A bunch of  us went on one of my favorite hikes, which is the Cliff Park Trail System.  We parked at the main parking lot at Raymond Skill Falls, walked past the Cliff Park Golf Course and climbed up to the peak where we had planned to enjoy spectacular views of the Delaware River Valley.  Unfortunately, the fog was still thick so all we saw was a sea of white.  From there we hiked down first to Hackers Falls, which is a favorite swimming hole for many locals and then to Raymond Skill Falls, which is is the tallest waterfall in the state, and only 4 feet shorter than Niagara.

Cliff Park dates from a land grant from the English king in 1627 when the Buchanan family, who were the original owners and innkeepers of Cliff Park Inn, came to America from Scotland. In 1913, the rolling sheep’s meadow which surround the inn was transformed and hosted its first full season of golf. The course was one of the first dozen to be opened in the U.S., the second in the country to be designed as a public course, the first in the world to be developed and owned by a woman, and the first in the nation to allow women to play golf. In 2001, the extensive grounds were incorporated into Delaware Water Gap Recreational Area, which is the largest national park east of the Mississippi River. It has 70,000 pristine acres that encompass a natural bowl surrounded by mountains and stone cliffs overlooking the Delaware River Valley.