Lehigh Gap Nature Center — Attraction in Washington Township

My friends and I were hiking the Lehigh Gap - Rt. 309 section of the AT, and I had to park my truck somewhere overnight. The labeled AT "parking lot" was a tiny gravel patch in the corner of a highway intersection across the bridge; not somewhere you would want to leave your vehicle overnight. After stressing about where to park for a while, we went to the Lehigh Gap Nature Center, hoping they would allow us to park there. We called them (because of Covid they were not allowing visitors inside) and the friendly staff member came outside to meet us (never got his name, but he was a really nice person). I left my vehicle details with him and he gave me a paper to put on my dash. He also let me know a park ranger lives at the Center in an apartment, so someone will likely be there overnight. The staff member was really happy we called to ask to leave our vehicle overnight, so PLEASE: if you're leaving your vehicle parked here overnight to hike the AT, just call them and let them know. It's not a problem at all and otherwise you...

If you’re in the area this place is worth the visit! I didn’t get a chance to see inside the nature center since it was closed when we got there, but the grounds around it were superb and captivated my 5 and 12 year old’s mind and imagination. I enjoyed the walk and sensory garden myself.

There is a healthy ecosystem with so many flowers, insects, and signs to read and learn about the plant or insects that habitat those plants.

We did a moderate trail on the AT next to this center with a group the following day. There’s a few different options for trails (easy to difficult) here I wish we would have tried.

There’s also a picnic pavilion at the bottom of the sensory garden near a bike trail and porta potties that were clean and smelled good (important to me since nature center was closed).

There’s so much more that I didn’t mention. Definitely nice spot to stop with...

4/2025 took a drive on Easter Sunday. Came down here to check out the canoe / kayak/boat ramp. Pretty easy access and also was checking out the construction of the bridge. Overall the park looked pretty good I didn't do any walking yet but I plan to. It's always peaceful being down near the river and I highly suggest everyone get out and enjoy the nice weather when you can.

It looks like there might be limited parking down at the end of the park but if you want a little walk before you go into the hike through the rocks and mountainside there is more parking as you first enter the park as you will see. . Mostly all the walkways are gravel and so forth until you get to the more steep areas which just become very rocky very quickly. However handicap people or limited mobility people could get around fairly well on the flat paths and see some sites of the...