After finishing our 22 mile bike ride with Chris and Bill, the four of us walked around Ohiopyle a little bit.  We stopped in at the Falls Market Restaurant for some ice cream.  Galliker’s is the ice cream brand around here and it is very good.  With an ice cream pick-me-up, we were ready to explore a little more.  After looking at the Ohiopyle Visitors Center, we drove to Cucumber Falls and the Natural Water Slides areas.

The Cucumber Falls parking lot was full, so we pulled off along the side of the road and parked.  Then we walked down to the Cucumber Falls overlook.  The water looked so enticing on a hot summer day.  Lots of people were playing in the creek below the falls.  Because of all the rain, there was plenty of water in Cucumber Run.

We went down the steps beside Cucumber Falls to get another viewpoint on the falls.  Then we walked the short distance to the swiftly flowing Youghiogheny River.  Just standing beside water on a hot day makes you feel cooler!  This is a great place to play in the water but it gets crowded on hot summer days.

Next we went to the Natural Water Slides.  This is an area where Meadow Run carves a channel in the rocks that looks like a water slide.  There are several layers to it with the more adventurous slides upstream and the easier slides downstream.  We had so much rain lately that the water was very high.

We walked down with some local teenage boys who looked at the water and decided the volume was too dangerous to do the upstream slides.  You know it is too high to go in when the local teenage boys won’t do it!  Instead we walked along Meadow Run on the neighboring rocks, admiring the power of the water.  Then we sat beside the heaviest flow for a while, looking at the churning water.  Watching the twists and turns and folds of the water showed us how the channel was cut.  This looks like another great place to play in the water when the water level is down.

We loved seeing both of these local places and plan to visit them again.  We might even try the water slides – when the water levels go down.  It will be a fun place to bring other visitors.