Adventuring With Katie at Hickory Run State Park in the Pennsylvania Poconos

First, a Little Bit of the Weird History of the Land

It started as a place nobody wanted to inhabit. . .

Colonists who lived the surrounding area called it Shades of Death because the soil was poor and the area contained lots of dark forests and bogs. People did not want to live there or even hang out there.

Much of the reason the land was this way was because of the glacier that traveled down from Canada 20,000 years ago and deposited its rocky debris and carved out swamps in the land.

“Lenape, Susquehannock, and the Iroquois Nation claimed the area but no known Native American settlements occurred in the area”

-Hickory Run State Park Map

After the Revolutionary War, the government encouraged people to live there by giving out parcels of land. It became a logging area in the 1800’s. There were boom towns and people moved in.

There was also clear cutting and little replanting of trees. Several floods destroyed settlements and killed settlers. After the floods, there were several forest fires. The population began to dwindle. the 1800’s were a tough time for the area.

Things Started To Turn Around For When An Industrialist/ Philanthropist Became Involved

Hickory Run started to become more of a destination in the early 1900’s when a wealthy industrialist from Allentown, named Henry C. Trexler, bought parcels of land in the area. He envisioned building a park where people from Allentown could come and visit with their families and enjoy nature and recreation.

Trexler died before his plans could be completed though. In 1935, the National Park Service purchased Hickory Run. The Civilian Conservation Corp. built the dams and built much of the park. In 1945, the park was transferred from the National Park Service to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Hickory Run is located in an area that nobody wanted to live in for a long time and then the land was further changed by forestry practices which made it less desirable. So it is interesting that Hickory Run is such a popular state park that it some times has to turn away visitors because for a long time it was an area that people did not want to live in or even visit. It frequently makes lists of top State Parks in Pennsylvania.

This Is the Part of the This Post Where I Start to Tell You About Our Trip

During the last weekend of August this year we ventured to Hickory Run State Park. Located near the town of White Haven in the Poconos. It is close to the Northeast Extension of the PA turnpike, specifically exit 87 Jim Thorpe/Lake Harmony and very easy to get to.

But First I Will Tell You About My Previous Experiences With Hickory Run

Honestly, I don’t know how I have been living my life without Hickory Run State Park in it. Having grown up about 250 miles from it, I had never even heard of it until I was an adult.

Before last October, I had been to the Boulder Field twice, but I had not had the opportunity to experience the rest of the park. And let me tell you, it is a great park.

Now my cup runeth over with Hickory Run State Park adventures. I have been to it three times since last October. I have learned that it is so much more than just a park with a boulder field. It has waterfalls, river walks, a lake with swimming, dams, a great camping area, and a brand new, very interesting visitor center.

Now I Will Compare Hickory Run to Another State Park

I am going to say something I have never said about a park before: Hickory Run State Park is the Ohiopyle State Park of the eastern Pennsylvania! You Eastern Pennsylvanian might not understand, but this is high praise because Ohiopyle, with its waterfalls and rushing river is spectacular and is probably the best Pennsylvania State Park. If you don’t believe me see this list.

Hickory Run even reminds me a little of Ohiopyle because both parks feature amazing river adjacent hikes and multiple waterfalls.

We Went There Last October for a Magical Fall Weekday With Out Mr. Katie

In the past year, I have been to Hickory Run on two other occasions besides this camping trip. In fact, when the boys and I visited last October we stumbled upon the playground, near that camping area, that we ended up spending much time at on during this camping trip. We had a magical trip where we hiked some of the Shades of Death Trail, more about that trail later on, and we probably saw the dam that we missed seeing on trip.

But this October trip was not the first time I has been to Hickory Run.

And now presenting. . . The Hickory Run Boulder Field

Here’s a Bit About My First Trip to the Boulder Field

I first experienced some of the wonders of Hickory Run State Park on a college field trip in 2001. I took a class called Rock and Mineral Resources and we visited the boulder field on our way to our actual field trip destination, a mine in northern New Jersey. I was impressed with the giant field of rocks, but also sleepy. If I recall, my class met on campus in the five o’clock hour to board the vans for the trip.

Some Natural History About the Boulder Field

The Boulder Field at Hickory Run is the largest of its kind in the Appalachian region. It was formed 20,000 years ago when a glacier, approximately 1 mile thick scraped the land. When the glacier melted and retreated, the debris, including all the boulders pictures below, were pushed by the glacier and dropped in the spot where they are today. The field has remained relatively untouched for 20,000 years.

