Ricketts Glen State Park. Waterfalls at. Where, when, and how to discover the best photography in America. April Published since 1989

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1 April Where, when, and how to discover the best photography in America Published since 1989 Delaware falls in Ganoga Glen , In northeastern Pennsylvania on the southern edge of the Appalachian Plateau, mountain streams have cut deep gorges through old-growth forests of pine, oaks, and hemlock. This newsletter concentrates on two fast-flowing cascades that drop a thousand feet down the Allegheny front in a series of dramatic waterfalls before they unite at the bottom and flow into the Susquehanna River. There, at Ricketts Glen State Park, is an overabundance of dramatic waterfalls, some as tall as ninety feet, which every nature photographer should discover. Learn where, when and how to enjoy a safe and successful photo adventure in the forests of Pennsylvania. Waterfalls at Ricketts Glen State Park

2 Issue page 2 THE HISTORY In the 1890s, Robert Bruce Ricketts, a Civil War veteran with the rank of colonel, made his fortune logging 80,000 acres in a remote, mountainous area of northeastern Pennsylvania. He spared two thousand acres of virgin forest around mountain glens filled with magnificent waterfalls, for a state hunting preserve. The depression ended plans to make the area a national park in the 1930s. Pennsylvania began buying and adding more land to create Ricketts Glen State Park in THE ROUTE If you drive to Ricketts Glen State Park from the East or the West, follow Interstate 80 to Bloomsburg, PA. Take Exit 236 and drive north 28 miles on Route 487 to the park entrance. Fly into Wilkes Barre (pronounced Wilkesberry)/Scranton Airport and rent a car. Leave the airport and drive 30 miles west on Highway 118 to the park. For a better choice of lodgings and other services, drive south to Interstate 80 then head west to Exit 236. Head north on Route 487 to the park. If you plan to stay a few days, you ll find a good selection of motels and restaurants near Bloomsburg, PA, at Exit 232. It s a 28-mile drive on two-lane rural roads from Bloomsburg to Ricketts Glen State Park. There are 120 campsites on the edge of Lake Jean and ten modern rental cabins in the park at Ricketts Glen. If you are not a camper, plan to drive thirty miles each way, to and from the park on the days you visit. The park entrance is off Route 487, five miles north of Highway 118, a steep 18% grade for much of the distance. A visitor center sits back in the trees near the entrance. To get to the waterfalls, drive one mile down the paved road, along Lake Jean, to a sign marking a right turn to the Rose Lake parking lot and the Falls Trail, the shortest hike to the nearest waterfall. To find a parking space on summer weekends, arrive early for one of the fifty available spaces. Park in the Rose Lake lot where you will find drinking water, restrooms, a rain shelter, and a large trail map carved into a wooden panel next to the trailhead above Ganoga Glen. Lock all the gear you plan to leave behind in the trunk of your car. THE SEASONS In late April, most of this forest s deciduous hardwoods have no foliage to block your view of the waterfalls. The vistas are not all monochromatic. Spring color is provided by ferns and moss growing on the walls of the glens and the many large evergreens pines and hemlocks. In early spring, the streams are at their fullest and the falls are most dramatic. A loud and constant roar is heard. After heavy winter rains, too much water can be flowing over the falls. On my rainy day hikes in the park, I saw several photographers carrying umbrellas to protect cameras on tripods. Delaware Falls , Through the middle of summer, the bugs are at their worst and the trails are filled with tourists. The campgrounds are open and rental cabins are available for visitors. By autumn, the summer crowds have gone, the falls have almost dried up, and the constant roar heard in the spring is gone. That s when a 4-stop (1.2) neutral density filter is useful. With much longer exposures, a few small trickles multiply to give the appearance of more water

