Delaware Water Gap: The Valley That Wouldn't Drown

The village of Delaware Water Gap, PA, at the great notch where the Delaware River cuts through Kittatinny Ridge — the southern gateway and the start of the drive north to Milford.

Boone Merrick here, glad to ride along. Now, I've told tales in a lot of pretty country, but this valley's a special case, because it's beautiful AND it's haunted — not by ghosts, exactly, but by what almost happened…

The geology of the Gap — how the Delaware carved straight through the hard quartzite spine of Kittatinny Ridge instead of going around it.

This whole valley was Lenape country — the homeland of the people the English called the Delaware, after the river. And I want to tell you the plain, ugly story of how it was taken, because it's one of the most brazen…

A serious word, because this beautiful river has a dangerous side and I'd rather you hear it from a friend. The Delaware looks calm and inviting, especially on a hot day — and it drowns people. Since nineteen-eighty,…

You keep hearing that the road along the Jersey side of the river, the Old Mine Road, is the oldest road in America — that Dutch miners cut it back in the sixteen hundreds to haul copper a hundred miles up to the Huds…

Now here's the one that hangs over this whole valley, and once you know it you'll see it everywhere. You are driving through a place the United States government condemned, cleared, and prepared to put underwater — an…

The Delaware itself — the longest free-flowing river left in the East, and why its eagles, shad, and clean water still run.

So the government emptied the valley for the dam — hundreds of houses standing dark and abandoned up and down the river, waiting for a lake. And here's a chapter most folks never heard: for a few wild years, other peo…

As you drive through the shady, cool ravines along here, take a good look at the tall, dark, feathery evergreens that make these glens so beautiful — the eastern hemlocks. They're the soul of a place like the Dingmans…

Off across the river, on the Jersey side, sits one of the most haunting places in all this country — a whole village standing nearly intact, with almost nobody in it. It's called Walpack Center, and it's a genuine gho…

The Water Gap's Victorian heyday — when the railroad made it one of America's great resort destinations, and the grand hotels that burned away.

A flat, easy boardwalk to two beautiful waterfalls — the wispy 80-foot Silverthread and the thundering 130-foot Dingmans, the second-tallest in Pennsylvania. Wheelchair-accessible.

A loop through the George W. Childs site along Dingmans Creek — three waterfalls (Factory, Fulmer, Deer Leap) and the stone ruins of an 1820s woolen mill. Steep, wet steps in places.

A quick practical note so nothing surprises you out here. As of twenty twenty-six, the park charges a small amenity fee — about ten dollars a vehicle a day — but here's the key: that fee is only for the developed rive…

In Milford, on a hill above the town, stands a French-style stone castle called Grey Towers — and the man who grew up in it did as much to save the American wilderness as anyone who ever lived. His name was Gifford Pi…

A short but steeper trail to the tallest waterfall in Pennsylvania — Raymondskill, a three-tiered drop of about 150 feet. Steep, unfenced overlooks; stay on the trail.

Every dramatic piece of country grows its legends the way it grows moss, and the Water Gap has a good crop of them. I'll tell you a couple — as legends, mind you, tales the old folks told, not history — because they'r…

Milford, PA — the historic river town at the north end of the drive, gateway to Grey Towers and the Marie Zimmermann farm. Services, food, and the end of the tour.