| Upper Mohawk Valley | |
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To me, this spot is the beginning of the American Midwest. It's the view north from Green Lakes State Park, looking at a geographic divide. To the east is the Mohawk River valley and to the west is the basin of the Great Lakes, which stretches from here to Wisconsin. Somewhere in the middle, hidden by autumn haze, is Oneida Lake.
During the late stages of the last ice age, the Great Lakes were still full of glacier ice and a large cold lake lay around its edge, at a much higher level than today's Lake Ontario. That glacial lake drained across this view into the Mohawk valley. After a few more thousand years, the ice retreated and that water found its way to the St. Lawrence River instead. Today's Mohawk River is only a fraction of its former self.
From here I turned south and west, into the Finger Lakes region.
(c) Copyright 2002 Andrew Alden, licensed to About.com, Inc.
