Northeast Trip - Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area

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More photos at: Picasa

Spent most of the day looking at waterfalls in Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. The Delaware River itself isn't terrebly impressive, just a big, flat river, but there are a bunch of great waterfalls on the Pennsylvania side. I started out trying to go the the Kittatinny Visitors Center, but it was closed due to budget cuts. Instead, I drove up the road through the rec area on the Pennsylvania side of the river, stopped off at the headquarters to get an idea what to see, then headed up towards Dingmans Falls. I actually saw two falls in that area (three if you count the small drop along the road), Dingmans Falls and Silver Thread Falls. Dingmans Falls is fairly tall with a fair bit of water over it, with the first third or so being a drop into a pool and the rest being a steep cascade. Silver Thread Falls is very different: a tall, thin falls in a short canyon, which is so square it looks carved.

After Dingmans, I took the short side trip to the George Childs Recreation Site to see the three falls that are there along Dingmans Creek, Factory Falls, Fulmer Falls, and Deer Leap Falls. Factory Falls consists of several short cascades in quick succession. Fulmer Falls starts with a straight drop for its first 2/3 or so, followed by several pourovers to reach the pool below. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get the picture at Fulmer Falls that I would have liked to because the park service had access to the base of the falls blocked off. Deer Leap Falls is relatively short, with mostly a straight drop, but there is a outcrop of rock underneath the stream of water at the very bottom.

Back on the main road through the park, I headed up to Raymonskill Falls, which actually consists of three falls close together. The three falls are in a steep gorge, so there is only trail access to view the uppermost of the three, which consists of a vertical drop followed by two slides separated by a pool. If I had to choose among the falls I saw, I would say this one was probably the most impressive.

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