outdoors.org/resources/amc-out…st-popular-hiking-trails/

<snip>

The trail to Pennsylvania’s Glen Onoko Falls became a victim of its own success.

Widely considered one of the best waterfall hikes in the East, this short, steep trail leading to a series of falls—including the namesake Glen Onoko—is now closed to visitors. The Pennsylvania Game Commission, which manages the land on which the trail is located, closed access on May 1, 2019, over safety concerns and repeated rescues. Visitors who ignore the directive can be fined for trespassing.

On a route estimated to take less than an hour, Glen Onoko visitors were rewarded with four waterfalls, including the eponymous highest, plus another that, thanks to a natural grotto, hikers could walk behind. But poor trail conditions, combined with hikers venturing too close to steep dropoffs, led to numerous accidents, often involving complicated and costly rescue efforts. Last spring, The Morning Call, a local newspaper, tallied 14 medical emergency events involving 18 Glen Onoko visitors since 2008—including seven deaths.

Mike Beahm, a land management supervisor with the Pennsylvania Game Commission, says the agency installed multiple warning signs and ropes over the past couple of decades to keep people back from hazardous drops, but the serious accidents continued. Eventually, Beahm says, the risk outweighed the benefits, with first responders reporting difficulty in reaching rescuees, the complexity of some rescue efforts, and the labor needed to carry victims down steep embankments.