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Falls of the Rensselaer Technology Park

Posted: Sat Oct 17, 2009 9:03 pm
by George
An 8-foot plunge with nice cascades above and below the falls, this is reached by a 20-minute walk on lands owned by RPI in North Greenbush.
Tech Park 1.jpg
Tech Park 1.jpg (245.12 KiB) Viewed 10938 times
Tech Park 3.jpg
Tech Park 3.jpg (251.47 KiB) Viewed 10938 times
Be sure to check out the cascades below the falls:
Tech Park 4.jpg
Tech Park 4.jpg (203.32 KiB) Viewed 10937 times
The trails throughout the park are used by the public, and maps are available. The falls is off the red trail, which follows an old dirt road by the creek. If you're interested, I can send you detailed directions to get to the falls.

Re: Falls of the Rensselaer Technology Park

Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2009 2:56 pm
by L_G_D
Cool, another one I haven't been to - how do you get there? I know where the tech park is, on route 4, right?

Re: Falls of the Rensselaer Technology Park

Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2009 9:17 am
by Matt
Excellent contrast there with the fall leaves and the dark rock. Another fantastic set of photos! :up: :up:

Re: Falls of the Rensselaer Technology Park

Posted: Sun Nov 22, 2009 9:43 pm
by George
It turns out there is another, larger set of falls here. I estimate the main falls to be about 50' feet high. The trails are marked as being funded by the Environmental Protection Fund, so I'm assuming they are open to the public.
Tech Park Main Falls.jpg
Tech Park Main Falls.jpg (223.17 KiB) Viewed 10862 times
Tech Park Main Falls Pano.jpg
The stream has worn down through a really loose shale that makes for some interesting scrambling
Shale & Fern.jpg
Shale & Fern.jpg (187.69 KiB) Viewed 10862 times
Loren - I'll send you the directions to these too

Re: Falls of the Rensselaer Technology Park

Posted: Mon Nov 23, 2009 10:05 am
by L_G_D
Cool, thanks. That looks like the standard Albany shale, not sure the technical geologic term, Oriskany, maybe? I'd have to look it up, but it's all over the Albany area, and in some places can have pockets/veins of quartz crystals in it.

Re: Falls of the Rensselaer Technology Park

Posted: Wed Nov 25, 2009 12:31 pm
by George
Here's a Google Earth shot of the main falls location. It's a short walk across the open field to a bridge and clearly marked trails to the falls. The lat and long are 42.684822 and -73.7065573 respectively. Unfortunately, the location of the smaller set is not as easily determined from Google Earth because new roads have been constructed in the area.

Matt, I'm not sure if you need locations for some of the falls I've posted, and what format is best for this. Drop me a note if you need anything for the annual update.
Tech Park Main.jpg

Re: Falls of the Rensselaer Technology Park

Posted: Fri Nov 27, 2009 9:27 am
by L_G_D
Looking on the aerial view on bing, there seems to be another small fall downstream a bit.

Bing map view

I did a couple screen grabs and patched them together and lightened it a bit, marked the two falls that I can see.

[img2]http://img410.imageshack.us/img410/1134/techpark.jpg[/img2]

Be sure to make your browser window wide enough to see the whole thing.

Re: Falls of the Rensselaer Technology Park

Posted: Fri Nov 27, 2009 10:47 am
by George
I did see that second falls, and took a mediocre shot that I didn't post. That area had a lot of brush and someone flagged the stream bank with caution tape that I didn't feel like removing and replacing, like I did for the other shots. I guess the danger of slippery rocks, flaking shale and a 20-foot drop for the lower falls wasn't self-evident.

My guesstimate for the area of the smaller set of falls is shown here in the white polygon. I was hoping that it was on a tributary that merged with the main falls stream somewhere downstream, but it looks like they are separate drainages.
Area of Second Falls.jpg
I may try to get out this weekend with the GPS to get coordinates.