Hiking Hawk Falls in Pennsylvania
May. 26th, 2026 04:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerMay Family Visit Travelog #10
Hickory Run State Park · Mon 25 May 2026. 11:30am.
We are finally at Hawk Falls. This morning we drove through rain, heavy fog, and SHADES of DEATH to get here. After all that the hike itself was an anticlimactic stroll 1km downhill to the falls.
The weather has held out being not-rainy for the past two hours. That's good because this hike would be a lot less fun in the rain. But because it's rained so much the past several days we had no worries about whether the falls would be flowing fully. And the continued gloom overhead is actually a nice condition for visiting waterfalls. When the sky is dim overhead the forest feels more intimate and the leaves glistening with raindrops practically sparkle.
For these two pictures (above), yes, I/we am/are kind of standing in the creek below the falls. Actually, we're balancing on rocks. Though in the first picture I've placed my camera tripod right in the water. The rocks aren't that big. I wore my boots so I wasn't afraid of stepping in a few inches of water. Hawk had her hiking sandals on (boots don't fit comfortably after toe surgery a few months ago) so had to be more cautious.
Partway back up the trail we spotted a side path over to a rocky outcropping. I could hear the crash of the falls from the main trail at that point so I figured we'd looped around to be right above them. Indeed we had. And the rocky outcropping 20m off the main trail offered a great view of the falls. The only downside was that the rocks were wet. That meant we had to be careful scrambling over them... and that we got the seats of our pants wet sitting down to admire the view. But that's part of why we wear our "hike-y clothes" when hiking.
Hickory Run State Park · Mon 25 May 2026. 11:30am.
We are finally at Hawk Falls. This morning we drove through rain, heavy fog, and SHADES of DEATH to get here. After all that the hike itself was an anticlimactic stroll 1km downhill to the falls.
The weather has held out being not-rainy for the past two hours. That's good because this hike would be a lot less fun in the rain. But because it's rained so much the past several days we had no worries about whether the falls would be flowing fully. And the continued gloom overhead is actually a nice condition for visiting waterfalls. When the sky is dim overhead the forest feels more intimate and the leaves glistening with raindrops practically sparkle.
For these two pictures (above), yes, I/we am/are kind of standing in the creek below the falls. Actually, we're balancing on rocks. Though in the first picture I've placed my camera tripod right in the water. The rocks aren't that big. I wore my boots so I wasn't afraid of stepping in a few inches of water. Hawk had her hiking sandals on (boots don't fit comfortably after toe surgery a few months ago) so had to be more cautious.
Partway back up the trail we spotted a side path over to a rocky outcropping. I could hear the crash of the falls from the main trail at that point so I figured we'd looped around to be right above them. Indeed we had. And the rocky outcropping 20m off the main trail offered a great view of the falls. The only downside was that the rocks were wet. That meant we had to be careful scrambling over them... and that we got the seats of our pants wet sitting down to admire the view. But that's part of why we wear our "hike-y clothes" when hiking.
