This was my last photographic stop for the day. It had been a busy day. First, I took a look around Phoenix, NY, then traveled into downtown Syracuse, NY, then visited the Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse, NY, then hiked some of the trails of Green Lakes State Park between Syracuse and Utica, NY, and finally ended up at this impressive Chittenengo Falls near Utica, NY. (Location)
Each year, the water flowing over the lip of the falls erodes back some of the underlying material and the lip of the falls is slowly moving further upstream. Each year and each season, the nature of the falls changes. Since snowfall and rainfall had been plentiful this year, the water flowing over the falls, at the time of my visit, was certainly flowing forcefully.
The main road crosses over the river just a short distance above the falls and looking upstream from under the bridge gives some idea of the volume and the velocity of the water flow at this point in the river.
From this point under the bridge, turning to look downstream, the river very quickly disappears over the lip of the falls.
There is an iron bridge that crosses the river at the foot of the falls and to get down to the bridge, before light faded too much, was my goal for the day.
Since there is a bridge at the base, it is possible to walk down a trail to one end of the bridge, cross over the bridge, and then climb up a trail on the other side of the gorge. The easiest route is from the parking lot side of the falls. As the sign states, the trail is not designed for high-heeled shoes :-). On a day like today, when rain had been falling, the steps down were particularly slippery and the trail up provided some challenges but not overly tough or dangerous with proper footwear.
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