HIKING THE MINSI LOOP - GUIDE TO THE TRAIL - DELAWARE WATER GAP NATIONAL RECREATION AREA
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- Опубліковано 11 вер 2024
- One of the more popular hikes in Eastern Pennsylvania, the five mile Minsi Loop, climbs over 900 rugged feet along the Appalachian Trail from the Delaware River to the summit of Mt Minsi. At 1,461 ft, Minsi stands prominently on the western side of the Delaware Water Gap across from sister peak Mt Tammany, framing the dramatic gap once considered one of the great scenic wonders of the world. This hike features multiple lookouts over the river, thick rhododendron tunnels, creek crossings, waterfalls, rugged climbs, remnants of an old fire tower, and several hidden off trail locations.
I grew up in Reading. My grandparents lived in Bangor. When we visited them, I traveled through the Water Gap literally 100's of times. It was always the high light of the trip. You have inspired me to do this hike. I have better do it quick, because I'm 68 years old. I do urban hikes 7 days a week. I hope I can muster the strength to do those inclines. The beauty of Pennsylvania is limitless. Your videos are incredible. ROCK ON!!!!
I hope you are able to go and conquer that mountain! Take your time you can do it. Thank you so much for this comment, it brings me a great happiness to know that I have inspired someone to get outside and challenge themselves. Let me know how you make out, ROCK ON!!!
Thanks again for taking me on the trip. Beautiful place love the first look out and Caledonia cascades. Beautifully done as usual.
First lookout was my favorite spot as well!
The Caledonia Falls was a great find thanks for sharing that and going the extra Trail awesome Walter
I'm always looking for them waterfalls, my favorite subject to film!
Wow beautiful over looks and tranquil waterfalls gently rolling by.
Thanks for the hike Loved it
Appreciate that feedback, it was my pleasure to share!
You nailed it Walter once again, flawless cinematography! Flawless!!! I did not expect such a summit, I thought it would be a much smaller area and look like one of the peaks of the Alps! However, this does not diminish the beauty and atmosphere of this place! 👏👏
Appreciate you my friend, your comments always give me a boost and a smile, thank you.
❤😮wow on the water falls walter! Another fun hike with you!😊❤😊
Nothing makes me happier than discovering a waterfall along a hike!🙂
Nothing like an early morning mountain climb. BEA..dutiful! Thanks for taking us along.
Keep on adventuring.
👍🙂🙏🥾🥾🥾🌲🌲🌲🌲🌳🌳🌳🌞
Thanks Dave, the morning light was beautiful that day, it really brought something extra to the experience for me, see ya on the trail...
Neat to see the sunrise in the saddle. Thanks for taking the time to film this. Beautiful as always.
I do my best Scott, the lighting and angle of the sun was perfect in the beginning of this hike. I actually thought I had started out a bit too early at the parking lot, but things worked out very nice 👍.
Really looks like a great trail and a beautiful area. Many nice views and like the little waterfalls. I like all the rhododendron along the trail. I haven't been to the Delaware Water Gap for many years, but your video makes me want to revisit the area.
Glad to see someone else call them that. Grew up in NJ. We all had them in our landscaped yards. Now I’m in PA & they call them Mountain Laurel
Rhododendron have much bigger leaves then mountain laurel...
You gotta check it out, there is easily 30- 40 individual spots to film up there!
I'm silently watching... I love your videos!
Thanks Darcy...
Thanks!
Thanks so much Debbie for helping me get to these places , film them, and share them with the world. Your generosity makes that all possible.🙂
So great to get out for a Sunday morning hike. The lighting and scenery was just perfect on this day, really makes me want to get back out into the forest! Thanks for taking us along!
The forest is calling Ryan! For me its kind of a necessity to go atleast once a week for at a bare minimum, a walk in a local park. It really keeps my mental health going, the noise pollution, light pollution, and general chaos of the city really wears at me... Best way to start a day - out on a trail!
This was an absolutely wonderful hike. I really enjoy hiking with you. Thank you, Gator.
