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Things to Do in the Poconos: A Long Weekend Outdoors
- Aug 12
- 9 min read
I keep a mental list of places I send people to when they want mountains, water, and a campfire without booking a flight, and the Poconos lives on that list. It is a couple hours from Philly and New York, it is stitched together by the Lehigh and Delaware rivers, and you can fill a long weekend with paddling, biking, a boulder field that looks like another planet, and a hike with a river view at the top. I have driven out here more than once, usually with my husky riding shotgun and his nose out the window the whole way up Route 940.
This is my running guide to the things I actually did and would do again. I stay at one campground, paddled one river with an outfitter I have used myself, biked a rail trail into a mountain town, and stood in the middle of rocks that have been sitting there for twenty thousand years. Here is how I would spend your time.
Quick List of Things to Do in the Poconos
If you only skim one part, skim this. Everything below gets its own section further down.
Explore the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area
Walk out onto the Boulder Field at Hickory Run State Park
Bike the D&L Trail through Lehigh Gorge State Park to Jim Thorpe
Kayak the Delaware River, then grab a beer at the brewery next to the takeout
Raft the Lehigh River on a dam release weekend
Play a round at Jack Frost National Golf Club
Hike Mount Minsi or Tammany on the Appalachian Trail
Base yourself at Lehigh Gorge Campground in White Haven
Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area
The Delaware Water Gap is the piece of the Poconos that gets under your skin. It is around 70,000 acres of protected land straddling the Pennsylvania and New Jersey border, with the Delaware River running right down the middle. It is run by the National Park Service, there is no entrance station charging you to drive in, and the section of river here carries a Wild and Scenic designation, so the water is clean enough that you will actually want to be in it.
You can spend a whole day here without repeating yourself. Paddle in the morning, chase a waterfall in the afternoon, and watch for bald eagles the entire time. For more information about it, check out my post on the Delaware Water Gap Recreation Area exclusivley, because there's so much to do it needed it's own post!
Kayak the Delaware River
This stretch of the Delaware is calm. The rapids top out at class one, which means it is the kind of paddle where you can actually look up at the ridgelines instead of white-knuckling your paddle the whole time. I rented through Shawnee River Trips, the livery run out of the Shawnee Inn and Golf Resort, because they run their own private river access and shuttle you upstream once so you float right back to their beach. Less van time, more river time.
Wear a real life jacket that fits, not the crusty foam thing rattling around the bottom of the rental van. I bring my own NRS Ambient PFD so I know it is snug and I am not fighting it all afternoon.
Here is the part I really came for. When you pull off the water, the ShawneeCraft Brewing Company is a walk across the parking lot. They have a tap room, a beer garden, and a restaurant, so you can go straight from the river to a local brew and a slice without changing out of your wet shorts. I did exactly that, sunburned and happy, and it might be the most efficient afternoon I have put together in the Poconos.
Hike Mount Minsi
Mount Minsi is the hike I point people to on the Pennsylvania side of the Gap. It runs along the white-blazed Appalachian Trail up to a summit around 1,461 feet, and the payoff is a wide-open look at the Delaware River bending below you with Mount Tammany, its sister peak, standing right across the water in New Jersey. The loop most people do runs about five miles with roughly a thousand feet of climbing. It is rocky in the classic Pennsylvania way, so it earns the word moderate.
Park at the free Lake Lenape lot and get there early, because it fills fast on nice days and on fall weekends. The route climbs the AT past Council Rock and Lookout Rock, threads through rhododendron tunnels, passes a few small cascades, and reaches some old stone ruins near the top before the vista. You can hear I-80 humming for part of the climb, which I have made peace with. Take the fire road down for a gentler return on your knees.
Two things I always throw in the pack for this one: a daypack that carries water and layers without wrecking your shoulders, my Osprey Tempest 22 does the job, and bug spray, because ticks are a genuine thing on this ridge. My husky comes on this one, leashed, and handles the rock steps better than I do.
Hickory Run State Park and the Boulder Field
Hickory Run is close to 16,000 acres in the western foothills of the Poconos, with more than forty miles of trails, trout streams, a swimming beach at Sand Spring Lake, and the thing everyone comes for. The Boulder Field. This park is actually extremely rich in history as well, and before you visit you can read all about the drama on my post here.
The Boulder Field
Picture a flat expanse of rock, roughly 400 feet by 1,800 feet, with no trees and almost no plants, just boulders running out to the treeline. Some of them stretch to twenty-six feet long. It was left behind about twenty thousand years ago as the last Ice Age glacier melted, and it has sat mostly unchanged since. It was named a National Natural Landmark back in 1967, and the state calls it the largest boulder field of its kind in the Appalachians.
You can reach it two ways. Drive the roughly five-mile one-way dirt loop off Sand Spring Road right to the parking lot, or hike the 3.5-mile Boulder Field Trail from Route 534. I will be honest, I drove in, then spent a long time picking my way out across the rocks. They wobble, so wear something with real grip. I hike Hickory Run in my Merrell Moab 3 Mid boots for the ankle support out on the uneven rock. Leave the rocks where they are, no stacking, the park asks you not to and it keeps the field looking the way it has for millennia.
One heads-up: the dirt access road is not maintained in winter and often closes into spring because of ice, so this is a warmer-months plan.
Hawk Falls and the Other Trails
If you want a short win, the Hawk Falls Trail runs about 0.6 miles through rhododendron to a twenty-five foot waterfall. The dramatically named Shades of Death Trail is a scenic mile or so along Sand Spring Run with cascades and old dam sites. Biking is not allowed on Hickory Run trails, so save the wheels for Lehigh Gorge next door.
