Delaware Gap - Mt. Tammany Trail

For our last day in the Delaware Gap area, we drove to the New Jersey side of the Delaware Gap to hike Mt. Tammany.  The temperatures were warmer today but the skies were still clear and fall blue.  We began our hike up the rocky Red Dot portion of the trail...

...which is a shorter way to the top but very steep...

...and very rocky.

We reached an overlook where we could see the Delaware River...

...and the Highlands of New Jersey.

Had we reached the top?  No.  So we continued climbing up and up.

and up...very carefully.

We finally reached the top of Mt. Tammany...

...and walked out to the overlook...

....to try to take a picture that might capture the beauty of The Gap.

We sat on the rocks to rest and eat a snack and enjoy the views from the top of Mt. Tammany.

After resting a few minutes, we followed the Red Dot Trail around the top.

This group of ferns have turned to their fall colors too.

We decided to hike back down the Blue Dot trail to the trailhead because Ken and Bonnie had hiked it before and knew that while it would be longer and still rocky, it would not be as steep.  When we stopped about halfway down, Bonnie quickly erected one of her famous rock cairns.

As Ken promised, the last portion of the trail was really nice as we followed along a stream on much more level ground.

And as a bonus, we were actually hiking on the Appalachian Trail for the last 2/10 of the trail.

After completing the 3.4 mile loop to the top of Mt. Tammany and back, all of our knees and feet and backs were pretty tired.  At Bonnie's suggestion, we stopped at Dairy Queen on the way back for ice cream before heading back to begin getting ready to leave tomorrow.

The Northeastern portion of our Fall Leaf Tour closed on top of Mt. Tammany.

But we're not finished yet.  We're going to chase those beautiful fall leaves all the way down through Virginia, Tennessee and Georgia.  We can't wait!  :)