Public Parks in Pocono Mountains 15
State parks and forests, national recreation areas, wildlife refuges and city parks.
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Promised Land State Park
Two lakes on the Pocono Plateau, ringed by Civilian Conservation Corps cabins, beaches and campgrounds, with trails into the Bruce Lake Natural Area and the surrounding state forest.
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Tobyhanna State Park
Wetlands and scrub forest of the Pocono Plateau surround a lake with a sandy beach, a campground and a level trail around its shore, linked by trail to Gouldsboro State Park.
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Gouldsboro State Park
A sandy beach and a broad lake surrounded by the scrubby woods and wetlands of the Pocono Plateau, with a trail through the forest to neighboring Tobyhanna State Park.
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Hickory Run State Park
Its famous Boulder Field, a vast, flat expanse of rocks left by Ice Age frost, is the big draw, but the park also has Hawk Falls, a sandy swimming lake and cold trout streams.
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Beltzville State Park
Waterskiers and sailboats share a big reservoir in the Pocono foothills, with a long sandy beach, trout in Pohopoco Creek and a short trail to Wild Creek Falls.
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Lehigh Gorge State Park
Rafters ride the Lehigh River's rapids and cyclists cruise the level rail trail beside it through a deep, rugged gorge between White Haven and Jim Thorpe, past waterfalls spilling off the cliffs.
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Big Pocono State Park
A road winds to the top of Camelback Mountain, where rocky trails and lookouts take in the Poconos and stretch on clear days into two neighboring states.
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Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area
Forty miles of the free-flowing Delaware River between forested ridges, with canoe and tubing runs, river beaches, waterfalls such as Dingmans and Raymondskill, and the Appalachian Trail at the gap itself.
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Prompton State Park
Mountain bikers and hikers have a long web of wooded trails around this quiet flood-control lake on the West Branch Lackawaxen River, where anglers and paddlers launch small boats.
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Varden Conservation Area
Former farmland given to the state by a local veterinarian, with easy trails through meadows and woods, a fishing pond and rows of conifers the donor planted himself.
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Bushkill Falls
A privately run chain of eight waterfalls in a hemlock-shaded gorge, linked by bridges and boardwalk trails, with the 100-foot main falls at the center; it bills itself as the Niagara of Pennsylvania.
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Dingmans Falls
A boardwalk through a hemlock ravine passes the slender ribbon of Silverthread Falls before reaching a 130-foot cascade that ranks among Pennsylvania's tallest waterfalls.
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George W. Childs Recreation Site
A loop trail follows Dingmans Creek through a hemlock gorge past three waterfalls, Factory, Fulmer and Deer Leap, with the stone ruins of an old woolen mill and shady picnic spots.
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Delaware State Forest
Pocono Plateau woods dotted with glacial lakes, bogs and natural areas such as Bruce Lake, with long trails, primitive camping and plenty of room for solitude.
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Raymondskill Falls
By the National Park Service's measure, this is Pennsylvania's tallest waterfall, dropping in several tiers into a hemlock ravine a short, steep walk from the parking area.
