Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area

Delaware Water Gap National Area (DWGNRA) is a National Park Service unit that includes 40 miles of the Middle Delaware River and more than 60,000 acres along the river’s banks.

It’s actually the 10th most visited park in the entire National Park Service system of 361 park units!

Encompassing 70,000 acres of mountains, forest and the Delaware River, the Water Gap is one of the most popular outdoor destinations in the country, with more than 4.5 million visitors annually.

It’s absolutely magnificent. It’s also very, very large. The DWGNRA is bookended by the towns of Milford on the north and the town of Delaware Water Gap on the south.

Read on to figure out exactly where you want to go, and what you want to do in the park.

This nearly 70,000-acre park draws five million visitors a year from nearby New York City and Philadelphia, making it one of America’s 10th most-visited national park. The famed ‘Water Gap’ is where the Delaware River cuts through a gap in the Kittatinny Mountain ridge.

The park provides outdoor recreation opportunities while conserving the natural, cultural, and scenic resources of the recreation area. It encompasses forested mountains, grassy beaches, and the Delaware Water Gap, which slices through the Kittatinny Ridge. Miles of trails include a section of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail. Dingmans Creek Trail leads through a hemlock ravine to towering Dingmans Falls.

Biking

Bring out your bike for a ride along the McDade Recreational Trail, a packed gravel path that parallels the Delaware River on the Pennsylvania side. It showcases farm fields, forests, and river views along its 32-mile course. Overheating? Pause your ride at beaches along the route and cool off with a swim.

Boating

Languid currents of the Delaware draw visitors for Huck Finn float trips on rafts, tubes, and kayaks. A bit farther north, waterfalls from tributaries provide whitewater. Pull your boat over and strike camp at the boat-only Alosa River campsites.

Camping

Campgrounds on the Pennsylvania side of the park include a developed campground at Dingmans Campground and backcountry camping which is permitted for through-hikers on the Appalachian National Scenic Trail only.

Fishing

Here’s how to get your fishing license. A total of 61 species are known within the park, with brown trout, rainbow trout, smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, green sunfish, black crappie, channel catfish, muskellunge, gizzard shad, alewife, fathead minnow, and the American eel, among them. The native species most important for recreational fishing today include American shad, brook trout, yellow perch, and pumpkinseed.

Hiking

Hikers scan the valley from the ridge or peer into the 1000-foot-deep Water Gap. The Appalachian Trail runs along the ridges, accounting for some of the best of the park’s 100 miles of hiking trails. The difficulty of trails leading to the falls varies greatly from the wheelchair-accessible Dingmans Falls Boardwalk to steep rocky climbs through hemlock ravines. With kids in tow, consider the short walk along the Dingmans Falls Trail.

Waterfalls

For many visitors, viewing waterfalls is the defining experience of the park. The eight falls are each beautiful and spectacular: Buttermilk Falls, Dingmans Falls, Silverthread Falls, Factory Falls, Fulmer Falls, Deer Leap Falls, Bushkill Falls, and Raymondskill Falls, the tallest waterfall in Pennsylvania.

Wildlife

Animal life in the park is diverse, from big black bears to tiny hummingbirds.You may come across deer, wild turkeys, a variety of fish, and gorgeous wild birds. At night, visitors may have a chance sighting of foxes, owls, or maybe one of the six species of bats(!) that live in this park.

Free Shuttle Service

The National Park Service funds a free weekend shuttle bus service that stops at many of the major trailheads along the route. There are shuttles from the town of Delaware Water Gap to Milford Beach or to Kittatinny, and the connector shuttle from Stroudsburg to the Delaware Water Gap. To view the schedule, click here.