Poconos / Delaware Water Gap info needed

My husband and I will be travelling from Gettysburg PA home to the Boston area. We'd like to break up the trip by spending a night in the Pocono area.

- Any suggestions for 2-4 hour hikes in that area?
- Is Highpoint State Park worth a visit?
- If we drive home thru the Water Gap, which side is the more scenic - PA or NJ? Our goal will be to pick up I84.

So many questions! And we have so little time. Thanks for any help you can provide.

If you have the time, Mt Tammany is a great hike with great views of the water gap and Mt Minsi. In PA, Mt Minsi is a nice hike too with views from the opposite side. Both are close to the AT, the AT crosses the delaware river on the south side of the I-80 overpass.. and on the PA side there is a place you can buy ice cream and stuff before you hit Mt Minsi.

If you're looking for some non hiking ideas, check out the Lakota Wolf Preserve in NJ side (you can surely google it) for some cool wolfs and stuff.

Both sides are scenic, I'm not sure the status of the backroads to High Point given Sandy/Irene, I think they are open now but I would check... I'm sure there are a lot of nice backroads on both sides of the delaware...

High point is cool and so close to I-84 it would be worth the detour as you just head north on Rt 23 into Matamoras and eventually you'll hit I-84 (Make sure you get gas in NJ before you go into NY)..

High point is right off Rt 23 and is the state high point so that would satisfy the peakbagger in you. but again the AT goes close to it so you could hike out along the AT and then back or any of the other trails in the area...

Jay

I was at the Lakota Wolf preserve a few weeks ago. The wolves are gorgeous. There are also foxes and bobcats (all are separate). The couple who run the preserve are really selfless and love what they do.

Thanks Jay and daxs. Have been researching these great options. Will plot them on a map and plan out a route. We're going June 15, so we have plenty of time to prepare.

High Point is worthwhile & trails are there including the AT. Can park up top and hike up there. Trails around Bushkill Falls which is a tourist type area but worthwhile especially with kids.

http://www.summitpost.org/high-point-new-jersey/152438

http://www.njhiking.com/best-hikes-in-nj-high-point-monument-trail/

http://www.state.nj.us/dep/parksandforests/parks/highpoint.html

http://americasroof.com/

Nice pix of Ktaadn amd Mt Wash on the america's roof page. The roads are open, and the AT goes over the top of High Pt (well, not over the obelisk).

The road along the river (mostly Rt 209) from Stroudsburg to Milford is gorgeous, goes right along the river, mostly, through the Del Water Gap NRA. Interesting story of why it exists (would have been all under a big lake if a planned dam had been built, but advocacy saved the day). We drove it dozens of times when we lived in Central MA and our family was in Bethlehem PA. Lots and lots and lots of deer... might want to do this one in daylight to avoid Bambi in your grill.

The Army Corps of engineers was going to build a dam at Tocks Island - supposedly for flood control. The govenrment bought alot of land in the 1960's along the river. It was not a popular project. Demonstrations, petitions. etc. If I remember, the US government got involved in a war and money dried up. In the end due to lack of money and the unpopularity of the dam, the Feds made the area into a national park. I was a young girl when all this was happening. I'm from Bethlehem PA, weatherman

Very cool- small world Carol. We had family reunions at Shawnee every 3 years for about 4 cycles- from what I understand it would have been underwater if the dam had been built. I helped get 10 or so relatives "lost" (they thought they were, but they weren't really) on Mt Tammany during reunion #1.
My inlaws and brother-in-law moved to FL then we moved to CO, so we haven't been to "Betlum" in 4-5 years. Miss the trees and humidity- to a certain extent!

Chris

The AT north of the gap goes over a ridge line that was slated for a major development. In many spots you can see where phone poles were sawed off at the ground and in couple of spots there are obvious former model home sites with overgrown flower beds and roses. Sort of bizarre.

By the way, 209 along the river from the interstate is very scenic drive bu extremely slow and loaded with deer. I drove throuhg it one evening and about all I could drive was 25 MPH due to constant deer in and just off side of the road. Took me a lot longer than I thought to to take a "shortcut"

I've never been to High Point State Park, but I have been following the hydrofracking news and it's my understanding that there is clear cutting for a gas pipeline currently underway in the park and across the Appalachian Trail in that area. It wasn't clear from a quick look at the parks website whether any trails were closed or not.

We hiked Mount Tamany last year and it was lovely. Some of the overlooks bear very stong resemblence to the view down Franconia Notch. As the signs say, beware of rattlesnakes! Don't worry, we didn't see any of them. Additionally, we spoke with a person who has hiked Tamany dozens of times over twenty-five years and he had only seen two. But then again, he almost stepped on one of them it was camoflaged so well...

peakbagger said:

The AT north of the gap goes over a ridge line that was slated for a major development. In many spots you can see where phone poles were sawed off at the ground and in couple of spots there are obvious former model home sites with overgrown flower beds and roses. Sort of bizarre.

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Actually, the area you are referring to, around Crater Lake, was developed. These were 3 and 4 season homes, 27 or 28 in total. During the planning of Tocks Island Dam (and the subsequent flooding, the homes were mostly bought by the Federal government, and the remaining were taken by eminent domain. Then, this area was essentially bulldozed, and all power lines were removed, and poles were cut down. There is one homestead that didn't get bulldozed, for reasons unknown to me, and locals refer to it as the Chaplains cabin. You can still walk inside the cabin, but it's dangerous, the floors are rotted and there are holes (you can literally fall from the 2nd floor to the basement. Sadly, the place is a real mess ...... graffiti all over the walls, broken glass, condoms, old mattresses, and beer bottles now litter the floors. This community is at high elevation, and would not have been actually underwater, but was within the "buffer zone" of the recreational lake that would have been created. According to a ranger whom I spoke with many years ago, the AT, (which is only about 300 feet from the north side of the lake), would have been just another 200 - 300 hundred feet above the water line!

jrgagne99 said:

As the signs say, beware of rattlesnakes! Don't worry, we didn't see any of them. Additionally, we spoke with a person who has hiked Tamany dozens of times over twenty-five years and he had only seen two. But then again, he almost stepped on one of them it was camoflaged so well...

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I've hiked Mt Tammany well over a hundred times, maybe two hundred times, and have never seen a rattlesnake. I'm not saying they are not there, .... just saying it's unlikely you'll see one. I've only seen 2 snakes in that area ..... a long black snake near Dunfield Creek (not sure what kind) that just slithered off the trail as we approached, and a garter snake on the Blue trail. A bit further to the east, Rattlesnake Swamp Trail, is known for Rattlesnakes, but I've never seen any there either on my 10-15 times hiking that area. We did find some baby garter snakes one day, and a friend picked them up, 3 or 4, without hesitation. Glad the mama was not to be seen!