John Boyd Thacher State Park

37 Trails 41 POIs 1 Campsite 3 Viewpoints
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Description

John Boyd Thacher State Park is a state park located 15 miles (24 km) southwest of Albany, New York, near Voorheesville, in Albany County on State Route 157. Located mostly atop the Helderberg Escarpment, the park has several hiking trails that offer panoramic views of the Green Mountains in Vermont and the Taconic Mountains of the Hudson Valley. The Indian Ladder Trail is open from May 1 to November 15, 8:00 am until sunset, weather permitting. All other trails are open year-round. It is located on the Helderberg Escarpment, one of the best fossil-bearing formations in the US. There are over 12 miles (20 km) of trails in the park including the famous Indian Ladder Trail. The park has an Olympic-sized swimming pool (closed since 2006 and currently fenced off and overgrown), volleyball courts, children’s play areas and numerous cooking/barbecue areas both open and covered. Nearby at Thompson's Lake, is the Emma Treadwell Thacher Nature Center, which opened in July 2001 and has permanent and occasional displays for the public to view. The center also offers educational programs and visitor information. From the top of the escarpment, which reaches 1300 ft (400 m), there are fine views of the Hudson and Mohawk Valleys as well as spectacular panoramas of the Adirondacks and Green Mountains of Vermont.

Trails in the Hikepack map

  • Blue loop trail
  • Blue trail
  • Escarpment Trail
  • Escarpment Trail (unofficial, unmarked)
  • Escarpment path (unofficial)
  • Former Long Path route
  • Hang Glider Road
  • High Point Cliff connection
  • High Point Road
  • Indian Ladder Trail
  • Long Path
  • Long Path (Albany County)
  • Long Path (Thacher Aqua Green)
  • Long Path / blue loop trail
  • Nature trail
  • Orange Trail
  • Orange trail
  • Perimeter (yellow)
  • Red nature trail / Long Path
  • Red trail
  • Whipple Road
  • White connector trail
  • White trail
  • Yellow / Orange trails
  • Yellow trail

Attractions in the Hikepack map

  • Green House
  • Hailes Cave
  • Hang Gliders Cliff
  • Helderberg Escarpment
  • High Point Cliff
  • Horseshoe I
  • Indian Ladder Trail
  • Knowles Flat Pavillion
  • Minelot Falls
  • Overlook
  • Thacher Park Glen Doone
  • Thacher Park Hop Field
  • Thacher Park Horseshoe I
  • Thacher Park Horseshoe II
  • Thacher Park Indian Ladder
  • Thacher Park Knowles Flats Parking
  • Thacher Park Lagrange Bush
  • Thacher Park Minelot
  • Thacher Park North Trailhead
  • Thacher Park Overlook
  • Thacher Park Paint Mine
  • Thacher Park Yellow Rocks
  • Thompsons Lake
  • Thompsons Lake Campground

Copyright

The PDF and JPG maps are released by Hikepack under the Creative Commons license Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
Contains data ©OpenStreetMap contributors (https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright) under the Open Database License (https://opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/). Topographic map based on elevation data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Aerial imagery available from the U.S. Geological Survey. Description text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License from Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_3.0_Unported_License). Cover image ©Geotek https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Indian_Ladder_1.JPG Public Domain.