Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.
- Helen Keller
June 11, 2025
The Loyalsock State Forest is located in Sullivan, Lycoming and Bradford counties, and contains about 115,000 acres. It gets its name from the wide and rocky Loyalsock Creek, which winds for over 60 miles through the forest. The forest contains high plateaus and ridges that are cut with numerous “runs” (streams) creating deep valleys. The forest is filled with hardwoods such as birch, beech, black cherry, white ash, tulip poplar and hemlock, the state tree. There are five smaller named natural and wild areas interspersed throughout the forest to explore. While camping at nearby Worlds End State Park for a week in June, we decided to drive a little further west to explore this scenic area.
The McIntyre Wild Area covers approximately 7,500 acres and holds the watersheds of four small streams that create numerous waterfalls. Located north and east of Ralston, just off of Route 14, the area also includes the ruins of McIntyre, a 19th century mining village. Hidden within the forest are foundations, a cemetery and other evidence of the area’s past. At the very end of the road up the mountain is the Band Rock Vista, which provides a nice view of the Lycoming Creek valley below.
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| McIntyre Wild Area |
We started our visit to the area by driving the winding dirt road up through Rock Run Valley to find the three major waterfalls along the stream. Rock Run carves a series of narrow chutes through the surrounding rock and has deep pools with crystal clear waters. Visiting all of the falls along the run involved short hikes of varying difficulty down to the stream bed. The first, Lower Falls, was the longest and most strenuous hike, however the “falls” were so small and disappointing that we didn’t even bother to photograph them. So we backtracked up the hillside to our truck and drove further up the road to Middle Falls, which were easier to access and a little more substantial. The falls dropped into a deep pool where we could see large fish in the clear water.
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After returning to our truck we continued further up the dirt road to the small parking area for the Upper Falls. A short trail led us down to the falls which dropped down into a grotto with a deep pool of clear water and fish swimming in it.
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| Upper Rock Run Falls |
From there we continued further up the road to look for Yellow Dog Falls. It should be mentioned that most of the trails here are unmarked paths through the forest. The previous falls were marked with signposts along the road. Starting with Yellow Dog Falls, all we had were some directions and GPS coordinates we found online. We found the parking area and trail for the falls right away, and it quickly led us to a small cascade. The directions indicated we should continue further up the stream, but we couldn’t find the trail, so we turned around and headed back to the truck. You learn quickly that you have some successes and some failures when hunting down remote waterfalls, especially if they’re seasonal waterfalls. This one was a failure.
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After returning to the truck we headed back the way we came to hunt for some more falls. Next up was Hound Run Falls, another unmarked trail that led us along a stream. But once again the trail vanished and we never did see anything more than tiny drops and cascades along the trail. So back to the truck again.
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Next up was Miners Falls. The directions we found for the 6 waterfalls on Miners Run were pretty explicit, and we were successful in finding the first two falls. Unfortunately after that the trail was completely blocked by a boulder slide in the narrow canyon, with no way to get around it. We could see the third falls through a small opening in the boulders, but couldn’t continue further, so we turned around and headed back to the truck again.
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We had passed the dirt road up to the McIntyre Ghost Town and Band Rock Vista on our way up Rock Run Road to all the falls. The road up to the ghost town looked very sketchy and wasn’t anywhere near as well maintained as was the road we took to the waterfalls. But Jeff thought it looked doable, so up we went. It was the steepest, rockiest, bumpiest 1-½ miles of dirt road filled with ruts and deep, muddy water filled potholes we could possibly find. We should have taken video, but Jeff was too busy trying to keep the truck on the very narrow one-lane road while I kept my eyes firmly shut so as not to see the steep drop off on my side. I kept wondering where we would go if someone came from the opposite direction! About two-thirds of the way up we caught up with another truck ahead of us and let him guide us through the deepest potholes where water came up to the running boards on our truck. At least we weren’t the only dummies to climb up to the top! It took us a half hour to go the 1-½ miles until the road dead-ended at a trail to the vista. We all got out and walked along the short trail to the view. It was nice, but I’m not sure it was worth the hair-raising ride up and down the mountain!
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| Band Rock Vista |
We ate our lunch sitting on the truck tailgate before slowly heading back down the road, this time navigating it all alone as the other truck left while we were having our lunch. We didn’t see any signs of the Ghost Town in the thick forest, other than a large cross next to an overgrown old road that likely led to the cemetery. We chose not to explore it because there was nowhere to park the truck on the narrow one-lane road. It must be said that Jeff had the time of his life on this little adventure, but I was extra happy to be back down on the much safer and well-maintained Rock Run Road when we finally reached the end.
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| Mountain Laurel found at Band Rock Vista |
From there we drove out of the McIntyre Wilds and on to our final stop of the day: Jacoby Falls. Jacoby Falls is another one of those waterfalls that is seasonal. It’s either running fully, or completely dry. Because of the recent rains, we decided to take a chance and see if it was running.
Unlike the trails in the McIntyre Wilds, the trail to Jacoby Falls was very well marked and a relatively easy trail to follow. There was a large parking area for the Cotner Farm trailhead starting with a long boardwalk across a marsh.
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A sign at the trailhead states the distance to the falls is 1.6 mi, but we found it to be a little bit longer. After crossing the marsh the trail winds along Jacoby Hollow Run and through the hardwood and conifer forest. The trail climbed 400 feet, crossed one stream and had several wet/muddy areas as well as Pennsylvania’s typical rocks and tree roots keeping our eyes firmly on where we placed our feet.
After what seemed like an exceedingly long hike through the forest and up the hillside, we finally found Jacoby Falls. If we hadn’t passed 3 people on our way up who told us the falls were flowing, we might have given up and turned around. When we finally found them, the 29-foot falls were running, although not as fully as during the spring runoff. And, because the previous two days were totally rain-free, they probably would have been running more fully earlier in the week. We rested a bit on some boulders, took some photos and then headed back the way we had come. We clocked a round trip of 3.73 miles in about 1-¾ hours.
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| Jacoby Falls |
After our hike to the falls we returned to Forksville for some dinner at Big Mike's Steaks & Hoagies. The restaurant is located in the historic Forksville General Store and next to one of Pennsylvania's oldest covered bridges. We enjoyed talking with Big Mike, the owner, while we waited for our sandwiches. He and his family moved from South Philly to open the restaurant in Forksville. Quite a change in location! The sandwiches were huge - we really could have ordered one and had plenty! We sat outside at a shaded picnic table with views of the covered bridge while we ate our dinner.
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If you want to watch a short, 6.5 minute video about our adventures in the McIntyre Wild Area and Jacoby Falls, click here.
* All photos and videos are the property of the blog owners unless otherwise noted. *
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