It’s too early to go looking for wildflowers in the Adirondacks and the deciduous trees there are still bare, but it’s the perfect time to enjoy waterfalls. All the brooks and streams are swollen, cascading down the mountains toward wide rivers and deep lakes. Where barely a trickle will be noticed in the heat of summer, one will find rushing water in April and May. That means the waterfalls are roaring.
Most of my Adirondack hikes take me up mountains, but yesterday, I decided to go “down” instead of “up.” From a parking area on Route 28 east of Indian Lake, I trekked into a forest that was off limits to the public until New York State acquired it from the Finch-Pruyn Lumber Company a few years ago. The area contains the Essex Chain of Lakes and also features the longest vertical drop for a waterfall anywhere in the Adirondacks. Less than a mile from where the OK Slip Brook empties into the Hudson River, it plunges 250 feet into a deep gorge.
Two years ago, the DEC cut a 3.2-mile trail that leads hikers to the east side of the gorge, where an overlook provides a spectacular, unobstructed view of OK Slip Falls from its head to its base. I was fortunate enough to reach the overlook during the rather narrow window of time when, on a cloudless day like yesterday, the sun illuminates the full length of the falls and drapes a rainbow across its middle.
Just above the overlook, the trail intersects with an extension that leads to the Hudson River. It descends slightly and crosses the OK Slip Brook within sight of the head of the falls. Before I crossed the bridge, I scrambled out to the edge of the cliff and peered (a bit nervously)
Of course, hiking “down” means you have to hike back “up” to get back to your car. The walk out was not as strenuous as most mountain climbs nearby, but it was enough of an ascent (about 750 feet) to reacquaint me with all the muscles in my legs. The entire route from the parking area to the Hudson River Gorge and back covers 8.6 miles.
Before I hiked out of the woods, I made a second visit to the falls overlook. They appeared different than they had earlier. The sunlight was no longer bathing the gorge. The lower light afforded me the ability to adjust my camera settings for a longer exposure that gave the water a silky appearance – a whole different kind of beauty (see below).
I sat and gazed at that roaring brook spilling into a deep gorge, crashing down on the rocks below, and realized that this same sight must have captivated the natives of this region centuries ago. And before any human beings roamed this forest, untold numbers of birds, deer, and moose had heard and seen this waterfall, which was left behind when glaciers melted at the end of the Ice Age some 11,000 years ago.
That’s one reason I need to go to the woods every now and then. They put everything in perspective. Most of the things that raise our blood pressure and disquiet our souls are transient. We forget how short human history – let alone a single life span – is in comparison to the age of the planet we inhabit. When I climb to the top of a rocky peak and survey the wilderness all around me, or marvel at high falls that have been cutting through rock for longer than humanity has been a part of ecology, I see raw creation – infinitely more complex and beautiful than anything human technology, even at its best, can ever produce.
Attentive souls will recognize the glory of God in all sorts of circumstances and settings. We find God in backyard gardens and crowded city streets, in loved ones sitting across the table from us, in myriad examples of compassion and generosity, and in gatherings of diverse people drawn together into a spirit of worship. I revel in all these “God moments.” But, at least for me, there is no substitute for encountering pure wilderness – life unfolding slowly and organically, guided by no schemes other than those designed by the Creator. Such beauty can never be manufactured, but only beheld, enjoyed and met with wonder and praise.
©2016 by J. Mark Lawson
A very soothing escape, thanks for sharing it. It certainly does put things in perspective.
Posted by: Elaine | 05/11/2016 at 08:59 PM