Lehigh Gorge State Park
Lehigh Gorge is the long, steep-walled canyon that the Lehigh River carved on its way south. It is over 6,000 acres of gorge, waterfalls, and one very good rail trail, and it sits right between Hickory Run and the town of Jim Thorpe. There is no visitor center and it's overseen by neighboring Hickory Run State Park. It's more like an area of the Lehigh River....you can read more about it on my other post here.
Bike the D&L Trail to Jim Thorpe
The Lehigh Gorge Trail is a 26-mile stretch of the Delaware & Lehigh Trail running from White Haven down to Jim Thorpe, and it is the ride I recommend to almost anyone. It follows an old rail bed on packed gravel with the river on one side and the gorge walls climbing up on the other, past waterfalls and old canal ruins. Because it is a former railroad grade, it holds a gentle one to two percent slope, and riding north to south means you are tilting downhill the whole way. Twenty-six miles that mostly coast.
Since I was staying in White Haven, I started at the north end and let the trail carry me down into Jim Thorpe, which is a mountain town packed with old brick storefronts, a historic train station, and places to eat when you roll in hungry. Rent a bike and grab a shuttle through the local outfitters in town, Pocono Biking runs rentals and a shuttle schedule out of both Jim Thorpe and White Haven, so you can ride one way and get a lift back. If a full 26 feels like a lot, start at Rockport in the middle and ride the last 15 down instead.
Raft the Lehigh River
The Lehigh is the other side of this river. Where the Delaware near Shawnee is a lazy float, the Lehigh through the gorge kicks up whitewater, and it gets bigger on the dam release weekends when extra water comes down from the Francis E. Walter Dam. Those release days are when the guided whitewater trips run, and several outfitters based around Jim Thorpe and White Haven put beginners and experienced paddlers on the water. This is the adrenaline half of a Poconos weekend, and it pairs nicely with an easy bike day to recover.
Golf at Jack Frost National Golf Club
If your crew wants a slower morning, Jack Frost National is an 18-hole public course sitting up around 2,000 feet on Jack Frost Mountain near Blakeslee. It opened in 2007, plays to a par 72, and stretches past 7,200 yards from the tips. What I like about it is that it feels like the mountains without the usual mountain-course headaches. The fairways are wide, the target areas are easy to read, and there are no blind shots or houses lining the holes, just Pocono ridgelines in every direction. There is an app with GPS yardages, beverage carts on the course, and an open-air spot to grab food after the round. Rates run lower Monday through Thursday, so a weekday tee time stretches the budget.
Where I Stayed: Lehigh Gorge Campground
Here is my honest recommendation for a base. I stayed at Lehigh Gorge Campground in White Haven and it is the spot I keep coming back to when I am in this part of the Poconos. It is family owned, it has been running since the late seventies, and it sits about ten minutes from Lehigh Gorge State Park and around fifteen from Hickory Run. That location is the whole point. You wake up and you are already in the middle of everything on this list.
The tent sites are wooded and rustic, the RV sites come with full hookups, and there is a pool, a fishing pond, a camp store, and a bathhouse with hot showers that I did not have to fight with. The staff went out of their way for me at check-in, which is the kind of thing that makes me book somewhere twice. It is a quick hop off I-80 and the turnpike, so getting there with a loaded car and a dog is painless.
I tent camp here, and this is the gear that earns its space in the car. My Big Agnes Copper Spur goes up in minutes, the Greystone 20 sleeping bag handles the cool Pocono nights that sneak up even in summer, and I sleep on a Circle Back sleeping pad so I am not counting roots at 2 a.m. A good headlamp is the thing people forget, right up until the walk to the bathhouse in the dark.
Book directly with the campground for sites. If the state park campground at Hickory Run works better for your dates, that is a solid backup a few minutes away.
How to Spend a Long Weekend in the Poconos
This is roughly how my days shook out, and it flows well if you are basing in White Haven.
Day 1: Arrive, set up at Lehigh Gorge Campground, and ease in with the Boulder Field and Hawk Falls at Hickory Run.
Day 2: Bike the D&L Trail down the gorge to Jim Thorpe, eat in town, shuttle back.
Day 3: Drive to the Delaware Water Gap. Kayak the Delaware in the morning, then hike Mount Minsi or flip the order.
Day 4: Slow morning. A round at Jack Frost National, or a Lehigh River raft trip if it is a release weekend, then home.
If you would rather not build it yourself, I put the whole thing together as a day-by-day plan. You can get my 4-Day Poconos Weekend guide in the app, with the driving order, timing, and gear notes mapped out so you just show up and go.
Know Before You Go
A few practical things I wish someone had told me on my first trip out.
Water season runs roughly May through October. Paddling outfitters and the calmer river conditions line up with that window.
Fall foliage in the gorge is the reason a lot of people come. September into October lights up the trail, so expect company and busier lots.
The Delaware Water Gap and the state parks do not charge you to enter, though some day-use spots and town lots do. Jim Thorpe municipal parking, for example, costs more on weekends than weekdays.
Pocono weather turns. Mornings can be cool and a storm can roll in fast, so I keep a packable rain jacket in the daypack no matter the forecast.
Bring water. There is nothing to buy along the rail trail or at the Boulder Field, so pack it in.
The Poconos is the kind of place that rewards a little ambition. Paddle in the morning, ride in the afternoon, and end the day at a campfire with tired legs. That is the whole pitch, and it holds up every time I go back.
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