Ricketts Glen State Park Waterfall Photography

We travel to this Pennsylvania State Park several times each year and photographed it for hours. It is one of our top ten places in the USA to take pictures and we are only three hours away. This is an incredible photo shoot site near wildlife and in the deep wilderness of Pennsylvania. If you’re looking for a waterfall photography location near you, and you live in Pennsylvania. This is your best option. If you’re not near this location, it is worth traveling to.

survival food and gear with an alien guy with food buckets

At my own expense, I offer all of this to you: a humble tribute to Mother Gaia. It is my hope that you will spread my art and message to others, uplifting and inspiring their souls.

May my works guide photographers illuminating their path toward creating dynamic and impactful images that show the raw beauty and essence of life in all its transcendent glory. —Pamela Goodyer

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RICKETTS GLEN WATERFALL PHOTOGRAPHY BASICS

Our job is to locate and share some of planet Earth’s most fantastic photography locations with you, along with the best places to stay. Ricketts Glen State Park is a well-known destination for waterfall photography. This waterfall is very well-publicized and appears on many lists, but we can assure you that it is a top 10 location on the East Coast of the USA. And when we go to this location, we only stay at The Pine Barn Inn.

A CHALLENGING HIKE

Ricketts Glen State Park is a challenging hike with thousands of stairs down and then up. It can be slippery. They have some easy trails, but we don’t think they run along the waterfalls. It’s about a mile and a half downhill, then a mile and a half up the hill on the shortest waterfall route.

We arrived at 7 a.m. and walked out at 4:45 p.m. We must admit that we skipped a section. We had been photographing for hours and were just plain old, running out of steam. Doing every single waterfall as we were doing takes many hours of climbing over rocks, going up and down stairs, and weaseling our way into the best part of the water to get the proper perspective for the shots.

WHERE TO BEGIN PHOTOGRAPHING

We started at the Rose Lake Parking lot and went down the waterfall trail. We took a left to go back to the top instead of going down the one path at the bottom and returning up the same trail before going back up. It was about 5 hours into the hike. You can start at either end and do the circle. If you start with the one-mile walk to the falls trail, you don’t have to do it at the end. We like the falls on the Rose Parking lot side best. There were some falls; we just took one picture and kept going. You can tell which falls make good photography if you have the eye, as most of us do.

NEUTRAL DENSITY FILTERS

DO NOT go here without your Neutral Density Filters! We highly suggest buying Promaster Neutral Density Filters. The ten-stop has no color cast at all! See our STORE for our favorites. If you’re uncertain about how to photograph waterfalls, you can take a Zoom class with Pamela Goodyer. She’ll explain it all to you. Please don’t waste your whole day trying to figure out how to do it right.

WATERFALL PHOTOGRAPHY MAP

Take a picture and keep it on your phone.

MAPS OF RICKETTS GLEN S.P.:

Be sure to stop by the office to pick up a map or print one to bring with you. We needed it. At one point, we went the wrong way—good thing we had my map. We set off on the wrong trail from the parking lot, then, with a map, we got back on track.

Ricketts Glen State Park Map

Glens Natural Area Enlargement Map

PA. Government website for park information

Ricketts Glen State Park

ADDRESS: 695 PA-487, Benton, PA 17814, USA

PHONE +1 570-477-5675

WEB Visit website

LOCATION: The park is 30 miles north of Bloomsburg on PA 487.

ONEIDA FALLS: A PHOTOGRAPHER’S FAVORITE

Oneida Falls, one of the park’s smaller but still beautiful waterfalls, stands at 13 feet. The cascading water gracefully flows over the ledge and continues downstream. To fully appreciate its beauty, you can admire it from the side or venture downstream for a different perspective.

This is a perfect spot to settle in, camera in hand, and photograph the falls from various angles. Don’t hesitate to shift your position and explore different viewpoints. Let your lens click away, taking countless shots of this picturesque location.

We did not name each of the falls as we went along. We focused on the photography. Maybe on our next trip, we will go by the map and label all the falls. A few fall foliage shots are mixed in with our summer photos from another one of our trips here. This will give you a good idea of which season you would like to do, or do what we did!! Do them all.

Ricketts Glen State Park fall foliage with milky flowing waters. and bright orange yellow colors.

IT’S NOT ONLY ABOUT THE WATERFALLS

Be sure to stop along the way. Keep looking. Keep seeing. Look all around for different angles, for other things. Don’t always go where everybody goes. Do something different. See something different, find something different. That’s what Pamela Goodyer does.