3 Issue page 3 flowing over the falls. The peak of autumn color usually arrives in this park around the middle of October on the birch, beech, cherry, maples, and oaks. The park is open through the winter for cross country skiers, ice fishing, snowmobiling, and winter camping. The Falls Trail is closed by snow and ice through the winter. It is accessible only to hikers experienced with using crampons, an ice ax, and climbing ropes. The Falls Trail opens sometime in April. Which day depends on trail conditions. THE GEAR Ricketts Glen has been on my must-do list for years. Because of all the hiking, I packed lightly for this trip. I removed the center column from my carbon fiber Manfrotto tripod and packed my super-light Acratech ball head. A mm zoom was useful. My mm zoom lens was indispensable. Pack your shortest lens. I did not bring my mm telephoto and did not miss it. I bought a lightweight day pack with space for a poncho, my Nikon D300s with a cable release, a 1.2 ND filter, water bottles, trail mix and a couple of oranges. In a small plastic zip-up sandwich bag, I carried eighty gigabytes of digital memory. That s ten media cards. The D300s has slots for two media cards one CF and one SD. I can fill an 8-gigabyte card in one day. Even if a card is not full, I switch to a new card each day just in case of a problem. I don t want to lose several days work because of one bad card. I carried a Sony micro-cassette recorder in my pocket. That s all I needed. Trail maps are available in boxes at all the trailheads. Every time I photographed another waterfall, I made one extra exposure that included the trail map with my finger pointing to the name of the falls and its location on the map. This is a quick and easy way to attach the correct caption to each photo later. I packed both my heavy-duty waterproof hiking boots for the sunny days and my extra heavy duty, hiking boots for the rainy days. Both were well used. Lightweight and collapsible walking sticks can be very useful on these trails. I used my tripod as a walking stick. River hiking boots with sticky rubber soles and drainage holes are perfect for summer hikes through Ricketts Glen. When the water level is lower, you can walk out into the stream to find the best location for your tripod, directly in front of the waterfalls. THE LAYOUT Two streams drop from 245-acre Lake Jean. One flows down through Ganoga Glen; the other flows down Glen Leigh (we call them canyons out west). The streams, both branches of Kitchen Creek, cascade down two canyons/glens that converge at a point called Where Waters Meet. The total drop in elevation from Lake Jean to the bottom of the last waterfall is 1,240 feet. The entire loop trail, from top to bottom and back, is called the Falls Trail and is 8.2 miles long. There are 22 named waterfalls, and many smaller unnamed falls, that are accessible by the Falls Trail. In all of Pennsylvania, there are over 170 significant waterfalls, big waterfalls. The best are concentrated right here at Ricketts Glen. The Falls Trail is shaped like a giant Y that is connected at the top by the Highlands Trail. Park at the Rose Lake parking lot at the top of the West side of the Y or at Beach Lot #2 at

4 Issue page 4 the East side of the Y. Stay on the well-marked trails and you won t get lost. Each waterfall is identified with a small sign and large maps are posted at each trailhead. The Falls Trail closes at sunset. Pack a small flashlight. From either parking area, you can hike down to the confluence and back in 4 hours. If you hike down to the confluence and back up the other side, you will have to walk one extra mile back to your car. Allow 6-7 hours for the 3.2- mile upper loop and you ll have plenty of time to photograph every waterfall you see. The bottom stem of the Y passes three more waterfalls before reaching the Evergreen parking lot, on the edge of Highway 118. Adams Falls, at the very bottom of the falls trail, is a 36-foot drop through a narrow, twisting gorge. Adams Falls can be reached via the shortest trail of all only two hundred feet long. This is the only waterfall that can be visited during winter months, when the Falls Trail is closed by snow and ice. The Falls Trail re-opens sometime in April. You will need to decide whether you want to finish a long day of hiking with an uphill trek or a downhill trek. THE CAUTIONS Solid hiking boots with an aggressive rubber tread pattern for good grip on slippery stones are a must. High top boots are best if you have weak ankles. Street shoes with flat leather soles are dangerous on these trails. Sandals and tennis shoes with flat soles are too slippery on the wet stone stairs. You should be in good physical condition and understand the hazards that can be encountered on these strenuous trails. Be careful and you will enjoy some wonderful photography. Watch out for the small orange and red salamanders on the trails. THE HIKES From the Rose Lake parking area, it s an easy ten-minute walk from your car, down the trail, across a small bridge, past a series of small cascades where