Waterfall Park aka Ricketts Glen Park

If I had the job to name Ricketts Glen State Park in Pennsylvania, I would call it Waterfall Park, for I have never seen so many beautiful waterfalls in such close proximity to each other anywhere else.

The trails to go through the glen down to around nine waterfalls is just over a mile, but if one is really fit and decides to do the full circle to see the fifteen named waterfalls, you are looking at around eight miles.

This park is situated on 2000 acres of land but we never got to do much more than visit the closer nine waterfalls in the beautiful gorge, due to the difficult, steep, muddy, slippery paths one has to pick the way on.

At the entrance is a moderately-appearing temperate forest with well-marked hiking trails, which belies the terrain awaiting you as you head downwards to the various falls, but it was worth every effort.

It took us almost and entire half day to visit nine falls for we had to put our feet down gingerly so as not to become casualties.  I hate to think how we would have been brought back to civilization if any of us had a serious fall! Besides, there were quite a number of other adventurers there when we visited, and this included a number of children who just did not understand the dangers they posed, not only to themselves, but to others, by racing around.

Happy troopers stand behind their leader on the trail

I visited this wonderful park in August 2019 with three other ladies from an outdoor Meet-up group in Florida and this visit through the scenic gorge was only one of the events we covered on a wonderful six day trek into Pennsylvania, organized by our fearless leader, Jeniffer Weise.

As a background from Wikipedia, “Ricketts Glen is a National Natural Landmark known for its old-growth forest and 24 named waterfalls along Kitchen Creek, which flows down the Allegheny Front escarpment from the Allegheny Plateau to the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians.”

Naturally, it was originally home to Native Americans but was taken away by the colonizing immigrants, and is now named in honor of a Bruce Ricketts who made lots of money in the lumber industry and in 1860, built a hotel there.

The park is now operated by the state which has modernized the facilities and allows free use by all and sundry.

Each waterfall we saw had its own unique features but the largest and most impressive was the huge Ganoga Falls a real  beauty from every angle.

Are the Amish changing?

The first time I ever heard of the Amish and saw some in operation, was some twenty years ago when I was visiting Belize in Central America. It was then a Belizean took me to visit the commune where these “strange” people, who rejected all progress operated.

I was told they had leased their settlement from the government and operated a self-sufficient and self-governing commune, where the Belizean government only got involved waswhen a murder was committed there.

They were strict about their dress, only wearing their traditional black and white outfights, refused to use rubber or plastic, made most of what they used etc. 

 A distressing problem for the local people I was told, was that their buggies with the metal wheels were damaging their roads.

The next time I saw any other Amish was at the farmer’s market in Philly where some sold their products. This was about two years ago and I recall how amused I was when one accepted a credit card, considering how I heard about them rejecting anything modern so of course electronic.

Clothes drying in the sun. They can now wear other solid colors

One of the many confusions I had up to recently, was in thinking that Amish and Mennonites were the same but when I googled it, I was informed “Theologically, the Amish and Mennonites have many similarities. Both are Anabaptist denominations and share ideals of

The chain at the back our guide called the "seat belts!"

pacifism. The Amish believed that mainstream Anabaptist churches were too liberal and that Christians should live separate from the outside world. The Amish practice a severe form of social shunning towards people who violate the church's guidelines. The most noticeable difference between the Amish and Mennonites is that Mennonites generally do not shun technology or contemporary society. Even Old Order Mennonites, who live more similarly to the Amish, allow modern conveniences like electricity in their homes.”

My most recent visit to an Amish establishment was in Lancaster County, Philadelphia.

This trip of four fun-loving ladies from Florida, was organized and led by champion hiker and leader Jenifer Weise in mid-August 2019. This trip made me realize how far this sect has come. (Anyway, I have been made to understand that they are not as dogmatic as I had heard but what they do in each commune depends on how far their leader is prepared to let them go.)

Men don't seem to use the pedals!

We actually visited the town of Intercourse, (the name does not imply what I and other outsiders would think. Also, to get there we passed through a place called "Gay Man town", but I jump to no conclusions about that either!) which is 85% Amish, who at last count was 7,200. According to a guide Rachael, it is the 2nd largest Amish settlement in the USA.

In Intercourse, I got a much better understanding about the sect.

Its a touristy town

While most of the town of Intercourse is just an everyday tourist town, we took the opportunity to go on a buggy ride and visit a farm, a very enlightening experience indeed.

