| Directions
From I-87's exit 26, get on US 9 north.
About 1/2 mile north of where US 9 passes under I-87,
Natural Stone Bridge Road will exit on the left. This
road will terminate in about 2.4 miles at the Natural
Stone Bridge & Caves parking area.
|
| County: |
Warren |
| Town: |
Chester |
| USGS Map: |
Chestertown |
| Waterway: |
Trout Brook |
| Latitude: |
N 43°
44' 51" |
| Longitude: |
W 73°
51' 08" |
| Drop: |
15' |
| Type: |
Curtain cascade |
| Region: |
Off US 9 near
Pottersville |
| Parking: |
Unpaved lot |
| Trail type: |
Dirt |
| Length of
hike: |
0.5 mile |
| Difficulty: |
Easy |
| Accessibility: |
Commercial
attraction |
| Name: |
Common |
|
There are several waterfalls
located in the Natural Stone Bridge & Caves commercial attraction.
The first one you will see is on the right just before reaching
the parking lot. There is a man-made waterfall and pond at
the entrance to the facility.
Once you enter the gift shop area and pay your admission fee
($12.98 plus tax for adults in 2013), you proceed on a self-guided
tour of the grounds. As a commercial attraction, it is only
open during specified hours, days and times of the year. The
grounds are not accessible when they are closed.
They promote the stone bridge arch here as "the LARGEST
marble cave entrance in the east". There are many things
to do at this attraction. In addition to their gift shop,
you can mine for rocks, crystals and gems. There are also
climbing walls. During July and August, you can take a guided
adventure tour of what they call "a real cave crawl and float
experience". We were especially intrigued by the fact
that this location has been owned by the same family for over 200
years! An ancestor was granted this land for his service in
the American Revolution.
In addition to the man-made falls, there are several more waterfalls
on the grounds. The first one you will come to is the Sawmill
Site Falls, a curtain cascade of about fifteen feet.
This is the main waterfall at this facility. Just downstream
from here, the channel splits around Meditation Isle. River
right goes through a long slide while the left branch is a narrow
cascade. Just downstream of this, the brook splits three ways.
On the right side of the channel, the water plunges into an area
called Noisy Cave as it begins its descent underground. To
the left of this, the middle branch drops into a gorge and then
into an area call the Lost Pool Cave. On the left side of the brook,
water flows through the entrance of the Natural Stone Bridge.
A cascade is formed here as this descends below the ground.
On the left side of this entrance, there is a section called Fiddlestring
Falls. One of the information stations tell you that for over
100 years, strings of water have been falling from the Natural Stone
Bridge. In 2006, this suddenly changed and now the water comes
down the face of the bridge, forming iron deposits on the surface.
None of the waterfalls in this facility are officially named.
The owner told us that even the brook was once called Natural Stone
Bridge Creek but that was changed some one hundred years ago.
The Trout Brook flows into the Schroon River just south of Pottersville
and Schroon Lake. This then empties into the Hudson River
just south of Warrensburg. The Hudson flows into the Atlantic
Ocean in New York City.
Last update: October 12, 2016
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