Kitchen Creek Falls

The main entrance to Ricketts Glen State Park at Lake Jean is located along PA Route 487 between the towns of Lopez and Red Rock, about 25 west-northwest of Wilkes-Barre, or 37 miles east of Williamsport (as the crow flies). However the falls below Route 118 are most directly accessed from the Evergreen Trailhead, located on the south side of Route 118 just west of the Kitchen Creek bridge, about 1.6 miles east of the junction with PA Route 487 in Red Rock. The larger Route 118 Trailhead parking area is located just to the east of the bridge on the opposite side of the road.
Kitchen Creek Falls is located directly underneath the Route 118 bridge. The best views are had from the northeast side of the bridge, looking over the falls and down into the gorge. When the flow in Kitchen Creek is low, it may be possible to wade out into the creek between Kitchen Creek Falls and Adams Falls, found just downstream, and look back upstream at the falls.Ricketts Glen State Park is as close to a Waterfall Mecca as it gets within the United States. Within the confines of the park are 24 named waterfalls and dozens of small scenic cascades in between, all but one of which can be seen via a relatively easy hike in one day. All of the waterfalls occur within the Kitchen Creek drainage, split roughly in half between two branches of the stream which originate in different lakes and marshes on the plateau above the glens, and 5 of the falls found downstream of the confluence of the two branches.
Kitchen Creek Falls is the fourth falls along its namesake stream found below Where Waters Meet, the confluence of the Ganoga Glen and Glen Leigh branches which is encountered along the Falls Trail loop., and is the upper of two falls within Kitchen Creek Gorge, located immediately below where Route 118 crosses the stream. The falls occur where the creek plunges into a 5-foot wide slot canyon carved in the bedrock directly underneath the Route 118 bridge, and both the narrow confines of the gorge coupled with the bridge overhead makes the falls both poorly lit and difficult to view most capacities. We were unable to measure the falls during our May 2018 survey of Ricketts Glen, but would estimate the drop at no more than 15 feet. Scott Brown's Pennsylvania Waterfalls book suggests the drop to be just 9 feet - this seems perhaps a little conservative to us.
The Kitchen Creek drainage above Route 118 covers an area of approximately 9 square miles in size, and includes several lakes and areas of marsh which retain ground water well even in dry periods. Though the basin is of moderately large size, the volume of water in the creek can vary substantially as the seasons progress, or as severe weather moves through. In general the streamflow will be at its lowest from late July through the end of September, but ample water will be present year round to make this waterfall presentable.Ricketts Glen was named for members of the Ricketts family who settled near Lake Ganoga in the mid-1850s and built a small hunting lodge and tavern on the shore of the lake. The family was not aware of the presence of the waterfalls on Kitchen Creek until 1865 when guests of the hotel wandered down the creek to go fishing. After serving in the Union Army during the Civil War, Robert Bruce Ricketts purchased most of the land which now makes up the park, expanded the hotel, built a lumber mill, and developed trails in the area to allow the waterfalls to be visited as attractions.

In 1913 the area was opened to the public, and operated as a private park until it reverted to state control after the Ricketts family sold the land and opened as a state park in 1943. A plan was in place in 1935 to convert Ricketts Glen to a National Park, however funding was sidetracked and thanks to financial hardships of the Great Depression and World War 2, and the National Park never came to fruition.

Twenty-two of the named waterfalls in the park were thought to be given their titles by Robert Bruce Ricketts. More than a dozen of the waterfalls were given Native American names, and several others bear the names of members or friends of the Ricketts family. Kitchen Creek Falls seems to be the one waterfall along the stream which Ricketts may not have named (though this isn't entirely clear).