Hickory Run State Park

The boulder field was amazing! Went for Memorial Day weekend and visited the boulder field and one of the smaller trails. We went early (got there around 9am) and the trail was fairly empty, but by 11 or so the trails and boulder field were packed. Go early to beat the crowds. The boulder field is unlike anything I’ve seen before and I highly recommend it. There were a lot of kids climbing all over the boulders and they seemed to be having a lot of fun!

Both the Boulder Field and Hawk Falls are really cool, but please note that both get wicked crowded on weekends. It’s hard to take a picture of the falls, for example, when people are just camped out in them.

The peaceful wooded setting is ideal for camping. Plenty of activities to enjoy: Hiking, biking, swimming, kayaking, disc golf to name a few. Traveling over to Boulder Fields is quite a journey down a long rugged road and it is a nice way to spend sometime. It’s a unique place. The kids seemed to enjoy this, but please know this is a onetime visit-​16 acres of boulders. The «beach» is small and provided refreshment for the kids on a hot day, it’s clean, but can get a little crowded. The bathrooms at the camp sites are adequate– nothing more, nothing less. The threat of Bears make for interesting talk, but seems overdone for my taste. Happy Camping!

I would highly recommend going here for a hike /​day trip. The sights are great and it is an absolute blast. There’s also a little snack shack, bathrooms, and swimming area in the summer. Great trails, and good ones to bring your dogs on as well!

Excellent spot.
1) We first went to the Hulk Falls. It is very pretty waterfalls. Worth the visit.
2) Then went to the Boulder Field. It is a very unique spot. Loved scrambling through the boulders. Felt like a kid.
3) Plus the park is entirely free.

The store keeper has stocked this remarkable space with virtually everything and anything a park guest could ever want or need!

I was staying in the area for the weekend and since I love to hike we can here. I didn’t get to do a real hike since the people I was with didn’t feel like it but at least we got to walk around and see the beautiful foliage.
This park its huge and it took us forever to find the exit but at least we got to enjoy the scenery.
There were some people walking around taking pictures, some camping and others just walking their dogs. Overall this place its beautiful and it doesn’t matter what’s your reason to come here you will enjoy yourself.
If I ever around again I will for sure come and do an actual hike to explore what else this park has to offer.

My first time camping was here, and it was a great success! Note: don’t follow Google maps, just follow the signs on the road. Google maps wants to take you about 7 miles beyond the entrance to the campground, so don’t make that mistake!
Boulder Field was a cool sight to behold, and there was tons of hiking to be had. While hiking we stumbled upon several streams and dams and little bodies of water, which was super cool to see. We got a campsite that was right by the bathrooms, so I was happy about that. The facilities were good, and the camp shop had just about anything you could possibly need.
The negatives were that the sites were really, really close to one another, and I felt like I couldn’t really speak without worrying about one of the groups to my left or right being able to overhear me.
Overall I was pretty pleased with my time here and would recommend it.

Awesome place for hiking! Especially in the fall with the color changes.
We hiked the shades of death trail because with a name like that how can you not!?! We parked right at the park office and caught the trail head from the parking lot. It’s only a little over a mile trail but has a lot of elevation changes and some rough terrain which is why it’s designated most difficult. I’d say that if you’re even reasonably fit you’ll have no problem.
The trail is one of the most beautiful I’ve ever hiked and I’ve hiked forests all throughout the east coast in the U.S. and Western Europe. It starts off with a nice creek bed path meandering through a rhododendrons forest. The water also washes over exposed bedrock in a few spots which make for some great places for pictures and off trail exploring.
We didn’t want to hike the same trail twice so at the camp ground at the end of the trail we walked through the camp site to the sandy beach trail which is a much easier albeit slightly longer trail back to the park office.
All in with our off trail exploring and stopping to take a ton of pictures it took us a little over 2 hours round trip. My Fitbit tracked us at around 3.5 miles and about 25 floors worth of elevation changes. We were feeling it by the end but mostly because we haven’t hiked in a while.
Definitely worth checking out.

DONT GO TO THIS PARK TO CAMP! The Park «Police» here are insanely militaristic. Very very hostile. Sort of gun happy types. We were camping there this past weekend, 3 families. Not that it matters but we are all in our 40’s-50’s, doctors, chemists, engineers. And we are not at all rowdy partying types. We had our kids with us who are 12 – 14 years old. We mistakenly brought 2 bottles of wine to have with dinner Friday night (2 bottles between 6 adults) and after dinner when we were sitting around the campfire listening to the kids sing to the guitar, we notice these 2 guys in uniform with flashlights walk right up to the table. They confronted us in a very hostile way about the wine, and wouldnt leave until they watched us pour the contents out (fortunately they were empty). They then walked over to our cars and looked with their lights thru the windows. They threatened to evict us for having the ETOH. Meantime we were just quietly listening to them. NOt at all resisting them. That night in the bathroom we met several groups of people who said the exact same thing happened to them. They also felt these 2 were unnecessarily hostile. At 1am when I went to the bathroom (everyone else long asleep) there these 2 guys were, in their SUVs, with the lights off, waiting to hassle someone else. And the following night we found 1 of them standing about 12 feet away from our car with his flashlight off, trying not to be noticed, while he waited in the dark to catch someone. Creepy. Our kids were creeped out. I mentioned the whole thing to a friend who camps and she said Hickory Run is known for this. She also said she doesnt camp in PA anymore because of the antiquated ETOH laws. Sad that most folks who just like to have a glass of wine or 2 with dinner around a campfire cant in this State (where we pay our taxes). She recommended Delaware!