A First Day Hike at the Hawk Falls Trail

We celebrated New Years day this year with a hike at Hickory Run. I love a First Day hike, because they say what you are doing on the first day of the year is what you will spend the rest of your year doing. (And so far we have done a lot of hiking this year!) Online recommendations of great hiking spots for families pointed me to the Hawk Fall trail at Hickory Run.

Hawk Falls is a natural 25 foot waterfall. Part of the hike is a steep, old road. Most of the trail is lined in rhododendron. The stream adjacent hikes at Hickory Run are so reminiscent for me of the Ferncliff trail at Ohiopyle with all of its riparian landscape.

On that January day, the air was chilly and the trail was icy in some spots but we all enjoyed ourselves. I was glad that we arrived at the trail before noon because parking was at a premium as I guess a lot of people had the same idea I did. We held tightly to the boys especially as we walked through the shady rocky spots. Luckily, there were few spills on the ice.

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Okay, Back To Our Camping Trip . . . .

So even with all my recent park experience, it was our first time camping at Hickory Run. It was great to spend Friday evening thru Sunday afternoon there so we could really soak in the sights, as opposed to having to go home after a few hours.

I won’t lie, a lot of pressure was riding on this weekend. For starters, we ventured to Hickory Run on the weekend before Mr. Man’s first day of kindergarten. We hoped to make it a fun and low stress trip so Mr. Man could sail into kindergarten on a good note. Additionally, Mr. Katie celebrated his birthday while we were on this trip. We wanted it to be a special weekend for him too.

The good new is that Hickory Run delivered on good times and great adventures in spades!

Did We Like the Campground?

Short answer yes!

For starters, our site was a winner. We were very happy with it!

We were at site 60, which was in a non-electric hook-up loop. When Mr. Katie logged onto the PA State Park Reservation website, all the electric sites were taken. (Lesson learned: reservations for electric sites fill up fast, especially in the year 2021).

Most of the other campers in our loop were camping in tents. Our site was surrounded by the eastern hemlock forest that blankets much of the park. Site 60 was a perfect site for a popup camper. It was very roomy, maybe even the roomiest campsite we had at a Pennsylvania State Park all summer. The site was contained a trail with easy access to the playground., which was probably less than 100 feet from our site. On the other side of the site was rocky trail that lead downhill to the bathrooms. Other campers for our loop utilized the bathroom trail but we were the only ones who seemed to use the playground trail.

Also the Shades of Death trail meets the campground at the bottom of the path down the hill to the bathroom. The trail is also very accessible from the playground. I love a park that has hiking trails that you can just walk to from the camping area!

There is a Bear Situation In the Campground and Probably the Whole Park

This is probably where I should mention that Hickory Run has a bear situation. The situation is that bears like to visit the park and they like food that people bring to the park.

So when checked into the campground, the attendant at the visitor center was very clear that I would need to be careful to lock all trash and food in our car anytime we left camp and at nighttime. I was given literature about the precautions we should take such as not storing toiletries in our camper at nighttime. Additionally, bear-proof trash receptacles are located in many places around the campground to cut down on bear traffic. Motorcyclists or others who did not have a car to store their trash and toiletries could assigned a bear locker near the restrooms. The literature strictly warned that campers who do not follow the bear precautions could be fined.

No worries though, we Nicholsons are rule followers (mostly).

Back To Our Weekend Away at Hickory Run

The weather forecast that weekend called for intermittent rain so we set up our rain tent and the camper’s portico. In retrospect, it was good that we brought the rain tent for our picnic table because the weather forecast was correct. It rained on Friday night and for a good portion of Saturday.

The Important Stuff: Hickory Run Has a Pretty Good Camp Store

The campground also has a well stocked camp store. In fact, the store is small, but it is so well stocked that it seemed like the store had everything but the kitchen sink hanging on racks on its walls. There were no empty spots in the store. It contains everything from sweatshirts to taco seasoning. My boys are touchers, so I could not stand to be in the store for more than a few minutes. However, it is something to check out if you like camp stores or you need something. Flip-flops and water shoes were on clearance during the weekend that we visited. There were plenty of toys and candy to be purchased at the store. My boys and my inner-child were swooning over it.

Did We Do Some Hiking Hiking on this Trip? You Bet

We made three attempts at hiking during our weekend trip.

