Middle Delaware River in Pennsylvania

Trip Overview

The middle Delaware River from Dingman's Ferry to Marshall's Creek is a 9-mile lazy paddling trip that can awe a paddler with its overwhelming beauty and abundance of wildlife. As we moved with a lazy 3 knot current we witnessed the eastern Pocono Mountain scenery and caught sight of a flock of canvasback ducks w/ offspring, blue herons, white egrets, Canadian geese that almost guided us down river, turtles sunning on fallen trees, a mocking bird giving a bad time to a thieving red tailed hawk and best of all, two full fledged bald eagles. The river along this 10-mile run is really calm, with a couple of small fast water riffles to speed you up just enough to break the slow, easy pace. We encountered several friendly fishermen and a couple who were camping their way down the river on a week's vacation. There were 5 in our party with 2 sit-ins, a single sit-on-top and a tandem sit-on-top. All agreed the day was well spent and returned home satisfied and slightly tired.

Accommodations:

Route 209 is sign friendly all the way along with several outfitters, restaurants, gas stations and public rest areas.

Fees:

There is an all day parking fee of $6.00 per day at Dingman's Ferry Access.

Directions:

From Philadelphia: take Route 611 North all the way past the Delaware Water Gap, take Rte. 209 North to Dingman's Ferry Access for the put-in. Approximately 2 miles past Marshall's Creek is a State Park, Bushkill Access for the take-out.

Resources:

The Delaware Water Gap River Guide and Delaware Water Gap Road Map, both available from The National Park Service, Bushkill, PA 18324