Governor Dick Reserve Mt. Gretna

Governor Dick Reserve Mt. Gretna

Today's hiking adventure took us to Governor Dick Reserve outside of Mt. Gretna in lower Lebanon County. The reserve can be accessed off Pinch Road close to where the PA Ren Faire is located shortly off the PA Turnpike. There was a shop / lodge here but it was only open Thursday through Sunday when we visited in August so we didn't get to pick up any goodies after the hike. The highlight of the trip is a firetower on top of the mountain that we called Rapunzels Tower...little did we know that it would be as challenging to climb as her tower :) Starting from the parking lot facing the visitors center we started on the trail to the left....the trail begins up a grassy hill and then enters the woods.

Nature trail to the road trail.....

Following the tower signs through the woods!

The nature trail is a short .10 of a mile...signs guide you to the main firetower road up the mountain to the left. The main trail is a stone gravel trail up the mountain about .25 of a mile....it is steep but easy walking on gravel....

Drink break halfway up the mountain trail....

Yea.....we made it! They even have benches at the top!

Beautiful sunny day for shadow watching!!!

At this point the trail continues forward along the mountain top for around another .25 of a mile and then....

In a flowery field the tower raises above the horizon!!!

Standing in front of the tower!!

The firetower is the last of what was originally 4 towers...the first three were made of wood and we plagued by vandalism and decay and were torn down in the 60's. This last tower is under park control and is maintained by the reserve. The tower stands 70-80 feet tall and has an observation deck on the top....in 1994 they added a large iron wrought steel cage on the top so there is very little chance of injury.....it was hard to believe that prior to 1994 there was no cage up there......

Warning:  So we were expecting a spiral staircase inside to climb the tower....nope.....its a series of 10 foot climbs...steel ladder and then a concrete ledge connecting to the next ladder. Since the ladderway was so skinny it actually worked out well to climb up a few rungs...prop your feet on the wall...pull the kids up to your legs and then pick them up to the ledge....it was very tedious...fun but tedious.....but....this is not to be done by the meek...it was alot of work :)

Ladders....fun fun.....!!!!

Waiting patiently on the ledge....there were about 10 total!!!!

At the top of Rapunzels Tower! Looks like 10 feet up but it is closer to 70-80 :)

From the top of the tower on a clear day such as today you can see parts of 5 PA counties...York, Lebanon, Lancaster, Schuykill and Berks.

Another beautiful view!!!

Taking in the view after a 80 foot lunch break!!

We made it back down!!!

Another view of Rapunzels Tower!!

Each one of those little windows is about 10 feet up from each other!!!

At this point we went back to the bench area at the top of the hill and then took the red diamond trail to the left. This is a .40 mile trail back down to the bottom of the hill...it is classified as Difficult but was actually a standard woods trail with some rocks scattered about...not bad at all. There were a few bouldering areas here and we stopped and bouldered!

Down the woodland red diamond trail!!!

Some small bouldering opportunities for the little ones!!

We made it up!!!

The first trail leading to the right leads back to the visitors center.....along it there are labeled tree's...bird and owl nests....and a replica coal furnace smelter.....pretty cool. The area was apparently named for a slave by the name of Dick...they nicknamed him the "governor" and he lived in this area. 

This is a replica of where the coal smelter slaves lived

The coal smelter chimney..

Nature was all around...we found a toad!!

Overview: There were lots of trails here but the main highlight was the firetower.....it is not easy to climb and could be dangerous if you have little ones that are scared doing that stuff but we had a fun time. I am glad we took the trails that we did because it took little to no time to get to the firetower and on the way back it was more stop, boulder and play. Pretty fun for the tower along but the trails were pretty simple.