We Hiked The Shades of Death Trail in the Pouring Rain With a 5 and 3 Year Old, Are We Now in the Craziest Top Percent of the Population?

The Shades of Death Trail is one of the most popular trails in the park. Its name sounds scary but really it is a lovely trail that winds along Hickory Run. Hikers on this path are treated to two scenic dams that look like waterfalls. We walked over CCC dam several times on this trip. The dam is located at the start of the Shades of the Death Trail if you enter near the playground like as we did.

We didn’t see the Stametz Dam on this trip. It’s another dam you can see on this trail and judging from pictures online, it is the prettier of the dams. Oh, well. We will get it next time. Apparently, there is also an beautiful Old Chapel, that we also did not see either. (We skipped the first part of the hike by getting on the Shades of Death Trail in the camping area).

Now for the fun part: when we started our hike on Saturday morning, it was not raining. Not long into the hike, it started to rain lightly. We decided to continue walking. Pretty soon things started to look like the picture below, but we kept going. Sometimes we couldn’t see the blazes on the trees and rocks that marked the trail. We walked for a while on what we thought must be the trail but then turned out it wasn’t. We had to retrace our steps.

Preschool Nugget wasn’t tentative at all, he held Mr. Katie’s hand and calmly kept on walking. Mr. Man seemed concerned that we did not completely seem to know where we were going but continued to hold my hand while we walked. Nobody gave up or threw in the hat.

Pretty soon Mr. Katie and I started to say things to each other like, “Are we crazy?” and “I think we just entered the top one percent of crazy people.” We kept going though.

We hiked until the trail started winding into the stream and the part it seemed we were supposed to walk on was covered in water up to my knees. Looking at the map after the trip, I think it is possible that the trail just abruptly ends somewhere near where we decided to turn around.

On the hike back, the rain seemed to let up until it almost stopped completely by the time we got back to our camper. About halfway back to our site, we saw a man and a woman walking with fishing gear, walking along the trail. Those might have been the only other people we saw coming back from our hike that morning.

We named our hike “Wet Walk” and it became a rallying cry/ crucible for Mr. Katie and I throughout the weekend. It felt like a great success. It’s not everyday that everyone still had fun hiking in the pouring rain. In fact, the rain may have even enhanced the experience.

After wet walk, we changed our clothes, took our bear precautions like putting the cooler into the car and headed into the town White Haven where we found the White Haven Family Diner. If you are in the area and are looking for a place to eat breakfast or lunch, I recommend it. It does close at 3pm thought, so do not count on going there for dinner. Also they only accept cash.

After refueling and a bit of driving around in an unsuccessful attempt at eliciting some napping the backseat, we decided to check out the boulder field.

Driving to the Boulder Field Is Its Own Adventure

The Boulder Field is located on sort of the far side of the park. It is on a one way, stone covered road away from everything else so the ride there feels rather adventurous. The trees on either side of the road are tall. It always seems to be sunny while you are driving on it, even if the boulder field itself isn’t sunny. The speed limit is low. While you are driving you might imagine that it would feel like a fun road to be on in a jeep. You feel like you are on the road for a long time, but it is probably only 10 minutes or so. By the time you get to the parking lot, you are kind of expecting that your party is the only group traveling to the Boulder Fields because mostly you don’t see any other cars. It is always a little bit of a shock when you get to the boulder field parking area because there are a lot of parking spots and they are mostly completely full of cars. You ask yourself how all those people got there because you wouldn’t have expected to see all those people on the drive there.

But there they are and they all want to walk out on the rocks. Many of their license plates say New Jersey or New York.

So We Went to the Boulder Field

I think it was Mr. Katie’s first time there. He had seem my pictures from another trip so he understood what it was all about. We had a good time. There were a good number of people there that day, but we were all spread out.

If a hiker were so inclined, they could hike a trail from the Hawk Falls parking lot to the boulder field. It would be about 3.5 miles of difficult hiking according to the map but would take 4-5 hours. The map rates it as a difficult hike.

Sand Spring Lake

At this point in your reading, you might be asking yourself: why don’t they check out the lake and the beach? Does this park have a beach?

Hickory Run does have a nice beach, apparently. The lake is called Sand Spring Lake, but the beach was closed during our trip because of bacterial counts in the water were too high. The state park website recommends getting an ice cream cone after swimming the beach. I am sure we will check it out in the future.