Our guide Rachael was excellent, answering our questions forthrightly. For example, I wanted to know it the Amish practiced birth control as I heard they loved to have lots of children to work their farms. She however explained that it is something many probably practice, but it is just not discussed! Further, I wanted to know if they paid taxes to the regular government and used services like police and hospitals or were like those in Belize they didn’t and was told categorically, yes. However, in sickness, they tend to try home remedies before seeking outside assistance.

A 6 horse power plough at work (the guide's humor!)

What I learnt too was that they are far more unconventional than I thought as the plain black and white clothes are not mandatory as they can make their clothes from any solid color. Also, some work outside the homes and farms in professions where modern mechanical equipment is used, whereas they can own the equipment, they must employ non-Amish or English (as they call them), to actually use the equipment. Some also own motor vehicles but they put them in others people’s names and get a driver as they are not allowed to drive. Some even have indoor plumbing but not showers or baths! I also noted that these at Intercourse had no problem using plastic, rubber and even mechanical equipment powered by propane.

At the farm we visited where they did dairy, horse raring and grew acres of corn and soya

, we observed both mechanical equipment and a horse drawn plough which, since it had six horses pulling it, our guide quipped that it had six horse power. 

For farm work, they seem to alternate between using horses and mules, which they breed themselves. Those were some mighty steeds I saw at the farm we visited and according to our guide, the two horses that draw tourists in the buggies, can do that work for up to fifteen years. They also appeared to be quite healthy and extremely intelligent.

From some strange activity I saw,  I got the impression that male bicycle riders do not use the pedals or sit on the seats, but females do. Instead the men  and boys seem to treat the bicycle as some kind of a pushmobile in that they run beside is pushing on one pedal and will only get on when coasting!

A model Amish farm

From my own observations though, I gather that they are extremely wealthy people who are mostly large farmers living in huge houses. But they should be wealthy shouldn’t they, if they are  not big consumers like the rest of the society, shunning even electricity and making most of what they need?

Their wealth seems to be ploughed back into vast expanses of land where they farm, use mechanical equipment and even refrigeration, also powered by propane run generators, to keep their products fresh.

A beautifully laid out plantation

While the Amish there seem to be moving quite rapidly toward modernization, what was alarming to learn was how little they still value education, since the children must leave school to go and work by age fifteen What a waste of human resources.

However, our very informed tour guide Rachel did explain that they are able to go into professions where they assist the community, like firefighting and the medical services. I guess that too is progress.

OTHER PHOTOS TAKEN AT THE AMISH ESTABLISHMENT

Alaska is unforgettable

Awesome beauty

If there was really a Garden of Eden, it could very likely be located somewhere in the largest state in the USA, Alaska. For the beauty there seems unending and I only visited a tiny section!

I remember some years ago telling a friend that I would like to visit Alaska and her reply was that she had been on a cruise there and saw nothing but icebergs.

Well she and I must have taken totally different routes as whereas I saw a couple of these, they were insignificant to everything else.

We took a Disney cruise from Vancouver, Canada in July 2019, arriving in Vancouver early, not only to ensure that we didn’t miss the proverbial boat, but also to see a bit of the province since we were in the area. 

The unforgettable incident was when we were boarding the  "Skytrain" to go downtown and being ahead of the others,  I entered as the door opened . The others waited too long for a couple who seemed to have the whole day to go nowhere, to exit, but  before they could enter, the train's door closed separating me from them. Naturally, I simply decided to stay on the train till  it reached the waterfront exit, but I hear my granddaughter was inconsolable, thinking I had been lost. They  all had to exit at the next stop and looked around for me to try and appease her, but  naturally, I was nowhere to be found. When they arrived at the waterfront, she was so relieved  to see me that she grabbed my hand  and to hold  on to me for the rest of the vacation.

That resolve lasted  for about ten minutes!

Vancouver is as beautiful as I remembered but the constant and regular rainfall which it is notorious for, did not mess up this trip. In fact, it didn’t rain once while we were there.

We spent a lot of time at the waterfront downtown near the convention center and there was so much to see there that we didn’t even have time to hop on the ferry to visit the popular Victoria island. Its a good thing we had visited it some years before.

What I found fascinating on this trip was the numerous sea planes which were taking off in quick succession as we walked around the waterfront. I had never seen sea planes outside of the Eastern Caribbean but they are not half as many there. In both Vancouver and Alaska, they are popular the mode of transport. It is understandable about Alaska as there are so many islands there with no access by road but most of what we saw in Vancouver seemed to be just for sightseeing or to go to Victoria island.

To get to Alaska we did not go much by the ocean but rather sailed along in the huge fjords paved out by glaciers hundreds of years ago.

