With the recent heat, we were looking for a mostly shady hike and ended up in the Delaware Water Gap at the Pocono Environmental Education Center.
There were also strong thunderstorms possible in the afternoon, and we wanted a route with options to bail if need be.
Detailed hike guide on our main Pocono Environmental Education Center page.
The parking lot of PEEC sits in the center of the area’s trails so a hike can be cut short if storms roll in (or if you’ve decided you’d had enough of romping around in the heat/humidity!).
There are a variety of trails of different lengths, or combine all to make about a 7.5 mile route.
The Ridgeline trail (YELLOW) didn’t have any views, but perhaps they are seasonal. It was a little buggy in the low areas.
There is a very steep section on Ridgeline that has a rope to assist. It could be scrambled down w/o the rope, however. (but you may want to use the rope on a sheer, flat rock section anyway – just to channel your inner Batman)
There are two small waterfalls on the RED trail, and a larger, very nice one on the Tumbling Waters trail (ORANGE).
There is also a water cascade into a gorge near the Tumbling Waters waterfall. Either direction to the Tumbling Waters waterfall involves up and down a steep hill, twice.
There is also a viewpoint on the Tumbling Waters trail, and the trail passes Pickerel Pond on the way back.
MILES: 7.5 (about; our GPS was hating the tree cover and dropped out a few times)
ROUTE: RED (Scenic Gorge) – YELLOW (Ridgeline) – RED/YELLOW – BLUE (Fossil) – ORANGE (Tumbling Waters) – ORANGE/WHITE (Two Ponds)
Wildlife spotted: Frog (who patiently posed for us while we zoomed in for a nice shot), and heard some deer “bark” as they ran off.
We knew that deer do that, but that was the first time we’d actually heard it in all our years of rambling around outside.