by Donna Carroll Batton

Created on: July 13, 2008

The Eternal Flame Waterfalls is one of Erie County's best-kept secrets! When I saw this topic listed on Helium, my mouth fell open. I have lived just a few miles from Chestnut Ridge State Park, in Orchard Park, NY most of my life and I had never heard of the Eternal Flame Waterfalls. So my husband and I decided we had to find this place that sounded so exciting.

First, we asked around, but no one else seemed to have heard of it either. Then my husband did a search online and, low and behold, there it was! But it isn't exactly in Chestnut Ridge State Park, which was why we had never stumbled upon it before. It's on State Park grounds, but, to access the trail to the waterfalls, you have to pass the entrance to the park. Heading south on chestnut Ridge Road, you pass the park entrance and drive another 1.9 miles to Seufert Road. Turn right on Seufert Road and you will see two brick pillars with a gate across. There are no other markings. Park alongside the road and walk in around the gate.

Up the trail a short way, you'll come to a big trailhead marker. The marker tells you that the Eternal Flame is actually natural gas, seeping up from a fissure in the rock. The sign also informs you that it is approximately a mile and a half, round-trip to the Eternal Flame Waterfalls. The trail is marked easy to moderate.

The sign also informs hikers that the trailhead marker was the idea of Christian Fields who, in an Eagle Scout project, built the trailhead marker and blazed the trail.

My husband is the "trail blazer" in our family and he pointed out the trail markers along the way. They were small, blue rectangles of wood, nailed to the trees every so often. This made the trail easy to follow. However, I must advise folks to come prepared, wearing sneakers or hiking boots. I don't know why I wasn't expecting a long hike, but I arrived wearing a flimsy pair of flip flops! This made climbing up and down the sometimes muddy trail a challenge, to say the least. But I was determined to see the falls and the eternal flame.

The trail wanders through a Western New York hardwood forest and over many, small creeks. We hiked up and down hills, waded over creeks and finally came to a spot high on a ridge where we heard the sound of the waterfall. Looking down into the very deep ravine, we could see it, cascading from the ridge, tumbling over rocks and slate. But there was no way to get down to it except continue on the trail. So continue, we did.

When the trail finally began its descent

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