Nay Aug City Park - Scranton, Pennsylvania

Nay Aug Park is a gem of a city park in Scranton, Pennsylvania. We had not heard of it until we were talking to the front desk clerk at our hotel about a waterfall picture on display in the lobby. When we found out it was less than ten minutes away, we quickly adjusted our itinerary to make a quick visit to the park on our October 2021 trip to Cape Cod National Seashore.

The phrase Nay Aug means "noisy water or roaring brook" in the language of the Munsee, a subgroup of the Lenape. The stream flowing through the park is named Roaring Brook. It flows into the Lackawanna River a couple of miles downstream of the Nay Aug Gorge.

The park was established in 1893 with just two acres of land. According to the park website, it is now the largest city park in Scranton. There are several large parking lots and two Olympic-size swimming pools. Several buildings and pavilions are located throughout the park. In addition, trails criss-cross the park. We only had a late afternoon to explore the park, so we focused on the gorge and the 20-foot-high waterfall. After we had parked and hiked across the park, we found additional parking much closer to our objective.

Schimilfenig Pavilion

David Wenzel Treehouse

Nay Aug Gorge

Rock outcrops like this split the park into several wide ledges

Park maps have been erected throughout the park

Typical trail conditions once off the roadway

Helpful sign

Stairs descending from one ledge to a lower one

Railroad tunnel

Railroad bridge over Roaring Brook

Looking back up the trail

Nay Aug Falls

Nay Aug Gorge and Falls

A small cascade above the falls

Fall colors

Grafitti at Rie Rie Overlook

Entrance to Nay Aug City Park is free. 

The Nay Aug City Park website is https://nayaugpark.org/.