MA to PA / Delaware Water Gap
Driving from Pittsfield, MA to King of Prussia, PA | Camping in the Catskills | Delaware Water Gap NRA | April 2023
Once we had said goodbye to Curtis’ brother, we hit the road heading Southwest towards Pennsylvania. The drive was only four hours if we were taking the fastest route, but we chose to take the scenic route, planned some stops for Sunday, and decided to camp in the Catskills. Just like when we camped in the Adirondacks earlier in the week, we had made the decision to camp this weekend based on how nice the weather had been during the week…only to realize the day of that the forecast called for a 30-40% chance of rain through the night. Oh well, that didn’t sound too bad, right?
Despite having declared 6 years ago when leaving Connecticut that we would never return to the state, we decided to cut off the corner only for “end of year metrics.” It wasn’t that bad. At least it was the good part of Connecticut, and we tried to identify what the nearby peaks were as we drove by. We re-entered New York and made our way into the Catskills. While driving through, we reminisced on the few trips we had taken to or through the Catskills while living in New York, and drove some of the same roads.
We found a campsite for the night in Sundown Wild Forest off of Peekamoose Road. During the on-season you need a permit to camp here, but we were still in off season so we were fine without. We parked in the lot off the road and chose a nearby campsite that wasn’t too far of a walk, but also wasn’t right next to the road. We had the whole area to ourselves, and were able to walk Charlotte around quite a bit and give her freedom to wander on her long rope. Of course, she used this freedom to go find food or other things left behind from other campers or wild animals…typical Charlie!
After setting up the tent, it started to rain. It was just a light rain for a while, but after dark it actually started to thunderstorm, and it didn’t let up for over 2 hours. Let’s just say I was a little freaked out by how close and loud the thunder sounded! It didn’t even phase Charlie though. It thundered off and on through the rest of the night, but the rain never let up, not until mid-morning the next day.
When we finally gave up on waiting for the rain to stop, we emerged from the tent and quickly packed up in the rain. We left the Catskills, heading South towards Port Jervis, where we missed a couple of turns before eventually finding our way onto back roads on the Jersey side of the Delaware River. We’ve previously driven the Pennsylvania side and enjoyed the waterfalls and views there and were excited to try the New Jersey side. We took a detour down rough country roads in order to see the very tall Buttermilk Falls, but also right off the parking lot.
Curtis walked the stairs to the top of the falls while I wandered around the base and parking lot with Charlotte, and then we made the drive back to the main road through the park. There were a couple other hikes and walks that we had considered, but it was a warm day, Charlotte was pokey, and we still had a long way to go. But we made one last stop at Millbrook Village, which might normally be a living history, but today was empty and we had it all to ourselves.
Overall, our consensus for the New Jersey side of Delaware Water Gap was that it was very remote and rural for an East Coast National Park site: and we still haven’t even seen the Water Gap!
The remainder of our drive was uneventful, though it did bag us several new counties in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and soon we were in King of Prussia, PA; our new home for the next two weeks.
