July 8 – World’s End State Park

It was a grey and cool day when we got up but the forecast only called for a chance of rain in the late afternoon. It never did show up and right now at about 6 pm we even have a bit of sun.

Since the forecast tomorrow looked much worse we headed over to World’s End State Park to try a trail or two. The story is that the name came from early travellers coming to the edge of the steep canyon and saying that it looked like the end of the world. We never did see a view that looked that bad but then again we only went to one of the viewpoints.

After a consultation with the ranger at the park office we picked a “more difficult” trail that loops out along a stream or run. There are several trails that climb up the side of the canyon to viewpoints but they are very steep and rocky. I had checked out some other blogs and their pictures from the viewpoints showed them to be very restricted by the trees and you could only see a small portion of the Loyalsock Stream at the bottom of the canyon.

There were pictures of a reasonably good viewpoint and as a bonus you could drive to it, which is what we did to have lunch. We could, instead, have done the Canyon Vista Trail, a 4 mile 600 foot vertical looping hike to it but any description I saw only mentioned the viewpoint as a highlight.

The Double Run Nature Trail is only 1.4 miles long and climbs about 300 vertical feet. The top part of the loop follows a branch of Double Run alongside seemingly endless small waterfalls and cascades. I would rate this up there with the best of the streamside hikes that we have done.

I think in terms of the view of the run, we did the loop in the wrong direction. We did it counter clockwise, mainly because I missed the turn. It was nice that we got the steep climb out of the way quickly and then had a nice long downhill but by hiking downstream we were constantly having to turn around to see the cascades. 

There was s small outdoor chapel at the trailhead.

Heading up the stem of the lollipop path.

Our first of many stops. We scrambled around so many of the water features that it took us 2 hours to do this short trail.

It had rained (again) during the night so all the rocks and leaves were very slick. We both had to really watch our steps.

Then up we go, along the bottom of the loop.

A few muddy spots to work around.

And then back down via switchbacks.

And some final stairs.

You can barely see Jennie on the bridge. The jacket soon came off.

We arrived at Cottonwood Falls. As usual, it was much better in person.

If it had been really hot it would have been a nice place to wade into the pool.

We loved the overhang with all the drips.

Moving on.

And back to the car.

We drove up to the Loyalsock Canyon Vista. The park is not a busy place today.

And found some dry rocks to sit on at lunch.

Directly behind the vista was an area called the Rock Garden. There wasn’t much there and we didn’t stay long.

On the drive up Jennie had seen an interesting mushroom. We stopped for a closer look on the way back down.

Before heading home we stopped at the “beach”. It did not look very inviting.

Then the 10 minute drive home.