Buttermilk Falls in the Adirondacks (Earthcache) EarthCache
Buttermilk Falls in the Adirondacks (Earthcache)
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Buttermilk Falls is located near Deerland in Hamilton County, New York. It is one of the most visited waterfalls in the Adirondacks. The falls are a series of short and wide cascades on the Raquette River. The entrance to the falls is on the right side of the North Point Road, 2.1 miles from the intersection with Rte. 28N/30. A sign by a small parking area marks the entrance.
This relatively steep stretch of the Raquette River lies east of Forked Lake and southwest of Long Lake. The river drops 116 feet in five miles. It starts as a causal slide, then the pitch increases as it drops until the last eight feet where it's nearly vertical. The cascade drops over a series of terraces. -- An interesting elevation phenomenon occurs making the river appear to be elevated above the surrounding bedrock.
The surface is inwash, which is fine gravel and/or sands of alluvial origin. The bedrock is between two areas - one of the Poultney Formation (shale, slate, and siltstone) and interlayered metasedimentary rock and granitic, charnockitic, mangeritic, or syenetic gneiss.
The bedrock at the falls is a highly weathered, dark brown, metamorphosed granite, a type called charnockite due to the presence of the mineral orthopyroxene. One can see pods and veins of milky quartz that crop out near the shore. The bedrock is covered with pine needles and shallow soil. Trees are shallow-rooted and unstable in high winds.
This is an excellent area for the study of petrography (the description and systematic classification of rocks.) Two prominent directions of jointing (fractures in rock) can be seen with one extending across the river. The joint planes had little influence in creating the stream channel, in contrast to joints that lie parallel to stream courses. But “cross joints” like these are partly responsible for the presence of rapids. Blocks were removed from the downstream side of a joint, resulting in stair steps that decline in the downstream direction. The river spills over them. People who sit in spaces where the blocks once sat will either enjoy a shower or a bouncing ride downstream.
Other waterfalls on the Raquette River include Raquette Falls, Hedgehog Rapids, Moosehead Rapids, Moody Falls, Jamestown Falls, Halls Rapids, Stark Falls, Blake Falls, Little Falls, Leonard Falls, Rankin Falls and Five Falls. The last five have been flooded by hydro-electric dams between Piercefield and South Colton. The Raquette River flows into the St. Lawrence
An early French explorer named Raquette Lake after the French word for "snowshoe." According to legend, loyalist Sir John Johnson abandoned a pile of snowshoes in 1776 as he fled to Canada during the Revolutionary War.
Except for the Hudson River, the Raquette River, at 153 miles, is the longest river in New York State. Native American Indians called the river Ta-na-wa-deh, meaning "swift water." Long Lake was called In-ca-pah-co. To early settlers Long Lake was known as Lindenmere because of the linden trees covering the nearby hillsides.
This area is in Section 1 of the Northern Forest Canoe Trail, a 740-mile water route extending from Old Forge in the Adirondack Park to Fort Kent, Maine. There is a 2.5 mile canoe carry around the falls from Forked Lake to Long Lake. Buttermilk Falls is the third of three canoe carries from Forked Lake. Rapids here extend for about one hundred yards before ending in a waterfall.
The falls are beautiful to visit at each season of the year! Be very careful of the rocks when wet as they can be quite slippery. Watch your children. Enjoy this beautiful area!
To get CREDIT for this cache and to demonstrate the educational value of your visit please E-mail the answers to the following questions. FINDS which do not meet logging requirements will be auto-deleted.
1. Go to: N 43° 54.854 W 074° 29.021 Look out at the river then and take an elevation reading. Turn around and look at the small white sign on a tree and get the name of the forest in which this is located. 2. Go to: N 43°54.916 W 074° 29.039 Take an elevation reading . Record your elevation readings and estimate the height of the falls. 3. At the bottom of the falls there is a small island you can see near the middle of the river. It is about 10’ x 15 ft. How do you think this little island formed? 4. What river forms Buttermilk Falls? 5. The bedrock at the falls is what kind of rock and what color? 6. Buttermilk Falls lies between what two lakes? 7. What is petrography?
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