Kate you have joined me for so many amazing hikes, I thank you and appreciate you so much!!!
Awesome
Thanks 🙂
Love your videos! Thanks for this one.... definitely on my to do list in the next complete weeks!
Go for it brother, it's an awesome trail! I appreciate your support.
Beautiful area and a great hike, I keep hearing rumblings that the water gap will one day be a National Park. Liked the quick drone views you threw into the video, I find myself using mine less and less nowadays for videos. Great stuff as always 👍
They want to make it a national park for political reasons. They want people of certain demographics to have access to the "National Park Experience". So by renaming the recreation area as a national park, bang, all the individuals from the densely populated regions of New York, New Jersey, and Eastern Pennsylvania, now have a national park in there back yard. On scenery no it is not worth the designation, although there are many very impressive sights to be seen. The downplayed aspect of the area are the significant amount of Native American and early European historical sites throughout the area. As I said in the video, awesome place - I film there often - but not worthy of true National Park status... The real missed opportunity was when the entire Ricketts Glen region was designated as a potential sight for National Park status - that whole region is loaded with waterfalls, mountains, dense forests, geological formations, phenomenal stuff - but WW2 ended that proposal. The drone shots were all stock video I was able to find - you have to be very cautious about where you fly most people love the drone footage but there are a handful of people that vehemently oppose them and it only takes one pissed off person to cause problems for youtubers like ourselves. Happy hiking brother!
Great job on your part..taking the side trail! Caledonia Falls are beautiful! I also love waterfalls!
Often times those little side trails lead to something special, sometimes not, but they are worth checking out!😄
I'm on the way to the way to the Delaware water gap. Thanks for the inspiration of hitting this trail.
Thanks for the comments, wishing you luck 🤞!
Great views on this one! I imagine it is gorgeous with the rhododendron all in bloom! Fantastic little waterfall at the end 😀
Appreciate your stopping by! It's a nice little hike with a good variety of things to see. The Water Gap is quite fascinating from a geological perspective.
Excellent and nice place, thanks for sharing, lk 64🌳
Thanks for the watch, like, and comment!
This episode was packed with all thr things I love! Thanks for another epic episode! The views were awesome, but the waterfalls is my favorite. Peace & Prayers.
It was full of things I love as well - views, waterfalls, and beautiful nature. It's a very nice loop! Outside of the traffic noise which knocks it down the rankings a half point, lol!
@@WALTERZOLNA I agree that the ambient grind of traffic takes away some of the magic of a place. I have felt that. The wild places are encroached upon. That makes what you do all the more important and these places all the more precious. Thanks, again, for all you do!
I truly enjoyed this video! I look forward to finding that Caldonia falls when I get down there!
Thanks alot! Caladonia falls is pretty easy to find. Hope you have a great hike!
The old foundations could be remnants of hotels that used to be there, the first Pocono resort was Kittatinny Hotel, which was actually quite big!
I didn't think about that Eva, it's possible, I will look into it. There has to be a reason someone blazed a trail back there!
You make me smile every time you hear a waterfall!
Yea, there's something magical and exciting about hearing one before you see it!
For me, making that climb is the only route to take. That's the fun part of that hike. In fact, I've done this hike a few times and I've always gone back down on the AT again. I usually hike farther out to the power line cut then come back. Maybe I'll have to give the loop a try next time I do it. Thanks for taking us along and showing those side trails. Have a great weekend.
I always prefer a loop to an out and back if possible. And I also enjoy a good climb my self. The steeper the better, scrambling even better, but the worst is the methodical slow and steady switch back kind of climb that never ends!
@@WALTERZOLNA Oh yeah, definitely prefer a loop as well. I will have to try this one out.
Great hike! Lovely waterfalls as well!
Definitely one of the must see locations on the Eastern end of the state!
Loved this hike! I did this loop last year, got home and showed my wife pictures of the waterfall and she and I went back the next morning to hiked to the falls in snow. Magical place…magical video!
