Hickory Run State Park

Hickory Run State Park, Pennsylvania (11/30/2012)

The famous Boulder Field of Pennsylvania has been on my list of hikes to do for several years now. The field is a geographic marvel, the only thing of its sort east of the Mississippi according to sources. But a couple of years ago the Boulder Field trail was closed for reasons I can't quite remember, some sort of wildlife activity (birds or mammals). Not wanting to take the easy and less exciting route (driving to the boulder parking lot and walking 10 feet to get to the boulders), I put the hike on the back burner. I wanted to approach it as an early explorer may have stumbled upon it: i.e., not via a Chevy Explorer.

A recent visit to the park website indicated no closed trails at all, so we took the day off today and drove over 90 minutes to get to the trailhead on Route 534. What we didn't expect was the amount of snow still on the trail. We wouldn't have minded much except that the boulder field was also completely covered with snow, making any attempt at exploration very dangerous. We did stray a bit into the field, but only very slowly and carefully. We never did make it to the other side where the informational kiosks apparently stand. No cars seemed to be parked at the lot on the other side, and there wasn't another soul in the entire field. After poking around for a bit we headed back and decided to do a quick visit to Hawk Falls on the southern side of Route 534.

For the boulder field we followed Hike #17 ("Hickory Run Boulder Field") in Hiking the Poconos: A Guide to the Area's Best Hiking Adventures (1st edition), though no description is really needed since it's a simple 3.4 miles in and 3.4 miles back the same way, all on the yellow trail. The next hike in the book, Hike #18 ("Hawk Falls"), incorporates a visit to Hawk Falls into a 3.1-mile loop, but we only had time to walk to falls and back.

Total distance was nearly 8 miles in 4 hours.

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