Hudson River Environmental Society

The Normans Kill Tour

Saturday, May 17, 2025

View from The Overlook atop the Helderberg escarpment in John Boyd Thacher State Park.
View from The Overlook atop the Helderberg escarpment in John Boyd Thacher State Park. Photo from John Boyd Thacher State Park Final Master Plan.

The Hudson River Environmental Society (HRES) was pleased to announce its spring 2025 field trip of the Normans Kill region near Voorheesville, NY, which took place on Saturday, May 17, 2025. The trip was organized by Simon Litten. The excursion included several key stops, including the Thacker Park Overlook; the Watervliet Reservoir; the Norman Vale Mansion and the Heldeberg Workshop.

The Normans Kill tour began at 9:00 am at the Thacher Park Overlook. The spectacular view from the site included most of the Normans Kill watershed. Thacher Park geologist Mike Nardicci described what the group was seeing and provided information regarding the geological history of the area.

From there, the group drove off the escarpment, through the Village of Altamont, and on to the dam that creates the Watervliet Reservoir on the Normans Kill. Although located in the Albany County town of Guilderland, the reservoir was owned by the City of Watervliet. Jim Besha (former consulting engineer for the City of Watervliet) and Stephen Wilson (former Executive Director of HRES) spoke to the group about the dam and the reservoir.

The tour then proceeded to Norman Vale, an historic mansion, for a box lunch on the grounds and a presentation on the site’s history. Matt Rueter, owner of Norman Vale, spoke about his home, while Albany County Legislator Jeff Perlee discussed the native and colonial history of the Normans Kill. Jeff is a descendant of the Norwegian (“Norman”) settler for whom the river was named.

The final stop on the tour was the Heldeberg Workshop, a children’s summer camp situated below the Overlook. Workshop Director Al Briesch (formerly a NYSDEC Herpetologist) discussed the flora and fauna of the escarpment. Finally, Marshall Lefebvre of the Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy spoke about his work regarding the invasive hemlock woolly adelgid.

Energetic tour participants returned to Thacher Park for a hike on the Indian Ladder Trail. The path wound along the side of the escarpment, passing under two waterfalls. This one-mile, forty-minute walk packed in a lot of beautiful scenery. Less energetic participants considered foregoing the hike and instead enjoyed a glass of wine at Jim Besha’s Clover Pond Winery, located on the other side of the Watervliet Reservoir.