As cruises go, all was well on the boat and the entertainment good. We even got ourselves some Jamaican food, as lots of Jamaicans work on board, having been recruited by Disney through their office in Ocho Rios. That's how we wheedled a meal of escoviched fish, some well kneaded flour dumplings and pear.

A most delicious treat.

The breathtaking scenery all the way to Alaska was almost worth the cost of the trip. Going up the fjords too made the passage not only calmer but extremely scenic. The stops were Juneau the state capital, Ketchikan, Skagway and the glacier at Icy Strait Point.

Our first stop was at the glacier and believe it our not, that shore expedition was sold out. Being allergic to the cold, I certainly had no intention of getting closer to any glacier but my adventurous daughter had wanted to, although her sensible eight year old daughter out rightly rejected the idea! But the ship went close enough for us to see it and it was really awesome.

View of the glacier from the ship

Those glaciers are the huge things that melt over centuries and create beautiful gorges and fjords.

One would have expected that the capital of this huge state would be big and blah as bureaucratic centers usually are. But it was nothing close to that, and interestingly it is located on an island with no road joining it to the mainland.

While we were there, it was overcast and a bit cold and unfortunately for the residents, the ferry operators were on strike. People therefore could only go to and from the capital by small boats and sea-planes.

 The strike was called because the Governor was trying to cut back the transportation budget for the state. According to an informant, he is a Trumpist who doesn’t care about poor people, hence his trying to reduce the ferry and other forms of transportation for the ordinary people. 

My greatest desire once on shore, was to see some bears but although we visited three temperate rain forests in which they are supposed to be prolific, escorted by with guides armed with bear spray, I never saw one live bear. 

Sea lions hanging out

I was so upset when I heard from Michelle that another passenger saw a momma bear with her three cubs just ten feet from where they were! The only thing consolation prize was the wild berries I fed on while hiking in those forests. And I must admit the information about the circle of life and the flora in the forests area, were interesting and informative.

What calmed me a bit after not seeing any bears, was when we went by a small boat up to the North Pass, to go whale watching. And we were not disappointed, as it is absolutely wonderful to see six huge whales swimming in line as if they were sent to entertain us.

A whale surfaces

 It was awesome and unforgettable, a memory I was cherish for the rest of my life.

On the way back to Haines we also saw a group of sea lions sunning themselves on a buoy without a care in the world.

Skagway, which was sunny and warm had even better weather, I was told, up to the week before when they had 20 hours of daylight there.

In Skagway, population 2000, was originally invaded and the native people displaced, when prospectors flooded the area searching for gold, before the stories that cause the gold rush turned out to be a hoax.

We went searching for bears and bald eagles there too and whereas we did see numerous eagles and their nests, no bears were in sight.

We however got a good story about a former president, Warren Harding. According to local lore, he visited the town, accompanied by both his wife and mistress. Six days after he returned home, he developed severe stomach aches and died. It is said his wife insisted that there should be no autopsy!

A beautiful glacier

I guess the moral of that story is that you should never take both your wife and mistress on the same vacation!

The only bear I saw was in a store!

Ketchikan, an attractive little town, is big into shopping.... tourist type goods. It was there we met a few young ladies from Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands who told us they travelled there each year from May to November, to work in the tourist shops. They are provided with accommodation and transportation which they say allows them to save a lot of money and really enjoy the months they spend in Alaska.

While in Ketchikan we also visited an interesting totem site and learnt a great deal about the construction and meaning of these huge monuments as well as the tribes that use them.

I  saw and reveled in so many wonderful things in a few days in Alaska, that I am prepared to say that cruise was among the best I have ever taken in my long life.

WHALES SWIMMING IN LINE

Portland, Oregon sucks but the countryside is beautiful

The view of the gorge was still great despite the smoke

I don't know who first said that you never get a second chance to make a first impression, but I was reminded of those wise words as I arrived for a short visit to August, to Portland, Oregon. For I got a terrible impression of that major US city, the minute I exited Lyft, for I found downtown dirty with numerous unkempt, apparently-homeless, mostly-white young people, either walking around or lying down the sidewalks. And this was not in some "ghetto" but right around 5th Avenue, where the Hilton hotel is located!

Vista house

Later, I walked around a bit and found a similar condition spread far and wide. I did try to think through the "dirty" aspect, by speculating that since it was a Sunday afternoon, maybe there had been a lot of recreational activities downtown, hence the garbage strewn all around. I was partially right, as by Monday afternoon when I returned to the city, the place was much cleaner but still dirtier than Seattle or Vancouver, Canada, which I had visited a few days before.

Maybe the incident on the train trip to Portland was an omen to me that things were not going to be too great once I got there, although the hotel was fine. For just around five miles outside of Portland, in the vicinity of Vancouver, Washington, the train came to an abrupt stop followed by an announcement from the engineer shortly after.

