Yoder Falls
I finally got a chance to visit Yoder Falls. This has been on the bucket list for a while. This one certainly turned out to be the wildest adventure in a long time! Yoder Falls is one of those falls that if you don’t know it’s there, you don’t know. This is one of the many hidden Pennsylvania waterfalls. The road side falls are owned by the city of Johnstown. It’s the remnants of an old trolly line that was abandoned in 1936. The old railway bridge is still there at the bottom. What’s unique is that the trail is still there and isn’t hard to find if you know where to look. I was told from the parking lot, it’s at the 10 o’clock position and there it was, right at the 10 o’clock. The hike is straight down and treacherous! Slippery leaves and snow were on the trail so I had to take my time, which was fine because the area was breathtaking. Half way down I was able to see and hear the falls. The sound was deafening with cars racing over the Flight 93 memorial highway above. Once at the bottom there is no defined path to the falls themselves, so you have to follow the stream and make your way over a few gigantic tractor-trailer sized boulders. This is really dangerous so if you go be careful and watch your step. I attempted a few times and a few different routes. I got over the boulders but the flow was so high at the falls that I had no where to stand had I kept going. There is certainly a scramble to get to these falls. My gloves got soaked from grabbing onto wet moss and my hat fell in the water! After what seemed like forever I gave up and whet to photograph the lower half of the falls along the unnamed creek that feeds the Stoney Creek River. The flow was very high and impressive. So I guess this means I’ll be going back and seeing if I can climb all the way to where Yoder Falls starts. I’m looking forward to the next adventure there. It’s a beautiful, peaceful and a very isolated place to go to get away and have some uninterrupted time. One of the true gems of our State!