Canajoharie Gorge
The access to this location is through Wintergreen Park, which is a very nice park with picnic areas, and some hiking trails. There wasn’t a fee when we visited, but there may be at times. While this park is alongside the water, the town is very serious about keeping people out of the gorge, and there have been deaths here every year. These incidents seem to occur mainly at Canajoharie Creek Falls, which are not included here, because they are so dangerous.
http://courierstandardenterprise.com/News/05312012_tragedy
http://www.twcnews.com/archives/nys/hudson-valley/2004/05/12/fatal-gorge-accident-NY_61326.old.html
Instead, in Wintergreen Park, follow the creek downstream where you’ll find multiple small falls and two medium sized ones. The river is very wide and shallow with a flat rock bottom making the water unusually warm, almost hot. This would be the perfect swimming area, if it wasn’t posted no swimming. We did see a few groups of people swimming though, disobeying the warnings. The gorge is very stunning.
According to this article, the village was building an official swimming area, but we were unable to locate more information:
More information about the gorge here:
http://digthefalls.com/canajoharie-falls-lower-falls/
Location Details
- 5-20 min.
- +42 53.085, -74 33.915
- Easy