High Falls Conservation Area, Philmont

[Trudy]

I checked out this new park for the first time this week. Due to the excessive rain, High Falls was roaring.

If you're driving to the Berkshires this would be a good destination to incorprate. It's only a half mile walk to the falls, but at 150 feet high they are quite spectacular.

Until recently this was all private property and the falls was not legally accessible.

Info: A 47-acre preserve managed by the Columbia Land Conservancy. Trails end at a viewpoint directly across from the falls, which drop over an old spillway at the top of a ravine. Open dawn to dusk.

Directions: Rt. 23 east through Claverack to Rt 217. Just after Mellenville and just before Philmont, turn right on Roxbury Rd. at the town garage. The conservation area is 200 yards up the hill on the left. There is a large parking lot.

 

[Mark Schaefer]

Trudy, Thanks for the info! I had not heard of this Preserve before. I will stop in the next time I am up that way. I am always looking for "new" waterfalls.

I did a quick google search and found the High Falls Conservation Area on the Columbia Land Conservancy website. The site has photos and downloadable maps of this and several other attractive preserves of which I was also unaware. A great find. Again thanks for the good lead.

 

[JeffAndrews]

I read about this place recently and put it on my mental list of places I wanted to check out. Thanks to your post I'm moving it up on the list and with any luck will get there before this great weather goes away!

BTW - It's nice to know that there is someone else from Hudson on VFTT.

 

[Trudy]

Other cool places

The Columbia Land Conservancy has done a great job saving some unique habitats. I still want to check out the Hand Hollow Preserve.

The CLC's Greenport Conservation Area is close to home and has nice trails and views over North Bay and the Hudson River. Trails can be wet there; it's best visited during a dry spell.

The CLC's partner in conservation, The Nature Conservancy, manages two of my favorite places: Louis A. Swyer Preserve on Rt. 9J in Stuyvesant, a rare freshwater tidal swamp, and Thompson Pond in Pine Plains. Thompson Pond is such a unique ecosystem - a combination of swamp, marsh, pond and upland forest - that it is accorded its own extensive exhibit in NYC's American Museum of Natural History. Plus you can climb up to the firetower on adjacent Stissing Mountain for great views.

Also very high on my list of favorite places: Tivoli Bays in Dutchess County and Ram's Horn and Cohotate Preserves in Greene County. At Cohotate you can hike right down to the Hudson River and walk along the bank at low tide. It's the site of an old icehouse and there are signboards with info and photos about how it was all done.