Lester Park

Lester Park - An outdoor, year-round geologic exhibit near Saratoga Springs, New York. Walk across a 490 million year-old fossil sea floor! Spring Cabin fever? Day off at Saratoga race track? Fall leaf peeping? School science trip? Visit Lester Park and learn about New York's ancient natural heritage.

The fossils you'll see at Lester Park are called stromatolites ("layered rocks"). They were constructed by "blue-green algae" on a shallow sea floor that is now exposed. While they were growing, New York and the eastern US lay south of the equator. The stromatolites at Lester Park were the first described in North America and remain a valuable teaching aid for college and university classes nationwide.

Directions to Lester Park:
From downtown Saratoga Springs take 9N west. Take a left on Middle Grove Road. Then take a left on Lester Park Road (also known as Petrified Gardens Road). Continue for about 500 feet.