Rickets Glen State Park is one of our favorite Pennsylvania campgrounds. The park is located 30 miles north of Bloomsburg on Route 487. This route requires climbing a steep hill to a height of 2,409 feet. Heavy trailer units can avoid the climb by taking Route 487 south from Dushore.

The park sprawls across 13,050 acres of Luzerne, Sullivan and Columbia counties. It boasts 22 named waterfalls, the highest being the 94-foot Ganoga Falls. It includes a 245-acre lake, 600 feet of beach front, 20 miles of hiking trails, 120 campsites and camping cabins.

During the winter months, the park offers an opportunity for cross country skiing, snowmobiling, ice climbing, winter camping, and ice fishing . Guided outdoor tours are available during the summer.

We arrived at Rickets Glen after dark on this particular trip – setting up the Aliner was much easier than our last pop-up camper! We drifted off to sleep listening to the gentle voices of campers singing softly in the cold crisp air.

The following morning after breakfast, we grabbed our camera to go for a long walk. The air was full of smells remembered from the schoolyard in days gone by: a smell of pine, hickory nuts, walnuts and the good earth. I scooped a handful of fallen leaves from the earth's floor to smell the aroma and enjoyed a good feeling way down deep inside. I often wish I could bottle that aroma. When I need a boost, I could untwist the cap and breathe in the good earth's perfume, and memories would begin to float by like the reels of an old favorite movie.

The sun shining through the forest’s canopy on that autumn day sent spirals of color like those from the lenses of a kaleidoscope. A wooly black and orange caterpillar posed for a picture. He was all curled up - is that a sign of a blustery cold winter ahead?  But as I approached the other side of the fallen log, another caterpillar was creeping along boldly, stretched out as if to tell me the winter days ahead will be warm ones.

I captured a picture of a lone man in a red canoe, gliding by in the cool waters.  He tossed out his line, probably hoping to catch that one big one before season’s end. I leaned against a tree and snapped another scene of beauty.

We encountered a gentleman with a flag flying over his campsite; so many campers are displaying flags since September 11.   I asked if I might take his picture and he obliged. He looked like a man with a thousand camping stories and I wish I could have lingered to hear of his travels.

One of our “things to do” is walk around the campsites and jot down the sites where we would like to camp at a future trip, but the air suddenly turned cold and we headed back towards the camper. Once inside, we grabbed cheese and kielbasa and talked of how cozy it will be when the snow starts flying. We plan to come back for a weekend in the winter. I gazed out the window, watching the leaves waving on the arms of the trees and wondered how long the leaves would hold on.

Saturday afternoon we headed toward the falls but we’d started late and in few hours nightfall would be upon us so we did not walk all the falls. We’ve climbed them all before and it’s a hike worth taking.