We explore the ruins of Gay City State Park and hike down to Blackledge Falls watch our video then read about our trip below:
After building some stamina back up from being sick, we decided to take a longer hike this weekend. We planned to hike from Gay City State Park, starting at it's pond, and head south to Blackledge Falls park to see the waterfalls. We ended up exploring a lot more of the trails then we first thought and so this ended up being a 5.5 mile hike.
We Parked very close to Gay City Pond, this huge parking lot must fill up in the summer with eager swimmers but we only saw maybe 20 people in the whole park. It was overcast and a little chilly at times so we lucked out. Just south of the pond is a small dam with it's own falls. Looking at the map, if we took the white trail around the pond it seems we would have encountered even more bridges then we did. Maybe it was the time of year but this park was very very wet and I'm thankful for the incredible number of foot bridges we encountered!
After viewing this we headed south.
The only thing you find in this park in as much abundance as the bridges, is the incredible number of ruins and stone work left behind.
This was an actual "City" and the foundations of many homes are still intact. I believe we found 5, and countless stone walls. Pictured to the right is what is left of the old papermill. This mill heavily supported the community who had already lost a wool and lumber mill in the past. Many people had already moved to urban centers for better paying factory jobs so
the burning of the mill was the effective end of the community.
A list of some ruins we found:
1. The papermill is on the white trail and marked on the state map
2. Next to the mill just south and near the stream is a foundation.
3. On the eastern end of the park, just off the red trail, is a large standing chimney from one of the old homes.
4. Shortly after getting onto the yellow trail heading south is a somewhat deep foundation on the right hand side.
5. Towards the end of the yellow trail is a crumbling foundation.
Supposedly there are tombstones, however we did not see those.
Continuing south on the Yellow trail, we crossed the boardwalk, moved to the red trail, then finally headed down the unmarked trails toward the Blackledge park. You will pass under some huge electrical lines and follow along the river so you can't really get lost.
Other then crumbling stone work, there is a nice look out over a lake just before the boardwalk, many little streams to cross, multiple foot bridges and of course the beautiful woods.
Just be aware, we went two days after it rained and all the streams were overflowing and it was extremely muddy.
Near the end of this trail, and entering Blackledge, you find the ruins of the old dam. In 2018 this was finally opened and the river has been flowing naturally. You can find satellite photos if you search, of before and after this was done. There used to be a small pond upstream along the hiking trail, and now it's a large grassy field.
After taking an unnecessarily steep incline.. because I didn't know where I was going, we arrived at the falls. Sometimes you get three, and after all that rain I was really hoping. Instead we found the usual two water falls. Nice long drops over black rocks, hence the name. Because this is a town park I was able to fly my drone around them a little bit. We were lucky enough to have the falls to ourselves and about a thousand mosquitos.
The hike back, we followed the same trail until arrive at the red trail. At that point we took it east and found the chimney and many stone walls. The environment was a bit different and well worth the full loop. I highly recommend these two parks for avid explorers!
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