Thatcher State Park

This Saturday we decided to enjoy the cooler weather (highs in the 60s) at Thatcher State Park, just a few miles southwest of our apartment. We walked along the edge of the escarpment that had views all across eastern New York, downtown Albany and to the mountains of Vermont.

Further along the escarpment we could see two waterfalls flowing over the edge so we walked along the ridge towards them.

I overheard some people talking about Indian Ladder trail so we walked towards the trail head and down three flights of metal steps on the face of the cliff. The trail ran along the escarpment, about half way down. Those who enjoy geology would have loved seeing all the layers of the rocks and the streams trickling out of the limestone.

The trail ended up going behind both the waterfalls which was really cool, they were pretty big too! I'm in the front for scale in this first one.

Back up the stairs at the end of the trail (it wasn't that long, less than a mile) we came upon a car shown at the trail head where you had to pay to park. Glad we parked at the other end of the park where it was free! Instead of looking at the cars we walked along another trail away from the ridge. There were a lot of hiking/skiing/biking/snowmobiling trails back there and they were pretty deserted - we only saw 3 other people up there. Hopefully we can go back and snowshoe some of those trails when the snow comes.

On the way home we were starving (didn't bring any lunch with us) and we stopped at Smithy's Tavern in Voorheesville, NY which was a bar/pizza joint. It was delicious and good value. We each had a small - I had pineapple and spinach and Matt had a hot Hawaiian and we just about finished them. I will definitely go back there for pizza!

All in all, a pretty successful day.