A Winter Walk: Canal Park Allentown

As simple as yesterday’s post about the seasons, today I offer views of winter from Canal Park. The first picture is of the canal itself, frozen over.

Down a bit, past the bridge, the canal has been refilling itself since the towpath breach was mended. Sadly, the water is rising before anyone had the chance to clean the garbage out, as the rusted out garbage can poking out of the water makes painfully evident.


On this beautiful winter afternoon, I was joined in my journey by two young ladies named Abby and Jamie who were making their first trip to Canal Park.

I have mentioned numerous times the things I believe should be done down in Canal Park to revitalize and reinvigorate the place but the thing that irks me the most is the log on the dam which has been there now for as long as I can remember. I hope someone with the professional ability to remove such a thing does so next summer.

In closing, I leave this view of winter with a quite literal view of death. The still fleshy and bloody bones of what appears to be a decomposing goose seems a fitting image for both winter and Canal Park as it is.

The Canal Parks: Northampton

Taking the advantage of an unseasonably warm (mid-forties) December afternoon with no precipitation, I hurriedly made my way to the Northampton Canal park yesterday upon waking. The Lehigh Canal had as much historical impact in this area as did the Bethlehem Steel (You can read about it here), and now, years after the industries that used the canal to rise to importance have faded; the history is preserved in a series of parks connected by the D+L towpath.

This Canal Park is located about 4 towpath trodden miles from the Canal Park in Hanover Township. The D+L trail saunters in under a high bridge and meets the Northampton Canal Park over the mingling of the Hokendaqua Creek and the Lehigh River. As it enters the park, the towpath looks as it does in Hanover Township. It is surrounded by young trees and a mostly empty Lehigh Canal.


The Canal itself disappears in Northampton and where it was, this park now exists. There is still a reminder here and there of what once was a bustling waterway of industry.


The Northampton Canal Park is about 2 miles long. It runs alongside the Lehigh River with a paved trail, buffeted from Northampton itself by ball fields, occasional playgrounds, and exercise equipment.

This ribbon of park is unique even in the briefest observation. With the wild river on one side and the typical recreational aspect of a city park on the other, depending on the angle of eyesight, it would be hard to determine whether one was standing on a trail of wilderness or on a trail of recreational managed wildlife.


Of the four Canal Parks I have visited on Remember, the experience at each one has been completely different. Here in Northampton, I felt the greatest connection to the Lehigh River especially without the Lehigh Canal present inside the park.

The park ends at a small dam in the River near another bridge.

A D+L towpath trail head signals the journey ahead that will take the trail out of the cement belt and into coal country.

While visiting the park, I must tell you of a rather unique experience, the likes of which I have yet to be witness to anywhere else. As I walked down the park’s path, I saw a group of Canadian Geese meandering about in one of the baseball fields.

They paid little attention to me as I passed and I climbed down the bank of the river to meet the water. There was another group of geese there, and these fellows seemed rather bothered by my presence and immediately fled into the swollen waters of the river. As they began moving swiftly with the river’s current, one of the geese began honking wildly. I turned to listen and heard a response from one of the geese in the ball field. I climbed back up to the park path listening to an increasingly frantic call and response from the two geese that were now separated by the angry river. Getting back on to the path, I saw the geese from the ball field rapidly waddling ahead of me towards the river.

The call and response continued loudly and seemingly worriedly. The geese from the ball field made their way in the Lehigh, stopping to take a drink first.

A few minutes later and the call and response ceased. I walked back towards the parking lot and turned to see the geese reunited, bobbing in the swift water, silently. I suppose, that briefly, I was lucky to hear the Goose Music of Aldo Leopold in the Northampton Canal Park.

“If, then, we can live without goose music, we may as well do away with stars, or sunsets, or Iliads. But the point is that we would be fools to do away with any of them.” –Aldo Leopold

See Also:
Canal Park (Allentown): Complete Park Log
Sand Island Park
Canal Park: Hanover Township

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.

The Canal Parks: Hanover Township

I had no idea there was a Canal Park in Hanover Township. I went out in search of Catasaqua Lake. Using Google maps, I found it down the road from Kimmet’s Lock on Dauphin Street just past the Allentown city line. When I pulled into the parking lot I saw that sign.

