Delaware Water Gap
A gap where the Delaware cuts through the Kittatinny Ridge, protected after a dam project was cancelled and the land kept.
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The river cuts through the ridge here in a gap about three hundred metres deep, and the geology is the point: the ridge is hard quartzite and the river is older than the mountains, having maintained its course as the land rose around it. The recreation area exists because of a failure - the Tocks Island Dam was authorised in 1962, around six hundred families were removed from their land by eminent domain, and the project was then deauthorised in 1978 after opposition and questions about the geology, leaving the government holding a long stretch of valley it had emptied. The bitterness of that remains. The park now covers about seventy thousand acres with the Appalachian Trail crossing at the gap.
What you actually see
- A gap about three hundred metres deep - the river older than the ridge.
- A park created by a cancelled dam - after families were removed.
- The Appalachian Trail - crossing the river at the gap.
- Waterfalls in the side valleys - including Dingmans and Raymondskill.
When to go
April to October. A full day.
Honest expectations
The removals for the cancelled dam are still resented locally and the emptied land is visible. Popular trailheads fill early. Flooding closes river roads. It is close enough to New York that summer weekends are busy.
Nearby
The Poconos are west; High Point is north-east in New Jersey.
What to pack for Delaware Water Gap
Chosen from what this place is for. Tap a kit for the full checklist.
Opening times, ticket prices and seasonal closures change - check the official source before you go: official site.