the roar of the falling water starts. The photography begins just above Mohawk falls where the stream narrows and twists down a slope to strike a flat stone in midstream and create a standing wave. You can hear Mohawk falls below this spot the first waterfall at the top of the Ganoga Glen trail. Adams Falls , Allow 8 to 10 hours to hike the entire falls trail and return to your car. If you and a friend arrive in two cars, leave one at the bottom and drive the other to the upper end of the trail. If you arrive alone, with only one vehicle, break your Falls Trail hikes into three one-day sections. Starting from either of the upper parking areas, hike down to where the waters meet at the confluence, and then hike back up the same trail to your car. It will take a little longer to hike down to the confluence and then hike back up the other canyon. Several trails and a paved road connect the two upper parking lots. Mohawk Falls , To frame the whole width of the falls, I backed off with a 24 mm lens and included the stone steps climbing the left side of the falls. A 10 mm wide-angle captured the whole width of the falls and more of the stairs. There was too much spray to get close to the base of this waterfall.

5 Issue page 5 Mohawk drops ten feet, makes a turn, and then cascades down a stair-step slope, for a total drop of 37 feet. Below the falls, the stream splits and flows around a long wooded island. Like other waterfalls in this park, a bare stump is trapped on the near side of the cascade. Find a spot for your tripod on the upper stairs where you can crop it out of your photograph. These stairs drop over fifty feet to a level trail covered with large gray flagstones (the local Pocono sandstone) to the next waterfall. Kitchen Creek flowing through Ganoga Glen Halfway between Mohawk and Oneida, a steep and narrow side stream cascades down through the woods to join Kitchen Creek. My photograph of this spot included lots of foreground textures in the jumble of rocks and a bright yellow fallen hemlock rotting away on the near edge of the stream. A small aperture gave me the depth-offield necessary to maintain sharpness through this large scene. A side stream joins Kitchen Creek Oneida Falls , Oneida makes a clean drop of 13 feet over a deeply undercut ledge. It can be framed nicely with several hemlocks from a spot a hundred feet farther down the trail. This waterfall made a moody photograph in dense fog on my first day in this park. It rained the next day and then the sun came out for a few hours before clouds moved in for the rest of the week. Waterfalls are best photographed on cloudy or rainy days. Waterfalls always look better and photograph better in the fog or rain. To make the most of unpredictable weather conditions, I am always ready for the worst which would be clear skies, a sunny day in a forest full of frothing waterfalls, and extremely contrasty lighting. Eliminate these exposure problems with HDR, a solid tripod and a cable release for the multiple exposures. I used my tripod for every exposure I made. The very fast quick release on the Acratech ball head makes it easier to use a tripod. My camera was usually carried in my backpack. When I carried my camera attached to the tripod, I wrapped a plastic bag around the camera to keep it dry. Many of these waterfalls are named for Indian tribes. Some are named for Colonel Ricketts relatives and friends. Cayuga drops 11 feet and then splits to pour around a small island in the stream. My favorite viewpoint was close to the rocks beside the trail at the top of the cascade using a 10 mm lens,

6 Issue page 6 down close to the water on a collapsed tripod. Arrive here in the summer, or later in the year, and lower water levels will allow you to move much closer to the edge of the waterfalls and even out into the middle of shallow streams on gravel bars. Ganoga Falls , Ganoga, the tallest waterfall in the park, drops through a narrow chute to fall 94 feet down a stair-step cascade. The view from the top is disappointing. The trail makes several steep switchback turns and drops to a perfect vantage point near the bottom. You will notice that, since there are no guardrails anywhere in this park to keep you on the stairs and trails, there will be no guard rails in your photographs. When Ganoga is full, a powerful wind is generated by the rush of falling water, blowing a cold mist of spray down the canyon. Stand below this waterfall with an upturned camera and your lens will be drenched in an instant. This is especially bad with a super-wide lens because every drop will be sharply rendered. Move downstream until