Wallkill River

The Wallkill River, a tributary of the Hudson, drains Lake Mohawk near Sparta, New Jersey, flowing from there generally northeasterly more than 90 miles (144 km) into New York, where it drains into Rondout Creek near Rosendale, with the combined flows reaching the Hudson at Kingston.

The river is often said to be unusual because it flows north; while many rivers in the Northern Hemisphere do, the Wallkill perhaps stands out because it manages to do this between two major south-flowing rivers, the Hudson and the Delaware. It also has the unusual distinction of being a river that drains into a creek, due to being impounded shortly before the Rondout confluence into a small body of water called Sturgeon Pond near Rifton, and what reaches the Rondout from there is the lesser flow.

Its broad valley nestles between the main Appalachian Mountains and the northern end of the Blue Ridge, supporting much local agriculture. During its course it flows through the Wallkill River National Wildlife Refuge at the state line, then is heavily diverted as it flows through the rich Black Dirt Region of Warwick. After lending its name to the Town of Wallkill, in northern Orange County, it begins to regain its volume as it passes by Orange County Airport, Montgomery and through Walden, where dams have been built in the past to provide power for local industry. The largest, in Walden, still is used by New York State Electric And Gas today.

After briefly serving as the line between Orange and Ulster counties, it passes by Wallkill, the second community to take its name from the river, and then the striking scenery of the Shawangunk Ridge is visible as it winds past the Ulster County Fairgrounds and New Paltz, where its flood plain becomes more noticeable, on the way to its mouth at the Rondout.

Also somewhat unusually, the Wallkill tends to cross political borders much more often than it forms them. Other than the brief segment that follows the Orange-Ulster line, there is only southern Orange County, where it divides the towns of Minisink, Wawayanda and Wallkill on its west from Warwick and Goshen to the east.

In addition to the town and hamlet in New York, two school districts take their name from the river: Wallkill Valley Regional, in New Jersey and Wallkill Central in New York (Valley Central also derives its name indirectly from the river).