Shingle Gully at Sam's Point Preserve

On top of the Grand Canyon

The start of Shingle Gully

If you like moss, Shingle Gully is the place

The first crevasse we came across

Ice.  Much of it can be found year round

Some ledges

Working our way down into the grand Canyon

Inside the Grand Canyon

A narrowing crevasse

Some snow among all that moss

Many sections that head into the darkness

Working our way out of the canyon

Lots of rocks to negotiate

Some of it really gets quite narrow

Still working our way up

Made my way out of another keyhole

This area is just so rugged

Exploring a cave

The Ice Caves provide a tight squeeze

Another squeeze

Moss and ice

Time for some bushwacking

The Flume

Some light makes its way down here

A scapula?

The last stretch of crevasse

This is arguably the greatest hike in the Hudson Valley.  Although calling this a hike may be a stretch.  It's almost exclusively off trail and requires a lot of scrambling.  Still it's an absolute classic of the Hudson Valley.

I set out with the Hudson Valley Hikers, an excellent Meetup Group that provides the opportunity to do an extremely diverse range of hikes.  About two years ago I did this hike with the VPo Man so I knew what I would be in for.

The walk starts off harmlessly enough following an old carriage trail.  In about 20 minutes we reached Shingle Gully.  Here we followed the brook to the first crevasse.  From here on out it's a wonderland of scrambling through these crazy crevasses.  Geographically this area must be one of the more unique areas in the country.  There are crevasses all over the place.  Depending on where you walk, one must be careful because the ground is known to open up right under one's feet.

We followed the first crevasse for just a little while.  We then forked off which led to the Grand Canyon.  This is just one of many Grand Canyons in the east.  But this particular one is the most wild.  Descending into it is no small feat.  Once at the bottom the walking gets very interesting.  Lots of precarious scrambling into what seem to be mini caves.  It gets quite confusing and it looks as if their is no way out.  The first time I was here, the VPo Man and I had a bit of difficulty and if I remember correctly, we went up some steep, loose scree.

Today we avoided that loose, scree section and instead squeezed through more than one "keyhole".  After some difficult maneuvering and more than my share of tight squeezes we arrived to the Ice Caves.  This was done after we did some exploring in another "cave".  While making my way down, my camera fell out of my pocket.  Oh how pissed off I was!  This would be the second time this happened.  Fortunately I did hear the camera stop falling.  So there was a chance I could find it, if only I could get down to it.  After negotiating another nasty, exposed scramble, I was able to get near where I last saw my camera.  Just about ready to give up on finding it, I spotted it wedged between two rocks.  Amazingly I reached down and grabbed it without letting it fall any farther.  And it still worked!!!  I love my waterproof, bulletproof Panasonic.

After climbing down the latter into the Ice Caves, we started heading down toward the old carriage trail.  This included another great feature of this hike, The Flume.  This was a narrow, deep, long crevasse with some more interesting scrambling.  One part I had to squeeze through a tight, dirt hole to get to the bottom of the crevasse.  Down here there was a rust colored boulder field.  It was quite interesting.  Here I was reminded of how dangerous an area this is with the remains of a deer.  I'd have to imagine that winter is especially tough, since some of these crevasses may get covered up.  It would make any spruce trap seem small time.