Delaware Water Gap / Grey Towers

Collegeville, PA to the Catskills in NY | Hiking to Raymondskill Falls in Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area | Visiting Grey Towers National Historic Site | Camping in the Catskills | May 2025

Our time in Southeastern PA lasted almost 4 weeks, and when the end of our time arrived, we were definitely ready to leave and enjoy a couple of weeks of slow travel before Curtis’ next commitment. I spent our last days here doing chores like laundry and packing the van, and we used the stipend for our last days of meals to stock up on groceries for the weeks ahead. We finally checked out of our hotel, ready to get on the road, though the friendly front desk lady was quite sad to see Charlotte go.

We had a few errands to run on that first day, and we planned to do those as we made our way North. We first dropped off the rental car, then drove up to Allendale. Here we had made an appointment for Charlotte at a vet clinic to have a mini check up and vaccinations done, since we wouldn’t be able to get back to her vet in Iowa for at least another month. She wasn’t pleased with us, but after her appointment was done she did enjoy sniffing around the pet store and checking out their rawhides.

Next, we drove East and North until we reached US-209, which we took North into Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. We were mostly driving this route because it was scenic and still somewhat direct, but we also planned to stop for lunch and go for a short walk. Our plan was to do this at Raymondskill Falls, the highest waterfall in the state of Pennsylvania. There was one little issue with our plan, which was that we forgot that today was Mother’s Day, and a very beautiful Sunday afternoon, and so it turned out to be much busier than we expected. The two trailheads were quite crowded, but we managed to find a spot to park. The trail also wasn’t dog friendly (we saw plenty of people still taking their dogs, but we had no intention of breaking the rules) and there wasn’t really a good area to picnic. So instead, we took turns walking the loop while the other circled the lot and adjacent lawn with Charlotte, then had some snacks and went on our way. Despite the busyness, the falls were still impressive and worth the stop. The trail was steep and went down several rocky steps, so even if it was dog friendly it wouldn’t have been ideal for Charlie.

Next, we continued driving North, and in the town of Milford we made another stop at Grey Towers National Historic Site. We parked in the lower lot, then walked up the hill and found a spot on the lawn to have a proper picnic in a much quieter environment — it was still busy here, but there was significantly more room to spread out. After lunch, we continued on the trail walking up to the house. We wandered around the gardens, sat in the shade on the porch, and Curtis found a visitor center and was able to get some stamps – though they weren’t the normal NPS cancellation stamps. This site is managed by the USFS, which is fitting as it preserves the longtime summer of home of Gifford Pinchot, the first director and defacto creator of the United States Forest Service. He also later became the Governor of Pennsylvania for two terms. After his and his wife’s deaths, the residence was transferred over to the USFS for management as per his will and testament. And it is quite the property, lots of stone outbuildings, gardens, and forest – fitting for an affluent conservationist. As we returned down the open lawn of the house we noticed that you could see the tall obelisk of High Point, the highest point (and silliest named high point) in New Jersey, off in the distance.

Finally, we drove North some more into New York, and made our way to where we hoped to start our time camping in the Catskills. We navigated to a spot we were familiar with – the Peekamoose Campground in Sundown Wild Forest – a place we camped at two years prior which we remembered being free and a decent place to stay. However, when we arrived we found that the campground had been shut down, camping was now prohibited, and the entire focus of this area had shifted to the people visiting a popular site in the Catskills: the Blue Hole. It was busy here today as one would expect on a beautiful summer weekend, and while the pictures of Blue Hole are lovely, busy places that are mostly centered around swimming in the river just don’t really appeal to us, so we continued on, looking for another spot to stay.

I referred to iOverlander to find another spot, and we ended up in Allaben State Forest, which has a free, first come-first served dispersed camping area in the woods. There are 8 sites here, though only two of them have a level place to park (the rest are more intended for tent camping) so because both of those sites were occupied we ended up parking in the turn around area at one end. We had ample sunlight for our solar panels, usable cell signal, and a long forest road to walk Charlotte up and down on — and that was good enough for us! We ended up staying here for two nights, taking the entire next day to relax, unwind, and plan out the rest of our time off. That day was absolutely gorgeous, with the sun shining, warm enough to sit outside comfortably, and minimal bugs. What we didn’t know at the time was that this was actually going to be the only perfect day like that for our entire time in the Northeast…but hey, at least we know we made the most of it in our ideal little camp spot, even if we weren’t out hitting the trails.