you no longer feel the mist on your face and you will be as close as you can safely set up your camera. My pockets were filled with small 8 x 8 pieces cut from a large, good-quality chamois, perfect for quickly drying a lens or a wet camera. Seneca falls drops 12 feet, then cascades through a point in the canyon where a very narrow trail clings to the rocky edge of a vertical canyon wall, just a few feet above the rushing stream. There are two small islands in the chute below Seneca and just above Delaware. This short stretch of trail opens to a widening canyon view above Delaware Falls. Delaware appears to be the widest waterfall in this park. Few trees block the view of this 37-foot fall from the trail. There are several good tripod locations along the trail that circles the edge of the widening stream below Delaware. I needed my 10 mm lens to frame the rim of this waterfall. When the sun broke through the clouds for a few moments here, I made several bracketed exposures to control the contrast. HDR techniques can save the day when your exposure range from shadows to highlights stretches to over five stops. Sometimes, when broken cloud cover gives you both clouds and then sun, it s easier to wait a few moments for the next cloud to pass over. HDR will give you good shadow detail in the forest while preventing blown-out details in foamy-white cascades. A long exposure of Kitchen Creek The stream between Delaware and Mohican is a short and steep chute, making it seem that they are one long waterfall. Mohican falls 39 feet at a point where a small seasonal side stream flows under a trail bridge to join Kitchen Creek. Fallen logs block the view of this side stream. There are two good flat spots for different views below Mohican.

7 Issue page 7 The trail below Mohican follows closely to the edge of the stream for a long, level walk down to Conestoga, a 17-foot cascade that is solid white when spring runoff fills Kitchen Creek. One good cascade is in the middle of the long downhill walk from Conestoga falls down to Tuscarora falls, a 47-foot cascade dropping over three layers to a clean drop at the bottom. If the spray is light, there is a good spot for your tripod at the base. Erie is the tenth and last waterfall at the bottom of Ganoga Glen. This waterfall is best photographed from the edge of the narrow trail near the top where the steps are small and steep. Too much spray soaks the lower trail below Erie falls. The canyon narrows below this 47-foot waterfall, making access to the stream difficult along the bottom of the Ganoga Glen Trail. Morning fog in Ganoga Glen Three hundred feet below Erie falls, a footbridge spans the stream at the bottom of Ganoga Glen and Glen Leigh, the junction of both trails. At the junction, look up Glen Leigh and see Wyandot Falls cascading down to a final drop of 18 inches over a straight ledge and into Kitchen Creek. A longer lens, in the 50-to 100-mm range, is necessary to shoot this scene across the 40-foot wide stream. I made four exposures here to merge later into a panoramic image showing the full width of this scene. One of the few benches along the Falls Trail sits here, facing the bottom of Glen Leigh and the cascades below Wyandot Falls dropping into the meeting of the waters. Standing on the bridge Where Waters Meet At this point, turn around and hike back to your car at Rose Lake, or cross the footbridge and head up Glen Leigh to photograph eight more waterfalls. You can access eight waterfalls in Glen Leigh by starting your hike at the top or the bottom. Both canyons are similar. Glen Leigh has fewer but more dramatic falls. The smaller cascades are well defined and easier to approach than those in Ganoga Glen. Ganoga Glen is longer with a tight bend in the middle and several smaller cascades. Start at the top of each trail and walk down as far as is comfortable for you. Mohawk is ten minutes down stream from Rose Lake. Onondaga Falls is thirty minutes down Glen Leigh. If you reach a point where you do not feel comfortable going any farther, turn around and head back but not before photographing the scene that stopped you. GLEN LEIGH Six footbridges span the stream down Glen Leigh. There are no fallen logs to walk and no rock-hopping across any stream. The trail switches back and forth, from one side of the stream to the other, following the easiest route through the deep canyon. Many stone steps climb from the base of a waterfall to the top. I find that climbing up is easier than climbing down these stone steps. Some are so steep you can use upper steps as handholds on the way up. You can t do that on the way down.

