Shawangunk Kill

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Shawangunk Kill
The Shawangunk Kill where it divides Orange and Ulster counties.
Origin	Town of Greenville, New York
Mouth	Wallkill River W of Gardiner
Basin countries	United States
Length	35 miles (56 km)
Source elevation	~1,240 feet (~378 m)
Mouth elevation	~180 feet (55 m)
Avg. discharge	72 cubic feet/sec (2 m³/sec)
Basin area	147 square miles (380 km²)

The Shawangunk Kill is a stream that flows northward through Orange, Sullivan and Ulster counties, New York in the United States. It is the largest tributary of the Wallkill River.

It takes its name from the neighboring Shawangunk Ridge, where it rises in the Town of Greenville, then flowing down into the valley. For part of its length, it forms the northwestern boundary of Orange County, with first Sullivan and then Ulster along the other side.

1 Course
2 See also
3 External links
- 3.1 Maps and aerial photos

[edit] Course

From its source in Greenville, the Shawangunk flows steadily northeastward to Mill Pond, near Mount Hope, by which point it has already lost almost half its original elevation. It passes through fields and woods east of Otisville. At the hamlet of New Vernon, it becomes the Orange-Sullivan county line and shortly thereafter receives its first named tributary, the Little Shawangunk Kill.

It begins to widen a bit at Bloomingburg, and north of that community it is crossed by NY 17, the busiest road along the kill. Several miles to the north, the confluence of another tributary, the Platte Kill, marks the point where Orange, Sullivan and Ulster counties come together as the stream bends slightly towards a more eastern heading.

Pine Bush eventually rises on the east, and a few more miles north of that hamlet the kill becomes the exclusive property of Ulster County when the boundary returns to land at Orange County's northernmost point. The Shawangunk continues to meander into a wider and wider valley, populated mostly with farms and woodlots, the mountain ridge spreading across the western sky. Finally, it curves due east and joins the Wallkill just south of US 44-NY 55 near Gardiner.