Located in the hamlet of Delmar just south of Albany is the wonderful and discreet Van Dyke Spinney Preserve. This lovely preserve offers a much needed place of respite from daily life. It gives you a chance to get into the woods and hear the babbling waters from a creek.

Van Dyke Preserve

This 33-acre preserve was created in 2012 from land donated to the Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy by the Van Dyke Spinney housing complex just down the road. The meandering Phillipin Kill is the creek that passes through the property.

We spied all sort of fun things on the trail. July and August have been very wet months for us here in Upstate New York. Luckily, boardwalks on the trail helped us navigate over some of the more wet areas. On this walk we saw various mushrooms and fungi, vernal ponds, and we even spied the first presence of autumn (nooooo!).

 

Hiking

There is a 0.7 mile loop hiking trail at the Van Dyke Preserve for visitors to venture along. About half of the trail takes you through floodplains that follow along the creek. The other half of the trail is on more upland giving visitors a glimpse of the varying vegetation found here.

 

Where is it located?

The Van Dyke Preserve is located on the west side of Van Dyke Road just north of the intersection with Meads Land in the hamlet of Delmar, in Upstate New York.

 

Map

As always, the Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy has a truly wonderful map available for this preserve, and for all of their preserves. You can find the map for the Van Dyke Preserve right here.