8 Issue page 8 If you want to hike down Glen Leigh, park at the large parking lot at the end of the road near Beach #2. Walk back down the entrance road two hundred feet and turn left at the sign marking the Fall Trail. This trail passes two of the ten rental cabins available in this park and then leads past a large trail map carved into a wooden signboard. From that point, it s ten more minutes, downhill, to a sign marking the right turn onto the Glen Leigh Trail. there are more cascades to fill the foreground of your images. Even with Kitchen Creek at its fullest, a photographer can climb down close to the edge of the stream at a number of places with a wide-angle lens to fill a viewfinder with cascades crashing from the base of some dramatic waterfalls. You can easily spend an hour photographing this one waterfall. Along the stream down Glen Leigh, the rocks are mostly flat. Even the small bits of gravel in the stream bed are thin and flat. Round stones and gravel can roll beneath your feet. Leaving the trail and hiking close to the edge of this stream feels safe with this firmer footing. Onondaga Falls , One half-hour from your car, the Glen Leigh Trail crosses over the first of six wooden footbridges in this glen. Onondaga, the uppermost waterfall in Glen Leigh, cascades over four ledges and falls 15 feet. There is a good spot for your tripod halfway down the wooden Below Onondaga Falls stairs. Several more vantage points are farther down at the base, where you can frame this waterfall with large, overhanging hemlocks. As you walk farther downstream from Onondaga, Cascade below F.L. Ricketts Falls Just above the next waterfall, the trail crosses another bridge over the stream. On the other side of this bridge, a sign marks a shortcut to the Highland Trail, leading back to the Rose Lake parking lot. The 1.2-mile Highland Trail climbs gradually to the summit where the trail passes through Midway Crevasse, a narrow gap between large blocks of Pocono sandstone on its way to the Rose Lake parking lot. A 38-foot waterfall, named F.L. Ricketts for a relative, is the second waterfall down the Glen Leigh trail. This is an evenly-spaced, stair-step cascade, not a graceful drop. Several large hemlocks have fallen next to the cascade. If they spoil the photographic possibilities for you, climb down to the base of this waterfall and shoot over the fallen logs. You can reach a short trail leading back to the far side of this waterfall by crossing the next bridge downstream and following a trail that leads back to the base on the other side of Kitchen Creek.

9 Issue page 9 When fallen logs are wet, they appear dark and less noticeable against dark stone canyon walls. Hemlock trees have no taproot, and most on this mountain are growing in a shallow layer of topsoil atop solid rock. Strong winds blow down more every year. Ozone Falls , The trail that continues downstream below F.L. Ricketts is roughly paved with large, flat gray stones that appear to be cut from the ledges protruding from the canyon walls. Watch for a small island that splits the stream above the next waterfall. Proceed cautiously down the steep, stone stairs that wind down to the base of Shawnee falls, especially when they are wet. Shawnee, the third waterfall in Glen Leigh, falls 30 feet, in two drops, into a large pool that is filled with logjams. At the bottom of Shawnee, there is a large, flat ledge where you can set up your tripod to find the best composition for a photograph of this waterfall. Just below this ledge is Huron, the fourth waterfall. The stream plunges 41 feet, then turns and pours through a deep and narrow chute that is narrowed even more by several fallen logs. The stream straightens again for two hundred feet before pouring over one more flat ledge to create a wide fan effect with falling water. Look carefully and you will see small brown signs with yellow lettering that identify most of the named falls. Crop them out or remove them later with Photoshop. Much of the trail between Huron and Ozone Falls was improved in Large flat stones now cover the formerly muddy pathway. The long stretch of stream between Huron and Ozone is filled with many small cascades that need a short telephoto lens to frame properly. Watch your head as the trail passes under overhanging stone ledges a hundred feet upstream above Ozone. This 60-foot waterfall was named for Colonel Ricketts Wilkes Barre hiking club. With a longer telephoto, shoot several more cascade patterns by looking upstream from the middle of the bridge. When shooting from these bridges, wait for other hikers to move off your bridge to reduce any camera movement whether you are using a tripod or not. From the bridge above Ozone, the trail climbs higher up the canyon wall, then descends several flights of stone steps to stream level at the base of this waterfall. A hundred feet below the bottom of Ozone, the stream makes a clean drop of four feet and then continues dropping over more slides Near the base of Ozone Falls downstream. Photographers can find some easily-accessed spots for a tripod below some small, fan-like cascades. Working your way down the trail, shoot from below each cascade using your wide-angle lens in a vertical format to frame Ozone falls framed by the bridge above and the cascades below. The best cascades in this park are found below Ozone falls.

