Last fall, while watching the Travel Channel, I was intrigued by a segment entitled “The World’s Most Unusual Travel Destinations.” Featured among them was Ringing Rocks Park, a park with boulders that actually ring when struck with a hammer! When I saw that it was in Bucks County, Pa., less than a 3-hour drive from the Baltimore-Washington region, I grabbed my hammer and was ready for a road trip!

What I discovered was a part of Pennsylvania that is rich in charm, undisturbed nature, scenery and arts. Tucked neatly within Southeastern Pennsylvania’s countryside amidst rolling hills, working farms and picturesque old-time towns, Bucks County offers visitors a peaceful respite from the city.

Ringing Rocks Park

When you first drive into Ringing Rocks Park, you will not find any “world’s most unusual travel destination” commercialism anywhere — just a good, old-fashioned beautiful park with a picnic area and two hiking trails. One longer trail leads to Bucks County’s largest waterfall. The other trail, only a short hike from the picnic area, leads to an open-air, seven-acre boulder field. No gift shops, no commemorative hammers, no entrance fee — just undisturbed boulders.
That’s the charm of Ringing Rocks Park: just put on your sneakers, grab a hammer, and have a ball climbing over the boulders and hitting them to see which ones make the best sounds. You can even ring out a little tune.

Why they ring is still a mystery. The most widely accepted theory is that the rocks themselves are composed of diabase, the same type of rock that makes up most the Earth’s crust. The boulders have a high content of iron and aluminum and were thought to have broken apart during the Pleistocene Epoch, probably about 12,000 years ago. The boulders were created through many years of freeze-thaw cycles that broke up the diabase into individual pieces. The rocks may then have accumulated in this one area as the water-saturated soil provided lubrication for the stones to creep downhill to their present location.

Whatever the reasons, visitors of all ages will be intrigued by this undiscovered gem. The park is located on Ringing Rocks Road in Upper Black Eddy, Pa. For information, visit www.unmuseum.org.

For more undisturbed beauty in Bucks County, stroll through the Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve, a 134-acre preserve with nearly 1,000 species of native plants. As you walk, relax and enjoy picturesque woodlands, meadows, a pond and Pidcock Creek, which provide a beautiful backdrop among a year-round changing collection of wildflowers, birds and wildlife. For information, visit www.bhwp.org.

How to see Bucks County

Visitors can tour Bucks County by car, trolley or riverboat on the Delaware River. For an excellent personal tour, contact Captain Dee Keller, who lives in Upper Black Eddy. He can customize a tour either by trolley or riverboat. As a local, he can drive you to covered bridges and Cuttalossa Road, the “most photographed road in Bucks County.” For
information, visit www.kellerslanding.com.

Visitors will also enjoy touring Bucks County by rail on the New Hope & Ivyland Railroad, which leaves from New Hope, Pa. The restored 1920s vintage railroad passenger coaches are pulled by historic diesel or coal-burning locomotives and will take you through the rolling hills and valleys of Bucks County. The train ride will also take you along the same historic route that was filmed in the 1914 movie series “Perils of Pauline.” Check out their fall foliage excursion weekends in October at www.newhoperailroad.com.

A Town with New Hope

Just a few miles from the site where General George Washington crossed the Delaware River sits a little town called New Hope.
New Hope played an important role in the American Revolution, when the town’s patriots provided invaluable assistance to the Revolutionaries and executed numerous military river crossings. After the American Revolution, the town became prosperous because of an entrepreneur named Benjamin Parry. When Parry’s mill burned down in 1790, it was quickly rebuilt and renamed the “New Hope Mills,” offering “new hope” to the entire town.

Today, this one-square-mile culturally diverse town is an artist’s delight. The town offers nearly 200 independently owned boutiques and galleries filled with unique shopping, live music and theater, fine restaurants and bed and breakfasts. One such B&B is Cordials, which is owned by innkeepers Bob Stephens and Ciro Colombo, who serve up a lovely breakfast on their beautiful outdoor patio, to start off your day right. For information, visit www.cordialsbb.com.

New Hope’s mark on the art and cultural world began in 1898 when nationally known landscape painters Edward W. Redfield and William L. Lathrop arrived and began to attract other artists, including Daniel Garber. Within a few years, an art colony began to form along the banks of the Delaware River, centered in New Hope. Many of these artists had prominent careers and they came to be known for a style of landscape painting called Pennsylvania Impressionism.

The New Hope Arts Center keeps the vision alive by increasing awareness and support of contemporary artists by holding exhibitions and educational programs. The center has installed more than 20 outdoor world-class sculptures throughout New Hope. For information, visit www.newhopeartsinc.org.

Walking through New Hope

The best place to start your tour of New Hope as at the Parry Mansion Museum, owned by the New Hope Historical Society, where visitors can tour the home of Benjamin Parry and four generations of his family. The tour includes 10 impressive historic rooms evoking five generations of American history, from 1775 to 1900. For information, visit www.newhopehistoricalsociety.org.

Visitors will be intrigued by the haunting and mysteries of New Hope on a Ghost Tour. Adele Gamble takes visitors on a lantern-led walk through the streets of New Hope where visitors will discover the mystery and history of New Hope.

You will learn of many sightings around town, such as at the Logan Inn, where the wrath of a Revolutionary War soldier has been sighted in the dining room, bar, basement and other rooms. If you dare, stay in Room 6, where a ghostly man’s reflection has been seen in the mirror. Fact or fiction? You decide, and oh, make sure to take a few photos — you never know what will show up!

For information, visit www.GhostToursofNewHope.com.
For information on Bucks County, visit www.VisitBucksCounty.com.

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