Music doesn’t get any more basic than the notes you make by hitting rocks with hammers. The 128-acre Ringing Rocks Park is named for its distinctive boulders, which ring like bells when tapped. Kids will love making the rocks ring, comparing the notes, and climbing from one boulder to the next. The boulder field next to the parking lot, spread across 4 acres and surrounded by woods, formed over millions of years, as extreme freeze–thaw cycles fractured a huge block of dark volcanic rock called diabase. Why the rocks ring has been the subject of much research and even more conjecture; so far there is no definitive answer.

An unmarked but easily followed trail starts at the boulder field entrance and winds a quarter-mile through the woods down to High Falls Creek, named for the waterfall that plunges into a deep ravine. It’s the highest waterfall in Bucks County. Kids can climb down to the creek and, in drier months, even play below the waterfall. The falls offer a lesson on the dramatic geologic history of the park—kids can examine the layered rocks, where the dark volcanic rock meets the flat red shale. The trail continues along the creek down the ravine.

Both the rocks and the falls are good year-round destinations; in cold winters the falls freeze into icy beauty, and even in the driest summers,
walking in the rocky creek bed is fun. Wildflowers abound in the moist woods surrounding the ravine.

Remember: Bring a hammer and wear sturdy shoes. The trails are not stroller-friendly, and the boulder field is challenging for kids under 5.

Lake Warren (State Game Lands 56) is about a half-mile south on Lake Warren Road (off Marienstein Road) and offers fishing and hiking trails. (Wear bright colors in hunting season.)

The best option, at least in warmer months, is to bring a picnic. Otherwise, continue down Marienstein Road to Bridgeton Hill Road, where the village of Bridgeton has a general store. Just across the Delaware River, Milford, New Jersey, is a bigger town with more restaurants, or there are options along PA 611.