Eons ago (October of 2023) in a Galaxy far far away (The Milky Way where Earth is located), I went camping with some friends on a Lord of The Rings themed camping trip and hiked Lower Shamokin Falls. This trip was Lord of The Rings themed because we ate lots of potatoes, not because we stumbled upon a dark cave housing a ring-loving goblin. However, we did see a pretty stellar waterfall just as the leaves were changing colors.
Unlike most waterfall hikes I’ve done Lower Shamokin Falls is uphill on the way to the waterfall and downhill on the way back down to the parking lot. Perfect hike for hobbits, right? When I hiked Doyle’s Falls the first time several years ago, I realized I much prefer hiking the difficult part at the start of the hike while I’m still excited and my backpack is full of snacks, because the end feels like a reward. Hiking uphill only to return to my car doesn’t fill me with quite the same amount of joy as hiking to a cool view, especially because I’m usually out of snacks. This attitude dissuaded me from embarking on waterfall hikes for many moons (like two months).
There are several ways to do this hike, but we opted to do Lower Shamokin Falls as roughly a three mile, out-and-back hike. It’s relatively moderate in difficulty; once you reach the first “big” waterfall, the route up to the higher falls is the most difficult to traverse since the trail sort of disappears. The hike is located in George Washington/Jefferson National Park, so there’s no entrance fee, and it’s dog-friendly so bring along your pups! The parking lot isn’t large, but our group of a dozen hobbits arrived mid-afternoon and found only one other car parked there.
Perhaps we happened to visit this hike on a good day, but we were rather surprised to only encounter five other people (two groups) on a warm, sunny Saturday afternoon. The trail is easy to follow (just go around the gate to start and follow the trail until reaching the pump station). You’ll want to wear boots, or shoes with good ankle support to traverse the last part of the trail, which is very rocky.
As for the family friendly part, we had a couple of littles under the age of five with us who made it all the way to the first waterfall (granted, one of them was carried on her father’s back part of the way). The hike doesn’t require any technical prowess (it is hobby-friendly after all and hobbits aren’t known for their athleticism) so it’s good for all ages as long as one is in decent health. If you’re not in decent shape, it’s a splendid hike to start getting in shape with.
Because of how pretty the leaves were in October, this is a great hike to do during autumn to witness the changing colors, or spring after a good rain. Make sure to check the weather and trail conditions before hiking as this trail could become difficult to traverse due to flooding. It had heavily rained earlier that morning before we embarked on our hobbit-themed hike and there were a number of large puddles on the trail we had to hop our way around.
Happy hiking!
