Delaware Water Gap NRA, PA - Conashaugh View wih the McDade Trail

ABOUT THE PARK: 

Conashaugh View Trail - National Park Service

McDade Recreational Trail - National Park Service

DIRECTIONS: 

GPS Coordinates 41.263381, -74.847964

Conashaugh Trailhead parking on the McDade Recreational Trail.

TRAIL MAP: 

Delaware Water Gap & Kittatinny Trails Map 122 - New York New Jersey Trail Conference

HIKE DISTANCE:  7.4 miles

THE HIKE: 

Facing Route 209, left on the McDade Trail.  It's a bit overgrown here.

We wouldn't be on the McDade Trail very long before needing to cross Route 209.  The vegetation made that impossible so I had to start looking for an opportunity.

Ah, an opening, and over we went ...

... to road walk a short distance to ...

... a right on Zimmerman Road.

The plan was to continue straight, hike that loop, then return to this point to hike the second loop.  Things did not turn out as planned and we ended up not coming back here.  So continuing straight ...

... then turning left at the T-intersection up ahead.

A short distance in, turning right on the Conashaugh View Trail.

At the loop part of the trail we went around counterclockwise.

Ovenbird

The trail turns left; straight ahead leads to Conashaugh Road.

Finishing the loop, right to retrace.

I had spotted this very distinct trail that is not on the map where the Conashaugh View Trail turns right.  Why not check it out? 

My hope was that it would loop around Pow Wow Hill and put us back on the Conashaugh View Trail.

It was quite pretty through this area.

There was even evidence of trail maintenance.

Was it ever going to veer around back towards the Conashaugh View Trail?

Well, no.  We ended up on the forest floor where the trail became a little harder to follow.

It ended up spitting us out by this dilapidated house on Route 209.  OK, I can work with this.  I decided I would go to the McDade Trail and try to get back on the other side of Zimmerman Road which would take us back to that intersection for the second loop.  It sounded good in my head.

Problem was there was no getting over to the McDade Trail from this point so we had to turn left and road walk a bit on Route 209, VERY busy with speeding traffic at this point.

It wasn't very far to an access point just before the sign up ahead.

There is a historical marker up ahead, you know the ones you can never read because there is no place to pull over to read it?  Now you can read it.

Taking that side trail ...

... to a right on the McDade Trail.

Now I would just need to see if there would be an opportunity to get over to Zimmerman Road.

I didn't realize until I reached this point, that I had ended up on my most favorite part of the McDade Trail - the 2-mile section that is a very hilly and rugged hiker only footpath.

This follows closely along the Delaware River and the views would get better and better.

Turning around for views of the Delaware River in the opposite direction.

Turns out there was no way to get back to Route 209 because that was way up high to the right but not a problem, I was very happy to take this all the way back to the parking lot.  It actually made the hike better than what I had planned.

Back at the parking lot.