Charlie Fineran’s Photo of the Week is of a beautiful, pristine and calm water pool located in Van Campens Upper Glen, in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area.

There is something surreal about this site, the surrounding rock walls with embedded Rhododendron, gently hanging off the façade, the mirror like calm water, ever casting different shades and hues of blues and greens, all amid steep wooded slopes.  Our Winter Wonderland theme with the pristine white blanket of snow has its very own unique contribution to this truly special setting!

The Upper Glen, just like the Lower Glen, has that special lighting/high-lighting effect, created by sunlight broken into mini sunrays, as they gently filter through the thick canopy.  Add a gentle breeze, a moving light show begins, creating flickers of light, over everything in the glen!  Just as the lighting is ever changing, so is flow of the brook!  Upstream from the pool, Van Campens Brook, tumbles over rocky cascades and then races along red sandstone chutes, as it flows down into the glen.  Water enters the pool and suddenly all movement seems to abate, a repose in the mirror like pool.  The water at the far edge of the pool, as if rested and now restless, bursts again into its journey, dropping over a ledge with a fanfare of spray and mist, entering into a series of cascades within a narrow rock lined chasm, finally splashing over the Upper Glen Water Falls.

To fully explain and understand this site, please keep this in mind:  This is a visit where your senses are wetted every step of your visit and the scenarios above constantly are in play – A SPECIAL JOURNEY!!  This is a wonderful experience for young and old.

Our visit begins at the parking lot of Van Campens Upper Glen.  Crossing Old Mine Road, the visitor enters an old dirt road, and in a short distance you are on a bridge going over Van Campens Brook.  Looking south from the bridge you see the brook dropping quickly into the glen.  In a short distance the road intersects the Yellow Trail, Van Campens Glen Trail connecting to Millbrook Village if you turn left, or, turn right, it takes you down into and through Van Campens Upper and Lower Glens ending at the picnic area in the Lower Glen.  I like these snow visits, they present a picture most people are not going to experience.  During my visit, I was wearing metal micro-spikes for traction.  I still needed to make a couple of detours off the trail because of icy conditions along the trail.  I almost made it to the pool, but the trail was narrow and right by the water, so I back tracked and scampered up through the trees and then dropped back down near the pond.  Just like my snow visit to the Lower Glen, I ended my visit, scrambling up through the side of the glen to the road, was by far the safest way.

Your Flickr photo tour has lots of images, I recommend you preview the photos scanning through the pages of photos and enlarge what catches your fancy before activating your slide show.  Remember, these photos aren’t going anywhere, visit when you want as many times as you want!!  You can always reach my site by Googling – Charlie Fineran – Flickr

Please visit my Flickr site for the photos https://www.flickr.com/photos/charliefineran/albums/72157693778914125

Hope you enjoy your visit inside Van Campens Upper Glen located Inside Warren

Charlie Fineran

Yours in Open Space!