Rainbows and raging storm waters at Croton Gorge Park

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Monday, March 14, 2011
by Christine Yeres

The very best time to visit the monumental New Croton Dam is after the kind of torrential rains we had last week, which take a long time to work themselves away. And with the sun last Saturday afternoon came several bonus rainbows hovering low in the spray rising from the crashing of the water over the jagged rocks and curved, stepped spillway. Not that those steps are visible right now—it’s all whitewater.

Enter at the park entrance off Route 129, and you can view the spillway, bridge and dam from below, from the bridge over the Croton River, also still raging with storm water, or the vast park at the base of the dam.  You can also drive part way up to the bridge at the top of the dam, park before the barriers or on the other side of Route 129, and walk the rest of the way to the top of the dam.  From there, you can see the big curved lip at the top of the spillway and look north across the reservoir and down to the park and river.

The park is about 14 miles from the center of New Castle.  For directions, click HERE.

Here’s a bit of history from Westchester County’s website:

Croton Gorge Park is a 97-acre property at the base of the Croton Dam and affords impressive views of the dam and spillway. The park is a popular spot for fishing, picnicking and hiking, with direct trail access to New York State’s Old Croton Aqueduct, which begins here. In winter, the park is a favorite spot for cross-country skiing and sledding.

The Croton River also begins here. The bridge that spans the Croton River and affords the best view of the spectacular spillway is once again open to the public after a repair project.

The Old Croton Dam, built to supply New York City with water, was the first large masonry dam in the United States. Completed in 1842, it was the prototype for many municipal water supply dams in the east during the mid-nineteenth century. The city’s needs, however, soon outgrew the Croton Dam water supply. Consequently, work began on the New Croton Dam, also called the Cornell Dam because of its location on land purchased from A.B. Cornell, in 1893. Completed in 1907, the Cornell Dam stands over 200 feet high. The Croton Reservoir has a capacity of about 34 billion gallons of water with a watershed covering 375 miles.