Deth

I found an old picture from Swatara falls in my pictures. Swatara falls is a nice 25 or so foot waterfall nestled away in the coal region of Pennsylvania. We discovered it through geocaching back when we started. It’s a quick drive up 81 for us and just off the highway. I’ve been wanting to return to the waterfall, but we just can’t seem to make it happen.

The hike out to it isn’t bad at all. It’s basically a dirt road. It reminded me a lot of the type of road and hike we’d have when I went to eight bees growing up. The hike wasn’t a long hike, but it was an enjoyable one, Half mile or maybe a mile, but I can’t remember for sure. To us, It seemed as if it was private property, but there were other people out there including a truck driving on the road, so It seemed okay. It seems as if it’s mostly quad trails.

Sadly, there was lots of trash lying around, that’s a pretty typical thing in these types of areas. I guess would choose that over the overly busy waterfalls like Ricketts Glen or the commercial ones which are also overcrowded. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed those too, but it’s nicer when there’s really no one else around.

We were rewarded with this great little waterfall and of course the geocache too. The real prize was relaxing by the falls for a while, just taking in nature.

The waterfall’s location is near the upper end of the Swatara creek which descends about 1100 feet. This is area is the steepest descent the creek has, where it falls about 300 feet in a half mile.

Ironically enough, it meets the Susquehanna River near at Middletown, so we essentially paralleled it the whole trip up Interstate 81 to get to the falls..