Barberville Falls(Rensselaer County)

Kalli and I took advantage of a small window of time we had today, to go explore Barberville Falls, a 117 acre Nature Conservancy Preserve, located in Poestenkill.  Unfortunately the only parking is along two lane Plank Road, which means you must walk along the road for about a quarter mile before turning east and crossing a bridge on Blue Factory Road. A Nature Conservancy sign and well defined, yet unmarked path leads you directly through the woods and to the falls.

 The freezing cold water of the Poestenkill just above the falls.

 The short woods trail to the falls on a bright, sunny-but cold day.

 The incredible sound of crashing falls is almost deafening as you arrive at the top of Barberville Falls.

 A view at the top cascades.  The thundering sound of water is absolutely overpowering.

 We carefully traversed the steep banks of the gorge and made it to the bottom of the falls, where large icicles were all around.

 Barberville Falls, an incredibly impressive 92 foot waterfall from the base of the falls.  During times of high water, like today, the sheer power of the falls is amazing.

 The Poestenkill's frigid waters at the base of the falls.  Due to the lack of sun from steep walls of the gorge surrounding this large pool, the creek runs a much colder temperature here and had a lot of ice chunks floating all along the shores.

 Ice chunks floating around at the base of the falls.

  A truly incredible sight!

 Frozen mist and ice coming from the sheer power of the falls creates a frozen shoreline.

 Remnants of a defunct mill project from many, many years ago provide a chance to walk along the creek above the falls.  Here is a shot of the Poestenkill's calm waters dropping off the shelf and crashing below.

The very top of the freezing cold falls.

 Frozen rocks and branches along the top of the falls.

 After finally dragging ourselves away from the waterfalls, we headed back to Blue Factory Road and followed it up about .1 of a mile past a house and re entered the woods on the Ridge Trail.  It wasn't particularly easy to find but small orange discs eventually guided us on our way.

 The sun felt nice, but biting winds and temps in the mid 20's made it a bit cool.  Much of the Ridge Trail is through hemlock woods where views are minimal.

 We crossed picturesque Davitt Pond Brook twice along the way.  The babbling brook, which is probably easy to cross at low water, was a bit challenging with the frozen rocks and fast rushing waters.

 Davitt Pond Brook.

The trail wasn't easy to follow in several spots, especially just after meeting back up with the Poestenkill.  Seems that there are a couple of missing orange discs, so we had to look around before finding our way.  The Ridge Trail eventually forms a loop, completing a 2 mile trail and brings you back to the road.  We walked the remaining .35 miles back to the car where we could warm back up.  Total distance of about 2.7 miles RT on a bright, cold, sunny day!