Epic Posts you may have Missed

I wanted to bring attention to some posts that may have flown under the radar here on Remember. Given that over the last six months the primary focus of this blog was the parks of Allentown and the situations therein, most of the writing on here was dedicated to just that. I did however have the opportunity to visit some parks in Easton and Bethlehem as well as make a few journeys to wildlands a bit farther from the confines of the Valley cities.

So today, I will link to some posts about these places that you may have missed the first time around but are absolutely worth a look, even if it is the second time you have seen them. Click on the name to get to the original post.

1. Bake Oven Knob

Here is a place, in our own backyard, with the pure majesty that only unsolicited wild nature can provide. High on the ridge of Appalachian Mountains that form the northern border of our Valley sits an exposed peak of rock from which, on a clear day, you can see straight across the Valley past Allentown and to the South Mountain. If you’ve never made the trip there, I suggest you do it is simply incredible.

2. Sand Island Park

One of the larger parks in the city of Bethlehem, Sand Island stretches between the Lehigh River, The Monacacy Creek and the Lehigh Canal. This park provides startling close views of the rusting remains of the Bethlehem Steel as well as beautiful vistas of the Lehigh River. Present here is the D+L towpath trail that stretches from Canal Park in Allentown through Sand Island Park and all the way to Freemansburg. Sand Island is a beautiful park and definitely worth a look if only to provide a good example of the unused potential of our own Canal Park.

3. The Forks of the Delaware

In downtown Easton, the Lehigh River flows over a dam and meets its end in the Delaware. If that doesn’t have you sold, there is ample history present in Canal preservation. There is a visible Shad ladder and the opportunity to walk across a bridge and visit New Jersey if you feel so inclined. This is one of my favorite places to visit around here. Watching the two bodies of water embrace and flow onwards as one is incredible. I could sit there and watch for days.

4. Canal Park-Hanover Township

This park surprised me silly. I didn’t know the extent to which this park existed before going there; I just knew that there was a water body named Catasauqua Lake which piqued my interest. This is a great park that acknowledges its history and again sets a great example for future developments at our own Canal Park. The Lake I mentioned isn’t much of a lake, it is more of a long pond and when I visited it was the end of summer and the presence of algae indicated exactly that and of course the presence of excess nutrients. This park is very close to Allentown, so close in fact, a trail may one day exist linking it to Kimmet’s Lock.

5. Whitehall Parkway

A beast. That is the only way I can describe this place succinctly. There is an abandoned quarry half filled with water with a boardwalk across the middle of it for viewing. There are ruins of some of the first concrete plants in our area scattered in the underbrush. The Ironton Rail Trail moves through the northern end of the park. I could keep going, but just check out the post. The place is crazy.


When the weather cooperates, school cooperates, and my car cooperates there are literally hundreds of destinations in and around the immediate area of the Lehigh Valley I look forward to visiting and documenting on here. Don’t worry, Allentown will always come first. There is however a plethora of incredible and amazing places to see so close to home, it would be a crime not to get to them.

Look forward later this week to a post about the Monacacy Nature Center in Bethlehem. I visited there in late summer and haven’t gotten around to posting about it yet. Thanks for reading.