recommend wearing hiking footwear, and if you choose to take the Lower Trail heading up from Route 118, hiking poles are recommended as well.

We arrived at the southern trailhead along Route 118 at 2:30 p.m. It was still raining, although it had slowed down a bit, but we were prepared and determined to see the falls. Fortunately, the section of trail at the very bottom of the glen is relatively flat and easily traversed. By the time we reached the lower, more difficult trail, the rain had finally stopped.

There were a lot of small cascades and a few short falls along the trail as we made our way up the glen. Some were probably the result of the heavy overnight and morning rain that had just ended. We had to be careful because 0f the wet rocks in and around the trail, but fortunately we had the trail mostly to ourselves, so we didn't have to maneuver around the usual crowds of people.

Although we had visited the falls before back in October 2019, we hadn't seen the falls along the bottom of the glen on that trip. There are four named falls at the bottom end. When we arrived at the first large fall, we knew we had made the right choice to risk the slippery rocks and see the waterfalls. They were running fully and were absolutely beautiful!

Upon arriving at Waters Meet, the point at which the two branches of Kitchen Creek meet, we headed up the left branch of Kitchen Creek through Ganoga Glen to view the falls on that side. We found 9 named falls along with a couple of others that weren't listed on the map.

Next we followed the Highland Trail across the top of the two glens, past the Midway Crevasse and over to Glen Leigh so we could see the remaining 8 named falls along the Falls Trail along with some more unnamed falls along that side. After following the upper trail back down through the Glen, we crossed over Route 118 to see the final waterfalls, Adams Falls. Adams Falls drops in 3 cascades, the first of which is hidden by the Route 118 bridge over Kitchen Creek. After viewing the middle fall, we followed the trail down into the gorge and across the creek to go back up the other side where we could see the last cascade of the falls at Leavenworth Pool.

We finished up our visit to Ricketts Glen's falls just as it was getting dark. We had hiked 7.8 miles in 4 hours without taking any breaks. We were tired and hungry so headed back to the campground for a late meal and bed.

D&L Trail - White Haven to Black Diamond Trailhead

The next morning was partly cloudy and a little on the cool side, so we put on some layers and headed to White Haven so we could ride a portion of the D&L Trail we hadn't yet ridden.

As mentioned in previous posts to this blog, the Delaware & Lehigh National Corridor was established to preserve the historic pathway that was used to carry coal and iron from Wilkes-Barre to Philadelphia. The trail is a 165-mile long multi-use path stretching between Wilkes-Barre and Bristol, near Philadelphia. It passes through 5 counties and is nationally recognized for its scenic landscapes and waterways, picturesque towns and remnants of historic canals. We've been riding on portions of the trail since 2019 and during this trip we would complete the last segment of off-road trail extending north from White Haven to the Black Diamond Trailhead. This section of trail is short - only ten miles one way - but it is a strenuous ride because it has a 3% grade uphill the entire way. It was a workout for us because we hadn't ridden our bikes in more than a month, but the ride back down to White Haven was a breeze!

D&L Trailhead at White Haven

Colorful leaves viewed along the trail

Although there wasn't a lot to see along the this end of the trail, we did come across a concrete phone booth. We had seen one or two along other sections of the trail, but this one had a sign explaining what they were used for. During the 1900s, telephone lines were installed along many rail lines to improve communiation between trainmen, dispatchers and other railroad employees. The first phones were placed in concrete booths like the one below.

Concrete Phone Booth

View from the trail

It took us an hour and a half to ride the 10 miles uphill to the Black Diamond Trailhead where we ate our lunch before heading back the way we had come, stopping here and there along the way to take a few more photos.

View from the trail

View from the trail

View along the trail of a beaver dam

The return trip only took us an hour, including stops for photos. Then we headed back to the campground to relax the rest of the day.

Sullivan Falls

Before heading home the next day, we decided to drive back over to Ricketts Glen State Park to a dirt road just beyond the park's main entrance. We followed the very bumpy dirt road for a little under two miles before we saw a waterfall alongside the road. We weren't able to find a name for this waterfall, but it was on the way to Sullivan Falls, just a little further down the road. After arriving at the very small parking lot for Sullivan Falls, we followed the short trail to the top of the falls. There was a rope to hold onto to get down the very steep bank, but it looked a bit sketchy, and the leaves along the trail were wet, so we decided to enjoy the falls from the top. Then we returned to the truck and drove back to the campground to pack up and drive back home. It was a nice ending to our last camping trip for the year!

Big Run Falls along Sullivan Road Top of Sullivan Falls

Sullivan Falls

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