First things first, we love waterfalls and anything that resembles a waterfall!! We love hiking to waterfalls, we love driving by waterfalls.. Anything that has to do with waterfalls, we love it! We saw photos online of New Croton Dam and it was only a 90 minute drive upstate to get there, so we decided to go check it out one afternoon!
The New Croton Dam was completed in 1906 and is about 300 feet tall. It supplies water to the residents of NYC and was the tallest dam in the world at the time it was completed. It is really unique because the spillway of the dam is partially man-made and partially natural! The water from the reservoir comes down the rocks like rapids and also spills over this huge step-like feature.
The drive up there was easy and went pretty fast especially since there was no traffic. As we pulled into the parking lot, we saw the Dam immediately!! The photos we saw beforehand didn’t do it any justice – it was such an awesome sight in person!! We parked and got out, ready to explore a little bit!!
The parking lot is pretty big, but I also read online that there is a secondary parking lot too in case the main parking lot fills up. We went during the week later in the day and I’d say the parking lot was about ⅓ full. I’m sure on the weekend, it’s a different story! Croton Gorge Park, at the base of the Dam, is a huge grassy area with some picnic tables, so it is really easy to set up a blanket and enjoy the good old outdoors! The retaining wall is huge and breathtaking.
We first went to the base of the falls and admired the view! There is a bridge that crosses over the spillway, so we decided to head to the top. We followed a path to the south of the park that led us to the top. There is a longer path that you can take with a slight incline so it is easier, or you can do what we did and take the shorter steeper path.
Within a few minutes, we were walking over the bridge to the Dam! The reservoir was to the right, and the park was down below to the left. Once we got near the Dam, the view of the reservoir was really amazing! It was the perfect blend of nature and the man-made structure. We stayed at the top of the Dam for a little bit, enjoying the view and taking photos.
We headed back down from the Dam on a shortcut of the longer trail. Instead of heading back to the car right away, we decided to do some more exploring!! There are a few different trails in the park which are all pretty flat. New York state’s Old Croton Aqueduct Trail starts at the park, so there are miles and miles of trails to walk! We walked along the “River Trail” which wasn’t really on the river. After a while, we took a detour down a small path and ended up along our own personal river trail!! We only saw one other person on our detour – and she had the cutest dog too! We looped around on this trail back to the parking lot. As we got closer to the parking lot, we saw more people. Some were fishing, and some were trying to get a different view of the falls.
Overall, our visit to the falls was the perfect afternoon getaway!! We spent about two hours total there just exploring. It is the kind of place that you can spend 20 minutes at, or a few hours at depending on what you plan on doing! It can be your ultimate destination or it can be a pit stop on a trip further upstate. A great thing about the New Croton Dam is that it doesn’t involve much energy to see it! You can just hop out of the car and see it from the bottom, and the hike up to the top can be a slow paced easy walk. It’s the perfect place for a family adventure and for any adventure!!
