National Park Guide: Pennsylvania's Delaware Water Gap

— -- Straddling the Pennsylvania-New Jersey border, the 70,000-acre Delaware Water Gap beckons urbanites seeking a respite.

Delaware Water Gap — the name describes how the Delaware River flows through a 1,000-foot-deep pass in the Appalachian Mountains— lies in the middle of the megalopolis between New York City and Philadelphia. It attracts about 5 million visitors a year, which makes it one of the most-visited national parks.

"There are certain spots, where there are mountains on either side of you, you could be in Montana, but you're 72 miles from Manhattan," says Jeff Rosalsky, executive director of the Pocono Environmental Education Center in Dingmans Ferry, Pa.

But the park's location also makes it vulnerable. As Northeast urban centers have grown, their suburbs have consumed more of the rural and wilderness areas around the park. Also, natural-gas drilling has expanded upstream from the park.

"There are a lot of pressures on the park," says Herb Meyerson, president of the non-profit Friends of Delaware Water Gap. For almost 20 years, Meyerson lived in the Bronx and kept a summer home in the park's Pennsylvania side before retiring there in 1999.

"What I enjoy is getting into the woods or onto the river," Meyerson says. "You don't see any homes. It's wilderness. It looks like it did hundreds of years ago."

Native Americans lived in the area for thousands of years. The area was a frontier during the French and Indian War in the mid-1700s, and railroads brought tourists in the 19th century.

***

About the park

Size: About 70,000 acres

Visitors: 4,986,700 in 2011

Established: 1965

History: After the devastation from Hurricanes Connie and Diane in August 1955, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers revived a plan to build a dam on the Delaware River at Tocks Island and create a reservoir 40 miles long and 1 mile wide. But the environmental movement of the 1960s and 1970s brought bitter opposition, and the plan was shelved in 1975. The land that had been acquired during the dam planning became a national park centered on 40 free-flowing miles of the Delaware River.

When visiting: Headquarters at River Road off Pa. Route 209, Bushkill, Pa. Visitor information: 570-234-1180.

Of note: Prickly pear cactusesare native and grow in a few places in the park.