A couple of days before we were supposed to leave to go to Connecticut for our 4th of July family reunion Lewis and I got the great idea to leave a day or two early and go and do something on the way. Lewis’ sister, Heidi, and her family were up visiting before going to the family reunion so they decided that they were in for the adventure too.

Side story: When we decided to move back to the east coast we were looking at two locations. Where we live now, and the Poconos area in PA. Part of the reason I wanted to leave early and go there is to see the place that we decided not to move to.

Bushkill Falls

When deciding what we wanted to do we looked into water parks, theme parks, historical sites and more. We decided that we wanted to do something that we haven’t done before and that we may never do again, so Bushkill Falls it was.

Bushkill Falls is located in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains. The hiking trails are color coded by ease to appeal to varying ages and physical conditioning. We opted for the longest and “hardest”, the red trail. It spans almost 2 miles, includes all eight falls, and says it takes over 2 hours to hike. We just wanted to see all of the waterfalls. Remember we had 11 people ages 7 and up and it was very easily finished by all.

We took tons of pictures. Way too many to ever post. This child especially wanted her picture taken a lot. She wanted her picture taken by every single tree, waterfall, plant, rock, and bug.

Our hike took us 1.9 miles in about an hour and a half. And when I say hike I mean walk. The trails are very groomed. And I use the word trails loosely. Most of the time you are walking on pathways with handrails. Going up or down hills, wooden stairs are built to ease in the walk. We were on dirt trails for a short amount of time, maybe a quarter of the way, but we could just have easily turned right and stayed on the wooden pathways instead of going the more rustic route. The walk was easy. The only thing I will warn you about is the stairs. There are a lot of stairs, but that makes the walk that much easier for the kids and the um, older hikers with bad knees. You can see some of the stairs here:

And here are some more walkways with a bridge:

The hike was beautiful. 8 sets of waterfalls, birds, chipmunks, streams, and not many other people. Most of the time it was just our group. We did pass a couple of other groups but they were few and far between. We were basically out there on our own, it was really nice and peaceful.

After we finished the hike we decided to go to the creamery on site for a treat after our hike. While walking from the trails to the creamery building all of the sudden a summer thunderstorm appeared and let down sheets of water. What you are seeing here is not fog. It is sheets of water coming down.

We ran for the creamery to get out of the downpour and were told to quickly order our ice cream before the power went out. They lose power often during the storms. We ordered ice cram and got fudge to-go for dessert that night. We were the only ones still there so we had the place to ourselves. It was nice to let the kids talk and play and not have to tell them to shhhh and not disturb the people next to us.

The lights flickered a few times but the electricity never went out. We did hear a tree get hit by lightening and crash down. The employees said that it happens all of the time and not to worry. It rained for about 30 minutes and then stopped completely. The sun came back out and it was beautiful again.

We had a great afternoon. If we ever head back up that way we plan on going back. There are all kinds of other activities that we just didn’t have time to get to:

• Shopping & Gift Shops
• Mining For Gemstones
• Miniature Golf
• Paddle Boats
• Fishing
• Picnic Areas and Pavilions
• Playground
• Bushkill Falls Mining Company Maze

We left a little bit damp, a lot satisfied from the treats, and a little tired from our hike. Totally worth it!