RochesterSubway.com : Exploring the Caves of Rochester, NY

Exploring the Caves of Rochester, NY

November 15th, 2012

Just when I think I’ve done everything there is to do in Rochester, I discover another little hole in the wall. Literally. Check out these photos of what is unofficially known as “Rico Cave” near Lower Falls…

Apparently it’s called Rico Cave because there’s a rock painted with the Puerto Rican flag outside the entrance. But that’s just from what I’ve read online. If anyone knows more about this, please leave a comment below. You can see more photos from Bobbybeans’ Flickr photostream .

Below is a birdseye view of the cave. It’s located between Lower Falls and the Driving Park Bridge in the western wall of the gorge.

In the video below, the photographer attempts to show us an opening in the ceiling of the cave. The photographer seems to think this enire chamber may in fact be man made. And I believe him. Look how geometric that tunnel opening is. Very strange…

But Rico Cave isn’t the only mysterious chamber we can find in the gorge walls. How many of you have seen the cave (below) in the High Falls rim?

Or this little doorway? Definitely not natural…

Now, I’m not 100% sure about the cave – it may be a channel from the old RG&E hydro power station #4 immediately to the right. But I do believe I’ve cracked the mystery of the little doorway…

This mechanical drawing of Saint Paul Street and the eastern wall of High Falls gorge shows what’s behind the mysterious door. It’s actually a Saint Paul Street drainage tunnel! (Click for a larger view)

The drawing is a bit difficult to decipher, but it looks like there may be a second drain tunnel closer to the falls there on the left. Could the cave also be a drain opening? Possibly.

The only way to tell for sure may be to climb up in there and see. But a word of caution to any would-be explorers… check the weather report before you venture inside one of these caves. This past August, three people had to be rescued from another of these caves beneath Seth Green Drive. They were on a geocaching expedition when rains came and quickly flooded the tunnel they were exploring.

Rochester’s a lot of things. But BORE-ing ain’t one. AAH HA HA! Eh.

UPDATE: The High Falls “mystery door” was, in fact, part of a storm water collection system for the Upper Falls area. It was designed by The Sear-Brown Group, Inc., a local design & engineering firm (now Stantec) in the 1970’s. It was soon abandoned however, when it was replaced by the major sewer tunnels that were built by Monroe County’s Pure Waters program in the 1980’s. One of the designers of the system contacted RocSubway after this article was published. He is searching for some of the old drawings and we’ll share them here if they turn up!

UPDATE: Here are the drawings of that storm water collection system that emptied out into the High Falls basin…

UPDATE: Bill Putt from Monroe County confirms that this “cave” was actually cut out of the rock and is an old overflow chamber for the west side trunk sewer. It is still semi-active and may direct overflow runoff into the river during storm events.

Tags: Driving Park Bridge, Genesee River, Lower Falls, Rico Cave, Rochester, rochester photos, urban exploration, urban explorers, video

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 15th, 2012 at 8:08 am and is filed under Rochester Destinations, Rochester Images, Urban Exploration, Video. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

33 Responses to “Exploring the Caves of Rochester, NY”

RaChaCha says:

November 15, 2012 at 8:51 am

“Rico” is for sewer/stormwater overflow, IINM. Monroe County Pure Waters could confirm. Notice that you can’t see the rock strata in the walls, as they’ve been treated with spray-on concrete to help protect them from erosion when water rushes in.
Tony Karakashian says:

November 15, 2012 at 3:00 pm

Aww, man! Now I have no reason to get down and sneak into that door! 🙂
Dick Halsey says:

November 15, 2012 at 10:18 pm

That cave near the lower falls is probably an exit for a mill race. There used to be a few mills on that land near there where that weird black sculpture now is.
Mittens says:

November 15, 2012 at 11:26 pm

I was there about 8 years ago. Cool place, thanks for reminding me about this place.
Dick Halsey says:

November 16, 2012 at 2:27 pm

I have pictures of the mills that used to be at the lower falls on this web page: http://mcnygenealogy.com/pictures/pic-02/0063.htm
RochesterSubway.com says:

November 17, 2012 at 12:54 pm

UPDATE: The High Falls “mystery door” was, in fact, part of a storm water collection system for the Upper Falls area. It was designed by The Sear-Brown Group, Inc., a local design & engineering firm (now Stantec) in the 1970’s. It was soon abandoned however, when it was replaced by the major sewer tunnels that were built by Monroe County’s Pure Waters program in the 1980’s.