You can also turn your photography into art. Some examples are here. Pamela also painted some of these images onto canvas.

Ricketts Glen State Park Spring brings green colors with a large waterfall.

TUSCARORA FALLS

Named after the nearby tribal village, Tuscarora Falls stands tall at 47 feet and is one of the highest waterfalls in Ganoga Glen. It may not be as impressive as Ganoga Falls, which measures 94 feet, but it has charm and beauty. With cascading drops and a split on its final descent, this waterfall is a picturesque spot and my favorite in the park. While the rocks at the bottom provide a great view, they can be tricky to navigate when the water levels are high.

RICKETTS GLEN STATE PARK INFORMATION

The Waterfall Route is on Falls Trail: 7.2 miles, the most challenging hiking trail.
Lake Rose Parking Lot is the closest access to the Falls Trail. We started here. The entire loop of this trail is 7.2 miles if hiking both the upper and lower sections. The partial trail is a 3.2-mile loop and can be taken by going on the Highland Trail and the Glen Leigh and Ganoga Glen sides of the trail.

We took the 3.2-mile circuit and took 9 hours to photograph correctly. We took probably fifteen long exposures of each waterfall, so judge the timing based on how much you photograph. You will do it much quicker if you take one or two shots of each.

PRECAUTIONS TO TAKE

You must be in good physical condition and take several precautions to participate in this waterfall day.

Always wear proper hiking boots. If you want to bring along water shoes to stand in the water for your shots, be prepared to take them off and put your hiking boots back on. Sandals and water shoes will cause a fall on these slippery rocks you will encounter.
Bring water or a survival water pump and food. You will be out all day, so eat right before you go.
Check the weather before you go, and make sure you plan to get out before dark.
Let someone know where you are hiking and when you should return. We asked the Park Ranger. They are not allowed to leave at the end of the day if a car is in the parking lot and a person is unaccounted for.

PHOTOGRAPHY INFORMATION

GEAR:

The gear for this hike is more than just camera gear. If you choose to do it this way, it would be an all-day event, so be prepared. Bring your widest-angle lens. The most important thing to bring is your set of Neutral Density Filters. If you don’t have them, don’t go. Buy them first. Here is the link to purchase our favorite filters, which we used in the pictures above.

A good, sturdy, light tripod to carry all day is a must. Bring extra batteries. We recommend having three camera batteries if you plan to complete the 3.2-mile loop or the entire loop. You will be shooting in live view mode all day, and nothing drains the battery as fast as live view. Do not run out of memory cards. Shoot this raw to remove blaring white highlights if the sun pops out. Raw takes up significantly more space to accommodate extra cards. Bring them in a waterproof carrying case, just in case.

Bring water and food. A light backpack is a good thing to have. Thank you to my new friend for saving the day. We were out of snacks and starving when we met fellow photographers Brian Kerr and Voila. He offered us power bars, which got us through to 4:45. The moral of the story: Don’t forget your power bars! He’s a super cool guy who saved the day!

WHEN TO GO:

The most important things to know: Bright sunshine is not our friend when doing waterfall photography, and even the slightest drizzle will make the rocks as slippery as can be here—Timing. We got it right — cloudy skies with occasional sunshine and zero precipitation. We watched the weather and left the night before. We saw perfect conditions. The park is closed for the winter except for those with the proper ice shoes. Please verify the exact details with the park directly. Please refrain from doing this on a holiday weekend; instead, consider doing it mid-week. There was barely anyone else there at 7 a.m.

SETTING UP YOUR CAMERA FOR MILKY WATERFALL PHOTOS:

1. TRIPOD:

You will need to put your camera on a tripod and expose the image using a remote shutter release. If you don’t have a remote shutter release, you can also use the camera’s 2-second self-timer. However, this will only work if you use a tripod, so if you’re new to this, please note that a tripod is an absolute must.

2. LIVE VIEW MODE:

We suggest using the live view mode. The mirror automatically locks up when using this mode. Shooting from a lower angle does make more dynamic images.

3. NEUTRAL DENSITY FILTER:

Put your neutral density filter on your camera. Even on a cloudy day, you will want to use an ND filter. It’s like sunglasses for your camera. You can do a more prolonged exposure, which is what makes the milky effect of the water movement. The darker the ND Filter, the longer you can expose it. Learn how to use a neutral density filter and discover our recommended options.