FYI: The park also has a frisbee golf course that makes the top ten list of things to do at Hickory Run

Hawk Falls Trail Redux

After our visit to the Boulder Field, we decided to check out the Hawk Falls Trail because it wasn’t quite dinnertime yet.

I was mentally freaking out a little bit while we were walking down the steep road that is part of the Hawk Falls hike. Why you might ask? Well, it was because the boys seemed to want to run down the hill. The mama bear in me imagines that it would be very easy to fall off the hillside into the rushing waters of hawk run below.

At that point I said to myself, “Was I crazy to suggest that my family go here on an icy day like we did on New Years this year? I kind of can’t believe we did this.”

The trail is only .6 miles long, but after a day packed with plenty of other adventures, we decided turn around at the footbridge that crosses Hawk Run. All Preschool Nugget wanted to do was lay on the trail. He was done with hiking for the day.

So What Else Did We Do On Our Trip?

At this point in reading this post, you might be losing steam with reading this and I might be losing steam in writing it.

So let me tell you some of the highlights of our trip that I did not really get into.

1. We ate really well on this trip. As I mentioned, Mr. Katie celebrated his birthday on the trip so we had birthday cake multiple times throughout the weekend. He also made us all bacon cheeseburgers on Friday night on the camp stove. We had another good dinner made at our campsite on Saturday night and but we can’t quite remember what we had now. On Sunday, Mr. Katie made egg, cheese and bacon breakfast sandwiches on toasted English muffins on the camp stove.
2. We made something we had never even heard of until Mr. Katie found them online. Campfire cones are waffle ice cream cones stuffed with mini marshmallows and chocolate chips then wrapped in foil and put into the fire for warming. So good!
3. We played at the playground a lot and Mr. Man made a campground friend at a nearby campsite. We met up with him multiple times between Friday and Sunday.
4. We brought glowsticks with us from home and used them both nights. One night we walked around the campground and handed out glowsticks to people who would take them. We sang songs and had a short a cappella dance party.
5. We visited the Hickory Run State Park Visitor’s Center on Sunday. It is large and nice inside. It was dedicated in October 2020. Even if you do not decide to go and see the exhibits, you should take advantage of its nice bathrooms and water bottle refilling water fountain. But you should see the exhibits. They are great. The visitor center is part nature center part small museum with exhibits that engage both children and adults. I learned about the natural history, animals, and people that make Hickory Run what it is. It also has a large glass window where you can look out on the forest and observe since the visitors center is kind of in the woods. The boys loved it too and really got something out of it.
6. We also went back to the Hawk Falls trail and made it the whole way to the Falls! Yay!

In Summation

I have felt really drawn to Hickory Run State Park in the past year. This is partially due to the fact that it is close but not too close. It takes us about one hour to drive there from our house. It is just far enough away that it feels really special when we visit. Also it is just a great park with a lot to see. I didn’t grow up visiting it. so it feels very novel to me. The Poconos as a whole feel exciting and novel to me. I get excited when I read about them because I know a little bit about them and have visited some places in them but I don’t really know them or the towns there. I want to visit Honesdale, Milford, and Stroudsburg in the future.

I love to visit the boulder field at Hickory Run because it is vast and kind of amazing. It is a little bit like an ocean of rocks or not an ocean then a lake of rocks. How often have you ever seen a lake of rocks? I also like how that boulder field has essentially gone unchanged for 20,000 years. How many things on this earth can you say that about?

I believe that whatever happens to us the boulder field will be there for at least another 20,000 years after us. . .

One final thought

On this trip to Hickory Run, I learned about industrialist Henry Trexler when we went to the visitor’s center. I didn’t know anything about his involvement with the park until I saw an exhibit about him. He is interesting to me because as a family we spend a lot of time hiking at the Trexler Nature Preserve in Lehigh County. The Trexler Nature Preserve is a parcel of land in Lehigh County that Trexler originally purchased between 1901-1911 because he had a desire to stock it with bison, elk, and deer with the goal of saving the North American Bison. He died in 1933 and in his will he left the land to the county. For decades the preserve was closed to the public and the herd numbers dwindled. Then in 2006, after the Trexler Trust sued Lehigh County the land became useable to the public for hiking, mountain biking, hunting and fishing.

We go there often to walk and enjoy nature. We also see the deer, elk, and bison that are the ancestors of the elk and bison Trexler was working to preserve.

Thank you Henry Trexler for all you have given us.

What places hold a special place in your heart and mind?

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