The Niagara of Pennsylvania: Wild Since 1904
High in the Pocono Mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania, crystal-clear water rises through rifts in ancient rock and begins a descent that has been drawing visitors for more than 120 years. Eight waterfalls. Three hundred acres of hemlock forest. Two miles of trails, bridges, and walkways carved through one of the most extraordinary natural landscapes in the mid-Atlantic. As America marks 250 years, Aramark Destinations invites you to a place where the water has been running long before the nation began, and where the work of protecting it is as active today as it has ever been.
Bushkill Falls has been open to the public since 1904, when Charles E. Peters built a single path and a swinging bridge over the head of the Main Falls. More than a century later, the falls are still roaring, the hemlocks are still standing, and the trails are still leading people somewhere worth going.
Eight Waterfalls. One Extraordinary Gorge.
The Main Falls drops 100 feet from the rim into a deep pool banked by ferns, mosses, and wildflowers, the most dramatic single moment in a landscape full of them. Below it, the creek drops another 70 feet through a long gorge strewn with boulders the size of houses. The Bridal Veil Falls, fed by spring waters tumbling down the mountainside in three misty curtains, requires a walk deep into the hemlock forest to reach. From Pennell Falls at the top of the system to the Lower Gorge at the bottom, Bushkill Creek descends nearly 300 feet through some of the most intact forest in Pennsylvania.
The water itself tells part of the story. Little Bushkill Creek and Pond Run, the two streams that feed the falls system, originate in the highland lakes and springs of Pike County, running over shale bedrock through a forest so dense that the canopy regulates stream temperature year-round. The tannin-stained color of the water, the foam at the base of each plunge pool, the clarity that lets you count the stones at the bottom: all of it is natural, all of it is ancient, and all of it depends on the health of the hemlock forest above.
Experience History in New Ways
- Guided interpretive tours and legacy experience
- Special events and commemorative celebrations
- Property-specific stories and milestone moments
- Culinary and retail offerings inspired by local destinations
- Immersive content revealing the past, present, and future of each place
Our Promise to These Places, and to You
Landmarks of Legacy connects our destinations through three shared commitments.
Stewardship
Caring for What Endures: The hemlock stewardship program at Bushkill Falls is a specific, ongoing, scientifically managed commitment to protecting the natural system that makes this destination possible. Each year, 75 to 100 trees are treated on a rotating, bi‑annual schedule to ensure full coverage, while hemlocks surrounding the main waterfalls receive treatment annually due to their critical role in maintaining water quality. Without the hemlocks, the stream temperatures rise, the water quality declines, the soil destabilizes, and the falls over time become something diminished. The program, running continuously since 2009, is not a conservation gesture. It is the operating foundation of the park. Guests who walk the trails are walking through the result of seventeen years of active stewardship.
Stories that Shape Our Destinations
Every Landmark Has a Voice: The geological story of Bushkill Falls begins with the shale bedrock that forms the beds of the waterfalls: rock laid down in an ancient shallow sea before the Appalachian Mountains existed in their current form. The hydrological story is told in the branching network of springs and streams that converge in the Pocono highlands before beginning their descent to the Delaware River. The human story begins with Charles E. Peters, who opened the falls to the public in 1904 with a single path and a swinging bridge, and who understood that what the land offered was worth sharing. The conservation story is being written now, tree by tree, season by season, along the trails that still lead to the same falls Peters first showed his neighbors more than 120 years ago.
Experiences of Legacy
Not Spectators. Participants. The trails at Bushkill Falls are not viewpoints. They are routes through a living system - over bridges that put you at eye level with the falls, through gorges where the hemlock canopy closes overhead and the sound of the water fills every direction, past trees whose colored tags mark them as participants in an active conservation effort you are now part of simply by being here. Every visit is a contribution to the ongoing story of this place.
Give Back to the Places You Love
Through our Round Up program and other philanthropic initiatives, guests can support preservation, education, and community programs around the places we call home — helping protect these landmarks for generations to come. Because honoring legacy also means investing in the future.
Join the Journey
Landmarks of Legacy is more than a campaign. It is a movement across America's most meaningful places — a shared commitment to the destinations that shaped our nation and continue to define who we are. Learn more at landmarksoflegacy.com.