Glens Falls

A place to discuss waterfalls. Including the parks that house them and the hikes to get to them.

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L_G_D
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A couple weeks ago, some friends and I decided to try to catch the Adirondack Balloon Festival in Queensbury. Since the launch was at 6:30 AM, the general consensus was that if we got there a bit late and caught the last of it, that would be fine. Turns out getting there an hour and a half late means you are just arriving when everyone who got there early is just leaving, as everything is over with. FYI, if you want to catch the dawn launch, be there at about 5 AM, or camp over night.

Anyway, after that debacle, we got some breakfast and decided to check out Glens Falls which was just down the road a ways, and then look around the Hyde Museum which is right nearby as well. So, off to the falls. I knew there was some kind of access but no details. There is a small history museum, which was closed when we were there, and a park with the usual outdoor amenities, and public bathrooms in the rear of the museum building. There are walkways and stairs leading down to the falls, which are under the route 9 bridge (of course), next to a power plant (of course), and upstream from some heavy industrial buildings like the Finch Paper plant (of course).

The map link in the waterfalls list is a bit off, it's north a few hundred feet from the actual falls, this link is on top of the bridge, look around and you can see the top of the dam above the falls and the industrial buildings surrounding them, plus a little bit of the falls through the fence.

Once we got down to the lower parking area, which only has room for one or two cars, at most, and one of the spaces is marked handicapped only (that may be the only space there), there is a fenced walkway over one channel of the river to a viewing platform with signs explaining the industry and history of the falls, mostly focusing on Cooper's Cave and the Last of the Mohicans story which takes place there. We looked around, and there is a gate in the fence leading out onto the island (peninsula really) that the river flows around after it goes over the falls. The gate was unlocked, so we walked out and looked around and started taking pictures, not thinking any more about it, since the same situation exists at Cohoes Falls, it didn't seem out of the ordinary. It was, but more on that later.

First, a general shot of the right side of the area, showing the dam and some of the buildings around it.

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The first falls you see, though, is this set.

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A couple close up views of the main falls

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My friend doing some photography near one of the upper falls

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And my shot of the same

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We were walking around, and I wanted to look at the lower end of the area near the cave, so I was walking down the rocks looking around and glanced back at the fenced area we came through to see where our other friend was, and noticed a very annoyed looking member of the Glens Fall Police Department motioning to me to come over, so I did. Apparently, that gate we walked through was supposed to be locked at all times and we weren't supposed to be out on the rocks. He knew it wasn't our fault, there were no signs or other markings that you weren't supposed to go out there, just the gate. If it had been locked, I wouldn't have thought to even try to go there. But since it wasn't he was actually very apologetic, and just locked the gate again. He was a bit confused as to why the gate was open, but he wasn't aware of there being any public access out there at all, but maybe the gate is opened when the conditions are right, like at Cohoes Falls. I mentioned this to him, just to let him know that it might be the same here, but didn't press the issue.

So, if that is the case, and access is usually restricted, we had the one chance to get out there and get some pictures. If you do go there and the gate is open, then maybe policy has changed, but don't count on it. Otherwise, you will have to settle for views through the fence of the falls and the cave.
LGD
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Des219
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Sounds like an eventful trip. Glad the cop did not hassle you.
L_G_D
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Yeah it was interesting, and the cop really didn't blame us, as we had no idea. He was more confused or even angry as to why the gate was open. I guess that water can be released over the dam at any time, at least that's the way it seemed to me, but that day the water was pretty low, as evidenced by the photos. There was only what was leaking around the gates really, there wasn't any actually going over the top of the dam.
LGD
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