One of the designers of the system contacted me after this article was published. He is searching for some of the old drawings and we’ll share them here if they turn up!
Jeff Morgan says:

November 19, 2012 at 2:04 am

For those wanting to venture into that door, dont bother. First you need a small boat and ore. I did this a few years back needless to say i was almost knee deep in stagit nasty water. i went a good 15 feet before my hi powered LED light didnt do much and i had no more ambition to get any further lol.
i traveled 3 hours just for this and a couple other things in rochester, the door was the biggest waste of 2 hours lol
RochesterSubway.com says:

December 4, 2012 at 12:50 pm

UPDATE: At the end of this post I just posted the drawings of that storm water collection system that emptied out into the High Falls basin via the mysterious door.
Carl says:

February 25, 2013 at 10:25 pm

I have always wondered if anyone could tell me anything about the old building right inside the St. Paul side of the falls? What was it, any inside pics, etc?
chase tyler says:

March 14, 2013 at 3:17 am

Finally, something interesting that can’t be torn down!
Rejoice, Rochester subway!
Alicia says:

August 15, 2013 at 3:39 pm

So how do you get to “Rico Cave?” Also, are there any urban exploring clubs/gatherings/events? Love to know more!
Martin Jones says:

March 29, 2014 at 10:06 pm

This might not be the place to ask, but what is that building to the left of high falls? Has anyone explored it and posted pictures?
RochesterSubway.com says:

March 29, 2014 at 10:09 pm

@Martin, that was an old hydro power station. It used to be owned by RG&E but was recently purchased by Friends of the GardenAerial for use in the future GardenAerial project.
Martin Jones says:

April 13, 2014 at 6:11 am

Has anyone explored the old hydro station in the past few years? Would be cool to see pics of the inside.
April says:

July 6, 2014 at 6:25 pm

http://www.lowerfalls.org/waterfalls/

Check out the first late on this guy’s site. Lower falls, and it looks like it’s drawn from *drumroll* inside a cave… so perhaps it was natural and the cementing is somewhat recent.
April says:

July 7, 2014 at 5:53 pm

Sorry, “plate”, not late.
April says:

July 13, 2014 at 10:19 am

I found where the hole in the ceiling of the cave goes. It’s not particularly pleasant to get to, and these pics are bad given that it was getting dark by the time we found it, but I’ve attached them…

Also, not directly related, but interesting anyway, pictures of them redoing the tunnel for the lower falls hydro plant…
https://www.flickr.com/photos/rgande/8281549040

and here’s some info about how they did it…
http://www.rge.com/OurCompany/News/2012/121712stationfive.html
Nico says:

September 28, 2014 at 7:23 pm

Hi, My name is Nico Tiezzi. I am a second year film major at RIT. I am currently helping a Fourth year producer from the same school, with one of the films he is working on and he wanted me to find out about Rico cave. Since it was from your website that we found out about the cave, I was hoping you could answer some questions or point me in the right direction. things I need to know are who we would need to contact to use the Cave as a location in the movie? How do we get to the cave? Is it even feasible to get equipment and crew down to the cave? thank you very much, I appreciate any information you can give me!
Sharon M.T. says:

February 6, 2015 at 3:57 pm

This location was featured in the 1961 movie, “Splendor in the Grass.” The scene when Natalie Wood has her breakdown and tries to basically kill herself by swimming toward the falls… and several men jump in and save her. Before she goes to the mental hospital.
RochesterSubway.com says:

March 14, 2015 at 5:26 pm

UPDATE: RaChaCha was correct. I’ve confirmed with Bill Putt from Monroe County that this “cave” was actually cut out of the rock and is an old overflow chamber for the west side trunk sewer. It is still semi-active and can dump runoff into the river during storm events.
Rich says:

April 17, 2015 at 4:43 pm

Anybody have info on how to get into the cave? Would really like to get some pictures from down there of the falls, maybe clean up the garbage piled on the shore. I don’t really wanna rappel down the gorge, LOL!
April says:

April 19, 2015 at 12:10 pm

It’s not exactly hard as long as you’re able bodied. Park at the Maplewood Rose Garden, then there are steps that go downward. There is a little landing and the official path veers south along the river, but if you look left (north) you will see another trail. That goes down-down to the river, as opposed to the south-running trail that loops under the bridge and out into the park on the south side of the bridge. Lots of fishermen use the unofficial north-pointing trail to get to the river to fish.
gwen says:

April 30, 2015 at 11:02 pm

I was there when the three people were rescued
Kyle Couchman says:

November 11, 2015 at 7:33 am

In response to Rich….

If my memories are correct, on the western side of the driving park bridge there is a tiny park. If you follow the gorge edge north you will fine what I can only describe as a goat path that leads down in a switchback fashion. I used to use this to get down to the river there and fish. Used to catch some 20lb Salmon down there as well as some big smallmouth bass.

I remember seeing the cave there when I fished down there, but wasn’t big on caves back then. If my memory serves me well, I do remember a medium sized cave on the east side of the gorge, just south of the VA bridge. You have another goat trail that goes down on the north side of the bridge then crosses under to the south. I used to explore that whole riverbank from those two points scouting for good fishing spots. I always remember thinking how untouched the area was, that this must have been what it felt like for the first explorers of the area.

Thank You Rochester Subway for sparking these memories.
Dan Remington says:

February 11, 2016 at 8:10 pm

How do you get into Rico Cave??
Greg says:

April 18, 2017 at 1:47 am

There is another cave behind Beebee Station (west wall of river gorge) that goes all the way under state street to kodak. Years ago, it had a wooden door labeled “The Lucky Star Mine”. The old overflow tunnel (“the door”) that is being discussed was ther certainly before 1970. During the period when Rochester had a combined sanitary-storm sewer system, heavy rainfall would cause water to gush out of the opening. Before the introduction of the birth control pill, an overflow would cause the intake screens at Beebee Station to clog with condoms!
Ivan says:

January 13, 2018 at 10:51 pm

Cave near Driving Park Bridge was accessed via its entry on Ravine Ave. Since filled in I believe. Used to go in circa the late 1940’s when we lived at Tacoma/Lexington
Ivan says:

January 13, 2018 at 11:07 pm

OOPS – not Ravine – see empty lot behind Dunkin Doughnuts on Lake Ave. Accessed via Kay Terrace. or Leavenworth. Excuse my memory – It has been some 65 years!
Daniel M says:

September 18, 2018 at 7:46 pm

Hello Ivan where exactly is this cave located I live near by but I’m not entirely sure what your talking about?
Joseph says:

November 13, 2018 at 6:26 pm

When I was seven years old I used to see the cave near driving park bridge from the other side of the river. One day when my mother was sleeping I apparently was making noise and she yelled “I’m going to kill you when I get up”. I grabbed my sleeping bag and ran away from home planning to live in that cave. An undercover policeman intercepted me walking down the service road that led to the cave. He brought me home where I got a spanking.
Gina Volk says:

June 6, 2022 at 8:17 am

My daughter and I went to Rico ‘cave’since it is not thought this is a real cave but man made for run off water, are there actual natural caves known in this area? The’ cave’at Seth Green has spring water flowing down- is spring water? This one said not natural also.
Anyone know of actual natural caves in our area? Also would like a place at site of Kelsey’s landing where people escaping slavery boarded boats to Canada. I don’t know where exactly Kelsey’s Landing is at the river and would like it commemorated with a marker there. Please anyone know of ‘real’ caves here in Rochester area? Thankyou
RochesterSubway.com says:

June 6, 2022 at 5:20 pm

@Gina, I’m not sure about natural caves in the area, but to answer your question about Kelsey’s Landing, I think there is already a placard or marker at the site. Follow the link at the end of this article… https://www.rochestersubway.com/topics/2015/04/glen-house-rochesters-first-water-side-retreat/
meldawg says:

May 15, 2023 at 11:31 am

i heard a story about catacombs in palmyra growing up. has anybody else heard of such things?

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Exploring the Caves of Rochester, NY

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