Hike Reviews

September 14, 2024

Had a mostly very nice time

mlcastle

Had a mostly very nice time on this hike today, including a swing up to the dam, but the path between Quaker Bridge and the trail above seems to be gone, unmaintained, or otherwise not very safe to traverse. There is a sign at the top of the hill, so clearly there was once a path there, but nothing is visible from below.

March 16, 2016

Hiking to the New Croton Dam

Daniel Chazin

No, my failure to include the New Croton Dam as part of the hike has nothing to do with terrorism concerns.  Those concerns resulted in the closing of the roadway over the dam to private vehicles, but the park below the dam, which offers spectacular views of the dam, has never been closed to the public.  My reason for not including the dam as part of my hike is that I wanted to describe a loop hike.  As you point out, Route 129 is not a suitable road to walk along, and the only viable alternative is to retrace your steps along the Old Croton Aqueduct.  There is nothing wrong with this, and it permits you to view the magnificent dam, but it requires you to double back on a portion of the hike.  Of course, those who want to extend their hike to visit the dam should be encouraged to do so.

March 16, 2016

Alternate: Head for the Dam

davidw

I took a few hours off of work to check this trail out and it was quite a rewarding experience. Taking the Metro North from Grand Central to Ossining is pretty simple and took ~45 minutes. The trail itself isn't too exciting and you are walking through people's backyards most of the time, but I found it to be an interesting look into how people live in this part of the state (in addition to the historical significance). Instead of turning left Quaker Bridge Rd, I continued on the trail for an additional mile. After 10-15 minutes, you should start hearing the rumblings of the New Croton Dam. I'm not sure why this wasn't included in the original trail but this was easily the highlight of the trek for me. It is possible that it was closed due to terrorism concerns when Daniel did it initially. The dam itself is quite an impressive structure and most of my pics were taken there (you can see them here: https://goo.gl/photos/JKCC5abbwNjjS5B87. There is also a park below it that offers a pretty good viewpoint. After crossing the dam, I made the mistake of continuing down Croton Dam Rd and heading back on Rt 129. This is a BAD idea as there are no sidewalks on this road. If I had cell service I would have called a cab or Uber as it is only a 10 minute drive to Croton Harmon station from this point. Instead, I'd suggest taking the Aqueduct trail back to the previously mentioned intersection (Quaker Bridge Rd) and continue from there. Hope this helps!

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