Delaware Water Gap NRA

[Amphibious]

We had a good family canoe and camping trip to the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area [http://www.nps.gov/dewa/index.htm]. This National Recreation Area includes nearly 40 miles of the free-flowing Middle Delaware Scenic and Recreational River. It is well set up for paddling. On the weekends in the summer there is a free shuttle service, the Pocono Pony [http://www.nps.gov/dewa/planyourvisit/parktransit.htm] which has set stops but will pick you up anywhere you flag it down. In addition, the McDade Trail is a 32-mile trail that runs along the Pennsylvania side of the the river. The trail passes through forested areas and farm fields and past views of the river and cliffs. Trailheads provide access every 0.5 to 5.3 miles. Since we were floating in the middle of the week to try and have the river as much to ourselves as possible, and only had 1 car, we used the McDade Trail to set a bike shuttle. I dropped the car off at the take out and rode back along the trail to the put it. There are numerous established river side camp sites for the overnight paddler - all well laid out here [http://www.nps.gov/dewa/planyourvisit/u ... 2COLOR.pdf]. In general the river is wide and fairly shallow as it runs through a riparian buffer. We saw a fair amount of wildlife, including 2 bear, skunk, turkey, deer, and numerous smaller vertebrates. Compared to other national scenic rivers I have floated, I would say this was one of the least scenic, but it was nice and we enjoyed the float. The thing that surprised me the most about the area were the many small side streams coming down to the Delaware off the Pocono plateau. These were gorgeous little trout streams with an amazing concentration of waterfalls. We really enjoyed short hikes to and around Dingman's Falls and Raymondskill Falls and the 3 falls in adjoining George Childs State Park. For more photos of the trip see: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vonesh-bal ... 117879122/

[Rockdoc]

Cool, I replied rather late on your original post. Glad you went. Some creek action along those rivers you mentioned. Serious stuff for sure.

The Lackawaxen in Pike County has rec releases on Fridays in the summer. You could hit that up some time.