Things to Do Around Lake Wallenpaupack

Lake Wallenpaupack is the anchor of the Pocono Lake Region — a 5,700-acre reservoir roughly 13 miles long with 52 miles of shoreline, straddling the Pike and Wayne county line in northeastern Pennsylvania. It isn't a natural lake: PPL built it in the mid-1920s by damming Wallenpaupack Creek at Wilsonville for hydroelectric power, and the dam and powerhouse are still working infrastructure today, now operated by Brookfield Renewable. Brookfield owns most of the shoreline, which is exactly why so much of the lake's edge is undeveloped woods, natural areas, and public recreation instead of wall-to-wall development.

Hawley, the commercial hub at the lake's north end, packs a walkable downtown, the restored 1880s Hawley Silk Mill full of shops and a coffee house, a 50-plus-year-old community playhouse, a large antique mall, and a trail network that runs from a D&H Canal lock toward the lake. Ring the shoreline and you'll find free trails at Shuman Point and Ledgedale, dam and dike overlooks that are among the best sunrise/sunset spots in the Poconos, and the only public swimming beach on the lake at Palmyra Township. A few miles out sit Promised Land State Park, the Dorflinger glass museum and wildlife sanctuary, Lacawac Sanctuary, and the Stourbridge Line excursion train out of Honesdale.

It's genuinely a four-season area: summer boating and mini golf, fall Route 6 leaf-peeping (ranked among America's best scenic drives), winter bald-eagle viewing and Hawley's Winterfest, spring wildflowers and the return of the farmers market. Use the guide below to build a day, then click through to the local businesses that make it happen.