This is a review of Hawk Falls only!
DO NOT USE YOUR GPS OR GOOGLE MAPS TO FIND!!! I made that mistake, and it takes you to the highway above the falls. Follow the signs to Hickory Run State park, and then stop at the park office for a map, pretty easy to find after that.
There is a fairly easy trail to the falls, a bit muddy and rocky, so don’t wear flimsy shoes. Once at the actual falls, you will be treated to beautiful sounds and sites. My son and I scrambled to get in, but it was so cold, it was literally like ice, so I opted out. But the teenager scrambled to the top of the rocks and jumped in, it’s deep enough to do so. The only thing that dampened the experience is hearing the traffic of the highway near us.

This is a review of camping there… I’ve been here a few times before and the experience never seems to blow me away. The tent sites are too close together and like the site I had two weeks ago, the site was way too close to the latrine. And instead of going an extra food around to walk on the path, people actually walk straight through your campsite to use the bathroom. You’re not supposed to have alcohol in the park, but everyone seems to bring it. And good luck if you want to report loud campers in the middle of the night, because there’s no number to reach the park ranger after hours. The good part is it is a cool park and you should certainly check out the boulder field. However, next time I think I’ll camp elsewhere.

Breathtaking views! Boulder field is amazing! Great experience :)

Hickory Run State Park is a great place to take your family or to spend some time in the summer. Boulder Field is a must-​see, it is ridiculously amazing to see a field of boulders so large. Really, no review can explain it, you just have to go see it!
There’s also some really well maintained trails, plus a lake with a man-​made grade so you can wade into it. There’s a nice concession stand (only open in the summer), and a few fields where you could play football or soccer.
Getting to Hickory Run is a bit of an out-​of-​the-​way drive, but once you’re there it is a super-​cheap way to spend the day with your family, and you get to see some amazing nature as well!

The park is quite beautiful, but the scenery is not that diverse and unique. The camping site is a bit boring since this is a natural park so they don’t have a lot of services like swimming, park, tennis court, mini golf, etc. like several camp sites I’ve been before. The rangers are SUPER nice and helpful.

Amazing, amazing park. Between boulder field, the waterfall, and the amazing trails/streams…time well spent. beautiful scenery, completely free.

In the summer there’s fishing, during season there’s hunting, in the winter there’s skating… but year round, well. there’s rocks!
The main draw of this State Park is not the lake with its sandy beach, nor is it the Hawk falls; small — ish waterfalls cascading down surrounded by beautiful trees. The main draw is… get ready… a big ass boulder field.
This National Natural Landmark is more interesting than it’s impressive to look at. How it got there and what it’s doing there is cool stuff, the actual rocks, well they look the same 5 minutes into your stare as they will half an hour later. Is it cool? Yes. Breathtakingly life changingly so? Not really.
The fields stats are impressive, 720,000 square feet of rocks. but unless you are planning a 7 course elaborate picknick, or you plan to come here to go on some of the hiking trails this is not a day trip type of a thing. A 30 minute ‘this is cool’ stop on your way elsewhere is a better way to describe it.

This state park is beautiful!
We went to the park office and asked about hiking trails, the lazy working there was so welcoming and informational. I told her it’s my mom and I, a friend and her 4 year old. She recommended the Hawk trail, which is less than 1 mile (suitable for the 4 year old, although she did complain on the way back but its fine) The best part is you see this beautiful waterfall in a nice private forest like place, its absolutely stunning.
We had so much fun and would definitely come back in the future.

I like camping when it’s cold. That way I’m not pouting over the bugs attacking me. Or wondering why I’m not at the beach. Pack your toe warmers and some layers and you can be out all day.
The area I stayed had a large open field– good for everyone to get together and play some football or toss a frisbee. There are electric outlets so you can go «glamping» with your blow up air mattress and save your car’s battery. I would say that even though the camp site is remote, it’s not deep in the woods as I would like. I love not being able to hear cars drive by. This site was very open and you could basically see everybody.
Best part about this State Park is the boulder field. It’s definitely something you don’t want to miss when you’re here. It’s true, you can easily roll an ankle here, so you must be ready to jump lightly and confidently from rock to rock. It’s a fun way to hike– you’re focused on your path and the goal to make it to one end and back definitely is do-​able for a healthy individual. I would NOT recommend holding your dog on leash here. That would easily trip you up.
It was about a 2 hour drive from Philly and definitely worth it!

I didn’t grow up going to all that many state parks but I’m really beginning to appreciate the beauty surrounding the area Im originally from and how important these are to preserving the original old growth forests of PA.
Hickory Run has it all; frisbee golf, lake swimming, camping, waterfalls and of course, hiking. Then there is one of the strangest natural wonders on the east coast, the boulder field. Bring your best hiking boots for this or end up with a potential torn ACL like I’ve heard of before, I’m not even joking. We didn’t venture out too far because it seemed dangerous and I like my knees/​ankles, however the ranger told us that you could hear the water running beneath the 12 feet layer of boulders. It’s an amazing site but not for the faint of heart or children for that matter. The trek back isn’t the best on your shocks and struts either, it’s a good 10 minute drive off of 534 but still well worth it, even to take a few camera shots.
I’ve camped in a tent here before and heard horror stories from neighbors about bears being in the campsites the night prior, that’s a little creepy. The facilities are very nice and each site has an adequate fire pit. But, that may be the last time I end up in a tent here, its time to get that pop up camper I’ve always wanted. :)
There is so much to explore here you would almost need a week to hike all of the trails, see the falls and the boulder field. It’s a good weekend retreat for the urbanites though, maybe 2 hrs from both Philly and NYC. If you want to rough it but still have ameneties like showers and toilets in your camping area, this is a GREAT choice!