| County: |
Clinton/Essex |
| Town: |
Ausable/Chesterfield |
| USGS Map: |
Keeseville |
| Waterway: |
Ausable River |
| Latitude: |
N 44.52360o
|
| Longitude: |
W 73.46021o
|
| Drop: |
91' |
|
The Ausable Chasm area is located on NYS Route 9 between
Plattsburgh and Keeseville. It is a heavily commercialized scenic
attraction that you will have no trouble finding. The promotional flyers bill it as "the
oldest and largest natural attraction in the Adirondacks" and
it has been called the "Grand Canyon of the east".
It is a beautiful scenic area, well maintained and demonstrating
the effects of millions of years of erosion. Although the
area does offer a lot, to the waterfall lover, it may be a
disappointment.
When you enter the welcome center, you will find the counter
where you pay for the options you wish to see. There is also
a large gift shop, a cafe and maps of the area. The basic
admission is $16.00 per adult. For that price you get to
hike any of three trails. We chose the Inner Sanctum
trail which took you along the sides of the gorge, closest to the
river level for these three trails. At the end of any of the
options, a shuttle bus returns you to the area above the gift shop
by Rainbow Falls for a closer view.
There is also a "Cave and Falls Hike"
available. In addition to the basic $16 charge, this is $10
more per person. It is our understanding that this takes you
down to the river level and you do get to view six of the seven
falls. Most waterfalls aficionados enjoy hiking natural
trails to view waterfalls. It is an individual decision as
to whether you want to pay $26 per person for this
privilege. We chose not to do this, not because of the cost
but because of the timing. This is a guided hike and only
available at select times of the day. We arrived late
morning just after the last morning tour had departed. The
next one was almost 2-1/2 hours later. Between the wait and
the fact that we had five other falls and about 150 miles to drive
on our agenda that afternoon, we opted out.
The trail map available at
the welcome center notes seven (7) waterfalls, only two (2) of
them named, Rainbow and Horseshoe. A large table relief map
on display there also names Lower Horseshoe Falls. We asked
a clerk at the registration desk which one this was on the trail
map and she didn't seem to know it existed. She asked a
second clerk who likewise was clueless. Neither of them
seemed to know how many falls were at the site or where they were.
We were only interested in the waterfalls and none of the other
attractions here. Since you can see the three main
falls from the Route 9 bridge, paying the fee will only moderately
enhance your views. The other four falls are not marked on
the trail and we didn't view them. In addition, since the
staff couldn't answer some pretty basic questions, we were left
wondering about the effectiveness of their training program.
Also, our pictures of Rainbow Falls, the biggest waterfall
attraction there had water coming from the hydro facility but not
over the falls themselves. We called the facility to inquire
about this a couple of months after our visit and it was explained
that there is a dam upstream operated by the New York State Gas
and Electric Company. They basically control the
river. Apparently water does routinely flow over these
falls. Since we had just left Alice
Falls where there was a significant amount of water flowing
over it, we can only assume that they were diverting water to the hydro plant for production.
Given the reduced flow due to summer conditions, there apparently
wasn't enough water to support both the hydro production and the
waterfall!
Our timing, both relative to the river level tour and the lack
of water at Rainbow Falls, caused us to leave this facility quite
disappointed. If you go there to see waterfalls, time it
better than we did! If you want to see the falls from ground level, pay the
$26. If you don't, simply view them from the bridge.
The Ausable River empties into
Lake Champlain in the town of Peru.
|
