The Hudson River Watertrail Association

The River’s Course

The Hudson River is a central feature of New York State’s natural geography. It begins as a little trout stream flowing out of Lake Tear-of-the-Clouds in the Adirondack mountains. It flows and grows southwest and then eastward until, at Hudson Falls, it turns southward for almost 200 miles to meet the Atlantic Ocean at the Verrazano Narrows. The river runs south between the Catskill mountains to the west and the older Taconic range to the east, through the majestic Hudson Highlands (an extension of the Appalachian range), below which it spreads to its greatest width of over two and a half miles at Haverstraw Bay north of the Tappan Zee. The Hudson runs past the Palisades and into the mouth at New York Bay, 275 nautical miles from its source. Even there it does not stop, for the river’s flows have in past centuries carved a 500-mile underwater valley, the Hudson Canyon, with precipices a mile deep in the ocean’s floor. 

A Tidal River

The tidal nature of the Hudson River defines its character, as the Mohicans recognized when they called it Muhheakunnuk, meaning “great waters constantly in motion.” The Hudson is a drowned river, dating from the last ice age, geologically similar to the Grand Canyon, an open book to the history of earth. Deep beneath the present day surface lies the old river channel, stretching from the Adirondacks out into the Atlantic ocean where it drops over the edge of the continental shelf and into the vast Hudson canyon. From Troy to Manhattan, the stretch most people know, there is no drop at all in the surface elevation of the river. Ocean tides run all the way to the Federal Lock and Dam. It is a startling sight, in winter, to see ice floes moving northwards, upriver. With minimal downstream river current, a log dropped into the water at Troy would take several months to reach the river’s mouth at the Verazzano Narrows Bridge. 

Flora and Fauna

The Hudson is one of the most biologically productive rivers in the East, despite pollution past and present. The Hudson, having been altered less than many other rivers of its size, supports many tidally-dependent plant and animal communities that at one time were much more abundant in the Northeast United States and even the world. A hundred and fifty miles of twice-daily tidal swishing, along with sharp seasonal climactic changes make the tidal river, or estuary, a great food factory, particularly in the marshes. Marsh plants such as cattails create in their leaves, roots and seeds food and shelter for muskrats, snapping turtles, ospreys, migrating waterfowl and other wildlife. In the fall, these plants decay slowly, releasing tissue and nutrients to the river. These are mixed with the flow from tributary streams and from the sea. Plankton, microscopic algae and animals which color the water green, utilize these nutrients and in turn make food for many fish species as well as crabs and turtles. The Hudson River National Estuarine Research Reserve, with headquarters at Tivoli South Bay, conducts scientific studies that add to the value of the river as field of biological research. The Reserve includes Stockport Flats, Tivoli Bays, Iona Island and Piermont marsh. A highlight for paddlers is spotting bald eagles at Iona and elsewhere. 

These and many other aspects of the Hudson are described at length in the Hudson River Watertrail Guide, published by the Hudson River Watertrail Association.

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