2020 pretty much sucked for everybody on Earth and my year certainly wasn’t without some hardship and heartbreak either. After spending the spring and early summer basically doing nothing due to being unable to find work anywhere, I finally got a gig in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. I was keen to start exploring again and having never been to that part of the country before, I was pretty happy about it. Wilkes-Barre is not a super exciting town, but turned out to be a good base for exploring. If you love Italian food, though, it’s the place to be because there are delicious, small family run Italian restaurants on just about every corner.

Waterfalls are the stars of this episode, they are everywhere! Most of my free time was spent driving around and hiking to the many waterfalls all over. Some were very close and easy to get to, others required long hikes and getting lost in the forest. Here’s a couple of my favorites that were close to home…

We’re not finished with the waterfalls yet, but that’s not all I did, just mostly. To the south is Hickory Run State park which is home to a really unique boulder field. I also took a day to indulge my interest in the state capitols on a side trip to Harrisburg. They were having a big pro-Trump/anti-virus rally on the front steps while I was there. I’ve never seen so many AR-15’s in one place. Thankfully it didn’t distract too much from my visit.

Pennsylvania is really a huge state and the beauty of it all definitely isn’t confined to the eastern edge. There were plenty more waterfalls and canyons to explore moving to the central part of the Keystone State. As my time in Pennsylvania wore on and Fall began to take hold, a lot of the falls slowly turned in to small trickles, if not off all together, but luckily Dry Run Falls was still going strong. It’s somewhat ironically called Dry Run because it never seems to run dry.

By far the most densely packed collection of falls, however, was in Rickett’s Glen. The eight mile loop trail meanders through some absolutely gorgeous terrain and takes you past over 21 individual waterfalls. Molly and I started just as the sun was coming up and had a fantastic day! Scroll through the gallery below…

Another cool thing to see in Pennsylvania are the many old covered bridges throughout the state. Most were built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, some have been restored and some left to the forest, but all of them were interesting, to me at least. Here are some of the best ones…

Though not in Pennsylvania, I spent my last weekend taking the five hour drive to the mother of all North American waterfalls, Niagra in upstate New York. I’ve always wanted to see them and wasn’t about to miss the opportunity. Driving through PA and upstate NY in the fall was also almost worth the trip by itself.

Canada is on the other shore of the river and may have won the best overall views of the falls, but since the falls are on the American side of the river, we get the experience of walking down to the bottom and getting wet.

Before heading back to Wilkes-Barre, Molly and I enjoyed a very long hike along the Niagra Gorge.

I hate ending a post on a down note, but as I said, 2020 wasn’t without it’s heartbreak for me. Shortly after leaving Pennsylvania Molly Dawg’s heart failure got the better of her and she passed away at the end of October. Thankfully it was quick and she didn’t suffer. She was happy, bouncy and energetic right up to the last day. She was an amazing dog, extremely well traveled and frighteningly smart, a great friend, and she will be missed every day.

If you want to see all the pics from Pennsylvania go here. Stay tuned for more adventures…