4. CAMERA SETTINGS:

Set your camera to manual mode, then set the aperture to the smallest one (most will be f/22, some will be f/29). Set your ISO to 100, or the lowest setting available on your camera. Looking through the camera, roll the shutter speed so that the exposure level indicator reads ‘0’ on the exposure scale. Without a filter, you may not get lower than 1/15th of a second, or even that low on a sunny day. This is why a neutral density filter is so important. We have a 3.0 filter. We can do a 30-second exposure at noon in bright sunshine with that bad boy.

5. 2-SECOND TIMER:

Set your camera on a 2-second timer or use your shutter release to expose the image. Evaluate the image. If your idea has hot spots (areas of overexposed spots), slow your shutter speed down to a stop and test again until it is just right. Remember, the darker the filter, the longer the exposure.

6. EXPOSING PROPERLY:

Check each image as you go so you do not blow out the highlights of the white water. It is better to underexpose a shot than overexpose it. You can fix an image that is too dark, but you cannot fix blown-out highlights.

IMPORTANT THINGS TO KNOW – WATERFALL PHOTOGRAPHY

What type of lighting is best for waterfall photography?

The early morning light or the late afternoon is ideal. If you arrive early, before direct sunlight casts stark, contrasting shadows, this diffused illumination is generally more manageable and often yields superior photos.

Overcast days help avoid overly bright highlights in the water’s reflections.

Are there any lens filters recommended for photographing at Ricketts Glen?

See step number three for the link to the page for the detailed explanation of neutral density filters. You may have noticed that we told you not to come here without one.

PINE BARN INN

This was our obvious choice of where to stay. There aren’t many places close to the park. Some places are about 15 minutes closer, but this is well worth the extra time to get there. The hotel will provide an outstanding experience from start to finish, and food that is out of this world! From booking through checkout, you will experience nothing but exceptional service. The Pine Barn Inn thrives on hospitality in the tradition of early innkeeping. Plan to stay here on your Rickett’s Glen Waterfall Adventure.

Pleasant lodgings, a rustic tavern, and various cheerful dining rooms combine with a standard for delicious food and excellent service. The Pine Barn Inn is the premier full-service hotel in the Danville, PA, area. The exposed stone walls, antique posts, and beams in the Pine Barn Inn’s dining rooms date back to the 19th century when this typical German bank barn was built on one of Danville’s earliest farms. We picked this hotel due to its fantastic atmosphere.

PINE BARN INN RESTAURANT

Plan on eating here as part of your Waterfall Adventure.

When you finish your waterfall photography in the park, head back to the hotel restaurant to end the day just the right way. The seafood platter is to die for, by the way.

The Pine Barn Inn offers Old-world service—the kind that pampers the patron—and awaits the hungry photographer who ventures into its dining rooms. The menu has just the right options, and the prices are excellent.

The Pine Barn Inn offers an elegant full-course dining experience or casual fare in their tavern. The inn staff will exceed your expectations. Our waitress could not stop smiling, and Jon, who served the table next to ours, had everyone laughing. We had excellent service and food at this beautiful restaurant. We chose fine dining. On our way out to our room, we could hear the live band playing on the patio dining area. Dust in the Wind was playing as we strolled to our building, full bellies and all — what a great feeling at the end of a great photography day.

CAMPING NEAR RICKETTS GLEN

Ricketts Glen State Park Link

Red Rock Mountain Campground is just down the street from the State Park.

Ricketts Glenn State Park Campground

Make online reservations anytime. Call toll-free 888-PA-PARKS (888-727-2757) for state park information and reservations. The reservation line is open from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday, except on Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day holidays.

Make a Reservation(opens in a new tab)

NEW FREINDS AT RICKETTS GLEN STATE PARK

Here are our new friends, Chris and Melissa McGonigle, whom we met on the trail. We had them hold their breath since they mentioned getting the water to blur in the background, and we did a two-second exposure. The sun was not our friend here, but we didn’t want to make them wait for a cloud. Thanks for letting us take your picture, Chris and Melissa. We hope you had a great hike, too!

Ricketts Glen State Park freinds by waterfall Two people posing in front of the waterfall in their hiking gear.

DO YOU HAVE A WATERFALL LOCATION YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE?

We are compiling a master list of all waterfalls and hope you will share your list with us, as many generous photographers have already helped by emailing us their list of falls. We thank you for that! We believe that sharing our information about incredible places can help us improve our subject matter, which in turn helps us become better photographers. That is why we do what we do. Share your waterfall list here.>>> Link to Submit Page