Hogsback Overlook - Letchworth State Park, NY
N 42° 43.280 W 077° 55.638
18T E 260316 N 4734025
The Hogsback Overlook is located at a hillside that looks down into the Genesee River Valley in Letchworth State Park.
Waymark Code: WM9WF6
Location: New York, United States
Date Posted: 10/05/2010
Views: 9
The Hogsback Overlook
The ridge jutting into the canyon is called "The Hogsback" for its resemblance to a wild boar's high hunched spine. The Genesee river flows one mile around this narrow peninsula. The river turns in many directions within the park, including nearly due south in its overall northward flow, but this is its most abrupt loop.
Former routes of the Genesee River
In geological terms, the horseshoe curve in this canyon is an "entrenched meander." It was begun by the slowly winding river flowing between former glacial lakes. This new route detoured around the buried interglacial valley behind you. As the glacial lakes drained away, the river remained in this meander. The river continues to entrench its canyon as the land still rises from the release of the glacier's weight some 10,000 years ago.
located just below the stone-walled overlook on this point is an acient juniper tree. Although it only stand 5 feet tall and spreads its branches 15 feet, it may lived in its hostile,wind-swept spot more than five centuries.
The rocks exposed by the river are formed from tiny particles of clay that settled in a tropical ocean 350 million years ago. These sediments washed from the Appalachian Mountains 250 miles east of here. In these layers of soft, easily crumbled shale, the river has carved a canyon six times wider than its 400 foot depth. The shale is still buried beneath younger, harder rocks exposed in two other "glacial detour canyons" in the park.
Information taken from the visitors plaque on this site.