Customer Reviews

Hudson Valley Waterfall Guide: From Saratoga and the Capital Region to the Highlands and Palisades

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I was very exited to see this book because I love photographing waterfalls and on the surface the books looks very informative. However this book suffers from one huge flaw. The directions on how to get to the first three of the falls we tried to locate were very vague or flat out imposable to follow. Both my wife and I became very frustrated trying to locate the waterfalls we chose to visit from the book. In the end we did find one of the three falls we were looking for, but that had more to do with a GPS unit and expert hiking skills. Still I would recommend this book, because there is no other guides like for the area. Just check the directions online before leaving for a set of falls.

There are a lot of ways this book, indeed the whole series, could be improved. As ther previous reviewer stated, the directions are sometimes a bit weak, with some road names incorrect. I did find that using the DeLorme NYS Gazetteer, a recommendation, very helpful, but the scale on these maps is not fully adequate when looking for details. In most cases, I was able to use an on-line mapping service, such as Google Maps or MapQuest, to get a closer look at destination access roads. Some of the waterfalls are accompanied by extracts of Topo maps, so including something similar for all the locations would be nice. That said, I have not found any waterfall impossible to locate, although I have not yet visited all or nearly as many as I would like.

I suspect most of the short comings of these book results form keeping costs down; descriptions are brief, some directions a bit more round-about than necessary. Recent photographs for each would also be nice; some of the historic photos are interesting, but not helpful.

I really appreciate the inclusion of information regarding commercial buildings, or remains thereof, at waterfall sites. I'm generally looking for a natural setting, not an industrial one.

I would also recommend that anyone interested in Hudson Valley waterfalls also purchase the Catskills book as well. Many of the entries in the Catskills book are actually quite close to the Hudson River and Thruway.

So while the books could be better, they are the only ones available, and the easy access to on-line resources to firm up directions really makes them very, very useful.