I realized for the first time that I had discovered a series of “Canal Parks” along the Lehigh starting with Hugh Moore Park and appearing all the way through Northampton. I have offered extensive coverage of Allentown’s Canal Park and I have also posted about Bethlehem’s park on the canal, Sand Island Park. It is my belief that to better understand the current situation at our Canal Park, it is of the utmost importance to visit these other canal parks and as always, I am going to be taking you with me.

This Canal Park begins with an area of pavilions and historical preservation.



There are two signs with species identifications on them that include types of birds and fish seen in the park. I haven’t seen signs like this anywhere in Allentown’s park system and I think they could be a valuable addition to some of our parks, especially the more naturalized ones.

Like Sand Island, there is direct preservation of former canal fixtures in this park. These are not the D and R preservation pieces seen there and at other points along the towpath trail. These are unique to this Canal Park.


To the left of The Locktender’s House a trail is cut through the woods. It is a beautiful walk that follows alongside the empty canal bed and eventually under the rather high Route 22 Bridge.



The trail ends abruptly in what appears to be someone’s backyard. I have too often been trespassing this summer trying to discover things. On my way back I was amazed at the contrast in front of me. I could have been in a any Eastern Pennsylvanian forest but with a slight turn of the head I could see busy Dauphin Street buzzing with cars and activity.

Back in the park, I saw a very familiar Canal Park staple:

The towpath returns.

Here, the towpath follows the still empty Canal on one side and borders Catasaqua Lake on the other. Due to the wet summer that we have been having a very small amount of standing water has developed in parts of the idle canal.

At the end of the lake, the trail splits. One path leads on to the next Canal Park in Northampton and the other loops back around Catasaqua Lake and to the parking lot. I opted to explore this Canal Park further and save the trip to Northampton for another day. The lake is much more like Muhlenberg Lake than Lake Nockamixon. Parts of this park appear very much to be influenced by the presence of wetlands and the shallow lake serves to prove it.

There is a “pier” here. I put pier in quotes because it appears to be a long piece of plastic formed to look like wood anchored by four metal poles. The thing shakes and bends with every footstep and I really did not want to fall in, so it made me a bit nervous to walk on.

There are an abundance of things worth checking out at this Canal Park. It is unparalleled as far as maintenance and preservation go.I am saving a complete comparison until I have visited all of them. Rest assured, the close proximity of this park makes it worth a visit to any Allentonian. I took a lot from my visit to Hanover Township’s Canal Park and with Sand Island behind me I look forward to visiting Northampton and Hugh Moore to really see what is possible and what needs to be avoided concerning the future of our Canal Park.

See Also:
The Canal Parks (Thus Far)

Directions from 15th and Chew in Allentown:

View From Allentown to Canal Park,Hanover Township in a larger map

Allentown Park Log? Wasteland

For years, driving across the Hamilton Street Bridge I have been curious as to what exactly was riverside across from Canal Park. It appears to be a walkable area and it would also seem to offer some very unique views of the Lehigh River. Over the weekend I found access to this area and finally got to take a stroll there. This area is not considered part of the Allentown park system.


On parts of this nearly lunar landscape, I half expected Mad Max to join me as I walked on the large smooth rocks.


There is a major ruin here and I have absolutely no idea what it was. The ruin certainly adds to the post apocalyptic vibe.



Farther down, the wasteland grows greener and views of Canal Park across the river are outstanding.


The stroll ended at the railroad tracks. It appeared as if a trail was at one time accessible on the other side but being as late as it is in summer and given how wet this summer has been, the path was entirely overgrown.

Standing there I couldn't help but think of how fantastic it would be to see a foot bridge connecting this small river access area to Canal Park. The access area could serve as a wonderful gateway to nearby Fountain Park and could connect with any waterfront development on the other side of Hamilton if it ever happened. I have a million and one ideas about how to improve Canal Park and this area could really play into it. Spending time by the Lehigh I am also amazed just how little we use the area despite the fact that Allentown is in fact a river city. Hopefully future development of the long awaited Lehigh Landing comes in tandem with a sorely needed redevelopment of Canal Park and perhaps a development of this "river access area".

Walking back, looking down river past the dam it is easy to become awestruck at the vast amount of history in one glance. The steeple of the Immaculate Conception Church stands as a neighboor to the increasingly poor looking Neuweiler Beer Factory; the old iron trestle bridge looms in the distance and always the city itself sits watching, just as I did, there walking in the wasteland down by the river.