Papscanee Island Nature Preserve

This morning we went to the Papscanee Island Nature Preserve in Rensselaer. We started at the north entrance of the preserve, giving us a driving tour of the Port of Rensselaer’s oil yard. We didn’t think we were in the right place, until we noticed a trail head at the end of a dead end road.

Right away were greeted by a giant puddle. We almost turned back, but we shimmied behind the kiosk and stayed dry.

This is one of my favorite trails to date. The preserve has four trails, all relatively short. We started on the white trail, which meandered through a beautiful marsh, an open field, and then met up with the other trails into the woods.

The preserve sits between a railroad and the Hudson River. There’s an old rail line that cuts through the marsh; it’s really quite beautiful. We were fortunate enough to catch an Amtrak passing by not once, but twice!

Unfortunately, the trails are a little difficult to navigate as trail markers are few and far between. We accidentally ended up on a trail that the map specifically forbids people to go. Sorry, government.

We saw lots of birds, in particular a giant red-headed wood pecker.