Hiking the French Creek Wildlife Management Area.
#1000islands #ThousandIslands
Wow, we have been meaning to explore the 2,300 acre French Creek Wildlife Management Area (WMA) in Clayton and now wish we had done so sooner! What an undiscovered treasure we found! While there are no official trails, there are multiple seasonal access roads with parking spots that allow one to explore numerous different parts of the preserve. The scenery ranges from open meadows to hardwood forest areas to wetlands and cattail marshes that border French Creek.
The DEC notes that though there are no designated trails hiking is allowed through the property. You can find access roads from both the north and south of the property. All are listed on the DEC website at https://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/40678.html which also includes a link to a fairly detailed map of the property.
We visited the boat launch road/trail which is right on Route 12E. We then accessed the area from Bevin and French Creek Roads. There are several pull off spots for cars on Bevin Road which is a nice road to hike on since it includes several scenic bridges over French Creek and its tributaries.
We plan to go back and explore further especially since we heard there is a hidden waterfall near the southern end of Bevin Road. There was no place to pull off the road so one would need to hike in from one of the designated parking spots. But what we saw today was enough to guarantee we'll be back to this natural gem so close to town!
Hiking French
Creek… Update 8/10/2019
We went back to the FCWMA to try entering through one of the
other access roads. We parked at the
(open) gate on Commode Road. The road is
not marked but can be found on Google maps and is located on Deferno Road which
is on the south side of the area and located off of Route 12S.
The road cuts through a beautiful wooded area and then
through open meadows to another bridge built over a tributary of French Creek.
There are numerous side trails though none are maintained. There was so much to see and experience even on the half-mile hike to the bridge.
We really hope we can encourage other hikers to come and check
the French Creek Wildlife Management Area out. We’d love to hear from you if
you do.
Hiking French
Creek… Update 2 – 8/24/2019
Just a quick update to say we found the waterfall today! It is just off Bevins Road just after the
Bevins/Deferno intersection. For those
who can use them, the coordinates are at N 44 11.027 W 76 07.832. There was
almost no water flowing over the falls today. We’ll come back in the spring. But
please note this is a massive drop off and extreme care needs to be taken
if you plan to visit the falls.
Since the creek bed above the falls was nearly dry, we got a
picture from the creek bed looking upstream.
Just beautiful!
Be sure to see...
Hiking the Thousand Islands...Introduction
Hiking the Thousand Islands...Foster Blake Woods Preserve
Hiking the Thousand Islands...Grand Lake Reserve
Hiking the Thousand Islands...Kanik Nature Trail
Hiking the Thousand Islands...Lonesome Bay State Forest
Hiking the Thousand Islands...Red Lake Indian River Trail
Hiking the Thousand Islands...Redwood Hill Preserve
Hiking the Thousand Islands...Sissy Danforth Rivergate Trail
