Poconos is a mountainous region located in Pennsylvania, bounded by Delaware Valley, Wyoming Valley and Lehigh Valley and has the status of a popular vacation spot, especially for those who live in near-by states and cities like New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia and other cities.
Me and my husband are very fond of planning road trips, especially if it is just a long weekend like Thanks Giving weekend or New Years Eve. This time we thought of going to Poconos that our family friends suggested. From New York, the place is only two and a half hours away and scenery is so beautiful that I honestly wanted journey to never end.
The place is better known for magnificent gold courses and golf lessons. Since my husband is very fond of playing Golf, we especially booked Shawnee Inn Golf Resort for this purpose. Our resort was extremely beautiful with a beautiful lake view from front of the hotel, a bank from Delaware River. The hotel is located in Delaware, Pennsylvania and near attractions were Poconos Mountain for hikers, skiing, golfing, camping, gambling, fishing, Delaware State Forest, which is a natural rainforest with 7 water-falls.
History of the resort was very interesting, we were told that years ago, this part was a glacier known as Wisconsin Glacier, which when melted formed the Delaware Valley, part of which is now called as Shawnee. Indians were the first inhabitants and later populated by other peoples. Today Shawnee Resort includes a mountain area for skiing, golf course and other outdoor activities and hotel itself. Surrounding area is occupied by locals forming Shawnee Village.
Our first day of stay, we got to see a wonderful American wedding in the lawn by the lake and it was amazing view for the pictures and ofcourse very romantic place to start a new journey. Next day we planned to visit Bushkill Falls, which is just 10 minutes away from Shawnee resort. The unique part of the Bushkill Fall was perhaps the trail track, which were kept in natural condition and no paths were created for visitors. The entire tour was divided into 4 tracks or paths depending upon individual feasibility. God knows what got into me and I decided to take the longest track, which obviously was not a very good choice as we took almost 5 hrs to finish the track. But it was definitely worth it as we captured some spectacular shots that later on amused all my friends. Bushkill falls is also known as Niagara Falls of Pennsylvania, is a series of 8 Falls, which are also called 8 sisters. Other attractions, besides hiking were paddle boating, fishing, miniature golfing and Native American exhibits. It was indeed a full day tour and after that we were not able to do anything
At our resort, we were told that the local farmers are organizing a Garlic Festival at Shawnee Mountains, which is supposedly a big event as we have seen the enthusiasm of all the locals and upon inquiring we were told that it is celebrated every year to celebrate the “Harvesting Season”. Garlic Festival was fun, primarily because of the beautiful scenery and location, but more so because of the excellent food items available at very reasonable rate. Atleast it was my first chance to taste “Garlic Ice-cream”.
Over all, it you have just a few days off from work, Poconos Mountain is the best place to visit. However if you have weeks, I suggest you should pick some other place as you may not found any new activity after 5 days.