🥾 ActiveWeekend · from New York, NY
Delaware Water Gap: Appalachian Ridge & River Canoe
The Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area protects 70,000 acres of Appalachian ridge and river valley on the New Jersey-Pennsylvania border — the Delaware River has been designated a National Wild and Scenic River through this section. The Kittatinny Ridge provides the best ridge walking in the Mid-Atlantic; the river canoe circuit is the most accessible whitewater in the New York metro area.
Day 1 — Delaware Water Gap, NJDay 2 — Delaware River Canoe Circuit, NJ
Day 1 — Delaware Water Gap, NJ
Day 1 — Delaware Water Gap, NJ
🚗 2 hr 10 min driving📍 5 stops
🌅
Morning
🚗
Drive
New York, NY → Delaware Water Gap NRA
1 hr 30 min8:00 AM → 9:30 AM
Drive west via I-80 through New Jersey into the Water Gap.
Mount Tammany via Red Dot Trail
★ 4.8The most dramatic short hike in New Jersey — a 3.5-mile loop ascending 1,527 feet to the summit of Mount Tammany via the Red Dot Trail (switchbacks and a scramble) and descending via the Blue Dot Trail. The summit ledge provides a direct overhead view down into the Delaware River Gap — the 1,200-foot cliffs on both sides of the river visible simultaneously, with the river bending south through the mountains below.
9:30 AM📍 See location
🍽️
Lunch
🚗
Drive
Delaware Water Gap NRA → Dingmans Falls
25 min10:30 AM → 10:55 AM
Dingmans Falls & Silverthread Falls
★ 4.7A 1-mile boardwalk loop through a hemlock ravine to two of Pennsylvania's tallest waterfalls — Silverthread Falls drops 80 feet in a single thread through a basalt slot, and Dingmans Falls drops 130 feet in a wide cascade. The boardwalk was constructed in 1932 by the Civilian Conservation Corps; the hemlock canopy keeps the ravine 10 degrees cooler than the surrounding landscape through August.
10:55 AM📍 See location
☀️
Afternoon
Raymondskill Falls
★ 4.8Pennsylvania's tallest waterfall, with three tiers totaling 178 feet — the upper tier is 35 feet, the middle 30 feet, and the lower tier 94 feet of a single free-falling cascade over layered sandstone and conglomerate. The 0.4-mile trail to the base is steep; the view from below the lower tier faces directly into the full height of the falls.
12:00 PM📍 See location
🌙
Evening
🚗
Drive
Raymondskill Falls → Milford, PA
15 min5:00 PM → 5:15 PM
The Dimmick Inn
★ 4.5A Milford restaurant in the oldest continually operating inn in Pennsylvania, with a menu of Pocono-region comfort food in a room that has welcomed Delaware River travelers since 1827. The trout from the adjacent Little Sawkill Creek, the house-smoked meats, and the Pennsylvania Dutch desserts are the kitchen's anchors.
5:15 PM📍 See location
🛏️
Hotel Fauchere
An 1880 Victorian hotel restored to boutique standards, 2 blocks from the main square in Milford, PA.
Day 2 — Delaware River Canoe Circuit, NJ
Day 2 — Delaware River Canoe Circuit, NJ
🚗 3 hr driving📍 4 stops
🌅
Morning
🚗
Drive
Milford, PA → Dingmans Ferry Canoe Launch
15 min8:00 AM → 8:15 AM
Delaware River Canoe — Kittatinny Canoe Outfitters
★ 4.3A half-day canoe trip on the Wild and Scenic Delaware River through the Water Gap — 6 miles of Class I-II flatwater with occasional riffles, passing forest-to-the-waterline banks and the Kittatinny Ridge above. Kittatinny Canoe (operating since 1941) provides the shuttle and all equipment; the put-in at Dingmans Ferry and take-out at Bushkill form the standard morning circuit.
8:15 AM📍 See location
🍽️
Lunch
🚗
Drive
Bushkill, PA → Bushkill Falls
5 min9:15 AM → 9:20 AM
Bushkill Falls
★ 4.5A private gorge attraction operating since 1904, with 8 waterfalls accessible via 2.5 miles of trail through a hemlock and hardwood gorge. The main falls drops 100 feet in three tiers; the gorge trail is a boardwalk-and-staircase system that provides views of all 8 falls in a 2-hour circuit. The private ownership has maintained the trails without state park regulations.
9:20 AM📍 See location
☀️
Afternoon
🚗
Drive
Bushkill Falls → Appalachian Trail — Wind Gap
25 min12:00 PM → 12:25 PM
Appalachian Trail — Kittatinny Ridge Ridge Walk
A 4-mile section of the AT on the Kittatinny Ridge above the Delaware River, accessible from Wind Gap — flat-to-rolling walking on an open shale ridge above the tree line, with views of the farmland below and the Delaware River valley to the east. The ridge walking is the Mid-Atlantic AT at its best: consistent views, no technical scrambling, and the isolation of an open ridge walk.
12:25 PM📍 See location
🌙
Evening
🚗
Drive
Wind Gap, PA → Beacon, NY
1 hr5:00 PM → 6:00 PM
Quinn's
★ 4.3A Beacon restaurant and bar in a converted firehouse, serving sophisticated American food to the NYC art-weekender crowd that has colonized this former industrial city.
6:00 PM📍 See location
🚗
Drive
Beacon, NY → New York, NY
1 hr 15 min7:00 PM → 8:15 PM
Return via I-84 east to the Taconic Parkway south, or Metro-North from Beacon station.
Plan your own escapeExplore more trips →