Delaware Water Gap

   

We had a three day trip planned for Philly (I'm sure I'll write some about Philly later) but by the end of the second day we were burned out. Neither Laurie nor I wanted to deal with waiting for the hop on/hop off tourist bus, parking, logistics, or being in the city. So we decided to drive to the Delaware Water Gap for a day. From Philly it was a two hour drive. We left our campsite outside Philly at 8 am due to the early morning rain shower.

   Delaware River Water Gap logistics are pretty easy. From RI/MA border it is about a four hour ride. GPS had us take I-84 through Connecticut up to the Mass Pike and drop us down I-495. I suspect if you lived in RI you'd take I-95 or I-84 to Hartford and then east on Route 6. 

The Delaware Water Gap (DWG from now on or Gap) is a 70,000 National Recreation Area. It runs north/south along the Delaware River along the northern NJ/PA border. There are two campgrounds one of them is in a state forest in NJ. At both the north and south ends of the NRA are towns that cater to tourists. There is plenty of lodging and food options. Since we stayed in Philly and came home after our day trip, we didn't need lodging. 

   I am told that during the summer all of the trailheads and riverside beaches are full by 9 AM. The area is only 75 miles from New York City. There is admission fee and you pay for a pass for certain parts of the park during the busy season. However, we did not have to pay any fees during our day April 17th visit. Also, people were pretty much nonexistent on our Monday in April. We had almost every trail to ourselves. We went to the short easy trails to waterfalls and a mountain view. I guess these trails are really popular during the summer but happily not while we were there..

  One issue with going before tourist season is the Visitor Centers were closed. Since this was an unexpected adventure, I hadn't done any real research. We had planned on going to a Visitor Center, get a map and plan our day. No Visitor Center/no Map!  I did read later you could get a map if you went to park headquarters. Also of note, I had planned to fish for American Shad, but was told we were a little early for that.

   I was told that the shad weren't around yet by a really nice ranger we ran into at a bathroom. Since he didn't have any maps with him ,we told me about multiple trails with views and waterfalls. Thanks to him we ended up with a gameplan.   

Silver thread Falls

  Okay, now that I got logistics out of the way, I can only tell you about our day. Obviously, with some research, one could plan more than we did. I'll say this, the DWG is a gem. It is worthy of us going back and it is worthy of a couple of days and not just the eight hours we spent. Of course, I'd like to go back during the shad run, but even if I couldn't fish, a trip in the fall could be glorious. 

  Not knowing the visitor center was closed we went straight for the Dingman's Falls VC about two thirds up the park coming from the south. This is where I talked to the ranger. After talking to him we walked out to the falls. The trail to Dingman's  Falls is a boardwalk. As soon as you get on it there is already a really pretty waterfall called Silverthread Falls. Honestly, once we saw this one waterfall, if we saw nothing else, we knew we made the right decision to leave Philly.

Dingman's Falls

   Further up the trail we came to the main attraction Dingman's Falls. It was a very beautiful surprise. Like everything else, we had no idea what to expect. Dingman's is a very tall waterfall and the view of it is great.

   After we left the waterfall I wanted to see the "Gap". There is a place along the river where the mountains come right down to it on both sides. This is what the area is named for. We stopped at a trailhead that goes up a mountain, but the description was that it was very steep. So we tried the mountain across the river. According to one review, the best views are from the first viewpoint. So instead of hiking to the top we only went halfway. The view did not disappoint. We hung out at the viewpoint for fifteen minutes and headed down. All total, we did about three miles on this hike. This is the longest/first hike I have done in a year, but my back felt fine. I spent the entirety of the hike trying to find Timber Rattlesnakes and Copperheads but came up short. 

Delaware Water Gap 

   After our hike it was getting kind of late. We headed to the north end of the park (closer to home) to check out one more waterfall the ranger told us about. Its name was Raymondskill Falls. It was just a short steep walk down to the falls. We were alone and if time wasn't getting away from us, we would have stayed an hour. I took some pictures and a video then enjoyed the waterfall for ten minutes. 

  Lastly, we stopped at beach at the very north end of the park. Even if I couldn't fish the river, I still wanted to touch it. I walked over to the boat ramp wishing to see a shad splash. I touched the water and we left. We filled up the gas tank in the town of Milford and made the four hour drive home. I will go back...

Below are a few more photos and a video o Dingman's Falls that is worth 15 seconds of your life. Most of them were taken with my phone