10 Issue page 10 R.B. Ricketts Falls , R. B. Ricketts, the next waterfall down Glen Leigh, can be photographed from the middle of the next bridge, just below the 36-foot falls. If the large, fallen tree spoils your composition here, move to the left and try a vertical format to crop it out. With a 20 mm lens, I included a narrow cascade just above the bridge. Near the bottom of the trail down Glen Leigh, B. Reynolds plunges cleanly over a single 40- foot drop. In early spring, the stream fills the full width of the chute. Late in the autumn, a thin trickle pours over the rim. There are good tripod locations at the top, the middle, and the bottom of this waterfall. B. Reynolds Falls , Most successful photographs of streams and waterfalls are taken with a camera pointing upstream. When you are hiking downstream, stop frequently, turn around, and look upstream. It s easier hiking downhill, but I always spot more photo opportunities while heading upstream. Over the sixth bridge, the trail crosses the stream to the West side of Wyondot falls, a shear drop of 15 feet. You can include this waterfall and the bridge above it in a photograph taken downstream, from below the junction of both branches of Kitchen Creek, along with all the cascades below the falls. The last cascade drops eighteen inches in a straight line across the bottom of Glen Leigh. When you reach the spot where both canyons meet, cross the bridge and stand Wyandot Falls , near the large wooden trail map to shoot a 180 panoramic image looking from upstream to downstream. Merge these images later using Photoshop to create a seamless panoramic photo of the Meeting of the Waters. Take a lunch break on the bench at the bottom of Glen Leigh before deciding whether to hike back up Glen Leigh or climb the trail up Ganoga Glen or continue downstream to photograph three more waterfalls. Take a whole day hiking from Rose Lake, down Ganoga Glen and then up Glen Leigh to the Highland Trail and back to you car. The next day, start at the Beach #2 parking lot and hike down Glen Leigh and return by hiking up Ganoga Glen. You will be able to see many more photo possibilities by traveling in both directions and seeing each waterfall from new angles.