He said he could not tell us how long we would be unable to move, as the sheriff had been chasing a stolen car and it had crashed on the track, about 2 car lengths from our train. The good news, he said, was that the train did not hit the car, for if it did, we could be there overnight as it would have been an accident scene. 

Fortunately, since we didn't, we would only have to wait for a wrecker to remove the vehicle and an inspector to make sure the track wasn't damaged.

We were lucky therefore, to be able to get moving fifty minutes later!

Another observation I couldn't avoid about the city itself, was

the huge number of food carts, almost as many as one sees in Manhattan. Most of what I saw however, was promoting halaal dishes, so since I realized that this eliminated pork right away, I surely had no interest in sampling any!

To give Portland its due though, I found it to be one of the most pedestrian friendly big cities I have ever visited. The sidewalks were wide and attractively constructed out of some kind of red brick. Most traffic lights were unique too, in that pedestrians often do not have to press buttons to cross, as the walking lights just come on automatically.

Nice.

A view from the hills in the gorge

The waterfront walkway is also fabulous, like a breath of fresh air and I discovered it is the hangout for visitors and residents alike.  So I felt quite comfortable and refreshed until I saw the prominent graffiti promoting "Proud Boys," (a notorious neo-fascist group), so I made my exit.

Once I got outside of Portland however, it was an entirely different picture as the countryside is so lush and inviting, protectively surrounded by mountains.

This was the picture I got as we headed out to visit the fabulous Columbia River Gorge, just half an hour outside of Portland.

According to geologists, that gorge was created some 1400 years ago by glaciers which caused numerous mud flows and created some 300 tidal waves. But the peace and tranquility today, almost belie such a turbulent birth.

We deviated from the main road to go up to Vista House which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2018.

This property which houses a museum, gift shop and rest stop, is just over 700 feet above the main highway. It is located at Crown Point, through which you travel via a narrow winding road in a temperate a rain forest. This area can get so severely windy at times, that our guide pointed out how most of the trees have no leaves or branches and some of the huge pines even have the side facing the breeze, permanently torn off.

From that property, you get the most comprehensive and breathtaking view of the Gorge below, and

although we went there while a wild fire was raging south of us and it clouded the view below somewhat, it was still awesome. This fire was producing so much smoke though, that the normally outstanding almost 13000-foot-tall Mount Adams volcano, was barely visible.... just an outline of a few sections.

Incidentally, almost half of the Columbia River gorge was destroyed in 2017, by a wild fire which had been set by kids playing with illegal fireworks. The fire burnt fiercely from July to September and was only completely doused when the weather changed and rains and snow started to fall. Even now, the burnt trees on the hillsides can be clearly seen, for they cannot be removed, lest they cause soil erosion and landslides in the area.

This has caused almost a half of the gorges parks to be still closed to the public.

The gorge is reputed to house around 200 waterfalls, many of which freeze up totally in the winter, we were informed. However, only six or seven are accessible by motor vehicle.

The thick forest that covers most of the gorge is home to mountain lions, bears and deer and I understand when the wild fire was out of control during 2017, many animals were killed and others strayed into populated areas as they lost their homes.

I visited three waterfalls, Multnomah, Wahkeena and Horse Tail Falls, after short hikes up well marked trails. I was however far more impressed with the view from the hills than the falls themselves, as most falls in Jamaica and Guyana, dwarf those I saw.

But as you begin to ascend each of these, the view becomes even more captivating. 

A section of Bonneville Dam

As far as I am concerned though, Columbia River Falls would be one of the most refreshing, tranquil and serene places on earth, had it not been for the hordes of tourists (including me and my party!) hiking and riding to, enjoy this great gift to the state of Oregon.

Another scenic area within the Colombia River gorge, is the scenic Bonneville Dam and Lock which is managed by the US engineering corp. It generates electricity for some half million households and security there is so tight that every vehicle is searched before being allowed to enter the area.

 During our visit, we could see Sea lions hanging around in the river, waiting to gobble up the salmon and other fish which are so prolific there. They have had to set traps for them, as each one can eat its body weight in a day and some grow as large as 1000 lbs we were informed!

 So, if they are not tightly controlled, I guess the world would suffer from a severe salmon shortage.

Sea lions visible underwater as they hunt fish

A large sea lion

I am happy I decided to take the out-of-town tour to the gorge on my short stay in Oregon, for the trip did minimize the disappointment I felt with the capital city, and has even inspired me to return one day to  and see a lot more of this apparently beautiful State.