Thanks, the waterfall is really a nice touch to this hike, there is a little dash of everything on this loop. Caladonia creek must have looked spectacular in the snow!
The highway noise is what it is. Whenever I am on 81 south to visit my Mom in Florida, I am always scanning the roadside wooded areas and thinking of how neat it must be to be in there hiking road noise and all. Thanks for sharing this natural beauty with us!
I know its a reality of modern life, but the road noise, and general mechanical and human generated sounds bother me alot actually. Im very tuned into the auditory aspect of things, almost as much as the visual. Its amazing to me how difficult it is - nearly impossible - to find true silence... I long for the day when I am far removed from the urban life... Im constantly tinkering with the audio in my videos trying to amplify the natural sounds - wind, birds, water, insects, etc. and tamp down the artificial noise, trying to create that relaxing calming energy.
I am totally getting your thoughts.
Thanks for advertising my secret spot. LOL😊
Woops, sorry...😮
Hey Walter. Great video man. I love all the cinematic shots. You did a spectacular job of catching the natural beauty of this trail. I live so close to this spot is PA and I can’t believe I haven’t done this section of trail yet. I’ve done just about every other section of the AT in this region. I need to get out there and do this section. Thanks for sharing your experience. I just stumbled across your channel while searching for interesting hikes. I do lots of hiking and posting on UA-cam myself. I looked through your channel, and see you post tons of hikes here in Eastern PA. That’s awesome! I was hoping I’d stumble across a channel like yours someday. I just followed your channel! Woohoo!!! I look forward to staying connected.
Thanks brother I appreciate that very much. I try to film our local parks and trails with the same reverence and appreciation that the larger more famous ones get. I really appreciate your comments and subscribe I will check out your channel!
@@WALTERZOLNA Are you based out of Eastern PA?
Beautiful hike. I did this hike years ago and it was a challenge. Not sure if I could do it now or not. Such solitude up there. I love getting lost in my thoughts in places like this. 🤗
It's always fascinated me the allure of what draws people to the summit of the mountain, but clearly it is in our DNA as humans, to reach the top. The most interesting thing to me about the water gap is the bands of exposed rocks along both sides of the river showing the eons of erosion and really giving a glimpse into geological history...
Well done. I enjoyed this one with an after dinner coffee. Is that a Garmin I see on your strap? One heck of a climb,isn't it? What views, wow.
No, I don't have a Garmin gps. I'm not exactly sure what you saw, mainly just rely on my phone, this hike I have done before, it's a pretty basic loop. It certainly is an interesting view, unique I think is how I would phrase it. The climb on the other side - Tamanny, I think is a lot steeper actually... Thanks for the comments John!
I have never done this loop. I'll have to check out those waterfalls. I have been on the Mount Tammany side many times. It's really the only way to get any sort of elevation gain and training here in PA for some of the bigger peaks. My friend and I used it for training for Mt. Whitney. There are a few that do the super loop, start at Mt Tammany, go up and loop around Sunfish Pond then cross the bridge into PA and do the Minsi loop. I was there one day and I met a hiker training for a marathon by running that super loop a couple times. Great video as always Walter
Yea I think the climb up Tamanny is one of the steepest around the region, that and maybe the climb northbound out of Lehigh Gap. I can definitely see those trails being used for conditioning and training! I'm not sure I would want to do that super loop in one day that has to be a real challenge. Minsi - it's a nice loop, got a little bit of everything, thanks for the comments @travelingRonman...
nice video thanks for showing us.We live in NY and were looking for the closet trail head to hike the AT for a few miles do you have a good spot in mind?
I don't know what part of New York you live in. I would just Google "Appalachian trail hikes in New York"
Hi Walter. Any camping allowed there? Thanks!
That's actually a good question. You are following along the AT, but I'm not sure what the regs are in the National Recreation Area. There is a public campground close by at Dingmans Ferry and other private spots, but for some reason I think Backcountry camping in the DWGNRA is not allowed.🤷