11 Issue page 11 THE LOWER TRAIL The lower part of the Falls Trail follows Kitchen Creek as it passes through Ricketts Glen, named for Robert Bruce Ricketts. Park at the Evergreen parking lot down on the edge of Route 118. From there, it s a mile-and-a-half upstream hike to three more waterfalls that are definitely worth a visit. Harrison Wright Falls , Harrison Wright, one of the most beautiful shear drops in the park, is ten minutes below the spot where the waters meet. My favorite tripod spot is halfway down the trail, in the middle of the stone stairs that climb to the top of this 27-foot waterfall. Sheldon Reynolds drops over three levels with a 15-foot upper drop and two more, smaller drops for a total of 36 feet. Murray Reynolds corkscrews 16 feet down a chute to spray over a wide stone slab and drop into a pool just above a gravel bar at the bottom. This is the first waterfall you will encounter when hiking upstream from the Evergreen Trail parking area on Route 118. AN EASIER BUT LONGER HIKE If you like the idea of starting a hike at the bottom so that you can stop when you are tired then turn around and walk back downhill to your car in the parking lot, it is possible at Ricketts Glen. The Evergreen Trail parking lot is 1.6 miles east of the Red Rock General Store located at the junction of Route 487 and Route 118. The Falls Trail follows a tranquil lower stretch of Kitchen Creek through an old-growth forest of pines, oaks and hemlocks. At a marked trail junction, you have a choice of continuing along the edge of the stream (the difficult trail) or bearing left and climbing a short distance to a parallel trail (the moderate trail) that follows an upper ridge. Both trails meet at the first waterfall. Follow the edge of the stream on the way in and take the easier trail on the way back. A walk of over a mile will take you to Murray Reynolds and Sheldon Reynolds falls and then to Harrison Wright falls, one of the most beautiful falls in the park, in the middle of Ricketts Glen. It is 1.8 miles from the Evergreen parking lot to the trail junction where the waters meet. Just a few feet from the Evergreen parking lot, the stream drops over a ledge and Kitchen Creek falls plunges under the highway. Adams falls is farther downstream from the highway and is a 200-foot walk from the lower parking lot, the easiest and shortest waterfall hike in this park. The best viewpoint is reached by climbing down to the bottom of the stone stairs and walking a hundred feet farther down the trail to cross a bridge over the stream. At the far end of the bridge, turn left and head up through the trees to a point on the ridge directly facing Adams falls. On the first day of May, red trillium, common in hemlock groves, were blooming along the Evergreen Trail below Adams falls. MORE WATERFALLS The waterfalls in Pennsylvania s Ohioplyle State Park and Worlds End State Park, plus Falling Water, Frank Lloyd Wright s design for a custom-built home, built on a waterfall in the Pennsylvania woods, should be added to your list of places to photograph. Those spots and more are included in my newsletter #97. Murray Reynolds Falls ,

12 Beach #2 on Lake Jean in Ricketts Glen State Park The campgrounds on Lake Jean in Ricketts Glen State Park have facilities with hot showers and flush toilets. Dogs are permitted at some campsites. Reserve a campsite and photograph the sun setting across Lake Jean. Red canoes can be rented on the beach. Campsites and cabins can be rented up to eleven months in advance. They fill quickly for summer dates. For Ricketts Glen State Park Information call: You can get information about camping and make online campsite reservations or cabin rental reservations at: or call PA-Parks 7 am to 5 pm Eastern Time Monday to Saturday Have a great trip and send me an ! My life-long career in photography began at San Jose State University in After college, I enlisted in the U.S. Army Signal Corps, serving as a photographer and darkroom technician. In Germany, my skills and experience with equipment and lab work were developed and polished. I took the opportunity to photograph the beauty of nature in the Black Forest. Returning to California in 1965, I produced industrial and military training films for Raytheon Electronics and began showing my color nature prints. From 1969 through 1981, my photography was exhibited and sold in West Coast galleries. During the early 1980 s, I taught color darkroom workshops, then expanded to include field trips. Former customers, who had purchased my framed photographs, wanted to learn photography. My Pacific Image Photography Workshops offered adventures to the Pacific Coast, the Southwest deserts, national parks, Hawaii, New England, Canada, England, and the South Pacific. The workshops evolved into writing and sharing my adventures with others. Photograph America Newsletter provides information on where, when, and how to discover the best nature photography in North America. Photograph America Newsletter is published quarterly (four issues/year) by Robert Hitchman assisted by technical associate/wife, Katherine Post Office Box 86, Novato, CA All contents of this newsletter copyright Robert Hitchman Please don t make copies for your friends. This is a violation of Federal copyright laws. This newsletter survives on subscriptions.