Adventure & Outdoor Recreation on Lake Wallenpaupack

Lake Wallenpaupack is the engine room of outdoor recreation in the Pocono Mountains' northeastern corner — roughly 5,700 acres, 13 miles long, up to 60 feet deep, wrapped by 52 miles of shoreline. It isn't natural; it was created in 1926 when a dam was built on Wallenpaupack Creek at Wilsonville. Today the lake is managed under a FERC hydroelectric license by Brookfield Renewable, whose license requires project lands and waters to stay open for public recreation — a big, deep, no-horsepower-limit lake with public launches, campgrounds, natural areas and trails all built into the license.

Summer means boating, waterskiing, wake surfing, tubing and kayaking out of a dozen marinas in Hawley, Lakeville, Tafton and Greentown, plus the lake's only legal swimming beach at Palmyra Township. Shoulder seasons belong to anglers and hikers — striped bass, walleye and trout on the water, and free public trail systems at Shuman Point, Ledgedale, the Wallenpaupack Lake and Creek Trails, the new Gorge Trail, and roughly 50 miles of trails in and around Promised Land State Park.

Winter is the part most first-timers miss: ice fishing, close to 115 miles of snowmobile trails in Delaware State Forest, and Ski Big Bear about a half-hour east. Add two 18-hole golf courses within minutes of the water and Lake Wallenpaupack works as a genuine four-season adventure base.