Entry No. 14 — the Buffalo file — filed under: outdoor
Eternal Flame Falls
At the base of a 30-foot cascade in the Shale Creek Preserve corner of Chestnut Ridge Park, a small grotto leaks natural gas that burns as a hand-sized flame behind the falling water. Geologists who studied it classify it as a macroseep: the gas rises from Rhinestreet Shale roughly 400 meters down and is unusually rich in ethane and propane, which is part of why it holds a flame at all. It burns nearly year-round, though spray occasionally drowns it and the unwritten rule is that the next hiker relights it. Erie County tamed the worst of the descent in 2023 with 139 box steps and about 120 feet of railing, but the final quarter mile is still a walk up the creek bed itself.
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The story
Shale Creek drops about thirty feet over a rock lip in the southwest corner of Chestnut Ridge Park, Erie County's 1,151-acre spread above Orchard Park, and at the base of that cascade there is a small alcove in the rock face with a flame burning inside it. The gas feeding it is real natural gas, not a novelty pipe: a 2013 study in Marine and Petroleum Geology, by researchers from Indiana University Bloomington and Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, traced it to the Rhinestreet Shale roughly 400 meters below, reaching the surface through faults. The seep releases on the order of a kilogram of methane a day.
What makes it burn so willingly is the mix. Ordinary seeps are nearly all methane; this one runs about 35 percent ethane and propane, which is why a hand-sized flame holds in a wet grotto instead of guttering. The odd part is the source rock, which sits roughly 100°C cooler than the temperature geologists expect gas generation to require — the paper's authors conceded they could not fully account for it. The flame is not eternal in practice: spray drowns it regularly, and it stays out until the next hiker with a lighter arrives.
The county owns and maintains the trail, which is the part that changed most recently. In August 2023 Erie County reopened it after major work, adding 139 box steps through the worst of the roughly 150-foot descent into the gorge and about 120 feet of railing. That was a response to popularity: a site once passed between locals now draws enough traffic that litter, erosion, and vandalism around the grotto are documented problems. The last quarter mile is still an unimproved walk up the creek bed, which the county has sensibly declined to pave.
What it's like
The first stretch is flat, wooded, and clearly marked — easy enough that the drop catches people off guard. Then the ground falls away and you take the box steps down about 150 feet to the creek, after which the trail simply becomes the creek: you rock-hop and wade the final quarter mile with the walls closing in. Figure a mile each way and ninety minutes to two hours with loitering. You will smell the seep before you see it. If the flame is already burning, someone lit it for you; if not, someone in your group reaches into the back of the alcove with a lighter and it catches with a soft thump. The etiquette is simple: relight it if it is out, do not enlarge the hole, and pack out everything you carried in.
The move: Summer hours run to 9 pm, so leave Buffalo after work, hike in with a waterproof lighter and shoes you don't mind soaking, and time the grotto for the hour before dusk when the flame does its best work. Dinner in Orchard Park village is ten minutes back up the road.
📍 Before you go Trailhead is in the Shale Creek Preserve section of Chestnut Ridge Park (main park address: 6121 Chestnut Ridge Rd, Orchard Park; the preserve is the park's southwest corner — grab the county's trail map PDF). Park hours are 7 am–9 pm Memorial Day–Labor Day, 7 am–dusk the rest of the year. The last stretch is in the creek bed, so wet feet are part of the deal; bring a lighter in case the flame is out. The waterfall shrinks to a trickle by late summer — spring is the full show, but the flame doesn't care what month it is.
- 📍 Orchard Park
- 💸 Free
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Outdoors
Hours: Added 2026-08-25 — confirm current hours before you go.
Pair it with
- Penn Dixie Monthly Stargazing — Twenty minutes north in Blasdell, the same Devonian shale you just watched leak gas is a quarry floor where you crack rocks for 380-million-year-old trilobites — and one summer Saturday a month they reopen it after dark for telescopes.
- Original American Kazoo Company Museum & Factory — Eden is a short drive west and the last metal-kazoo factory in North America closes at 5 pm, so do the museum in the afternoon and save the gorge for the hour before dusk.
- Expressive Glass — Booked sessions on Lake Shore Road wrap by about 4:30, which sets up a day of two flames: one you shape deliberately over a torch, one you coax out of wet shale with a cheap lighter.
More weird in Buffalo
Good to know
Where is the trailhead, exactly?
Not at the main Chestnut Ridge entrance at 6121 Chestnut Ridge Road. The trail starts in the Shale Creek Preserve, the park's remote southwest section, which is a separate approach — download Erie County's Eternal Flame Trail map before you leave the house, because signal in the gorge is not something to plan around.
How hard is the hike, and how long does it take?
Roughly a mile each way, ninety minutes to two hours round trip. Flat and simple until the 150-foot descent into the gorge, which since August 2023 has 139 box steps and about 120 feet of railing through the worst of it. The final quarter mile is in the creek bed itself, so it is not accessible by wheelchair or stroller, and your feet are getting wet.
What if the flame is out?
Fairly common — waterfall spray puts it out and there is no attendant to relight it. Bring a waterproof lighter or matches and reach in toward the back of the alcove. It is a confined pocket of gas, so keep your face and hair clear and let it take on its own.
What does it cost, and when is the park open?
Free. Chestnut Ridge is open 7 am to 9 pm from Memorial Day through Labor Day and 7 am to dusk the rest of the year, and closing time is enforced on everyone including the people still down in the creek. Summer evenings are the only window that makes this an after-work trip.
When is it best?
Spring for water volume — by late summer the falls can thin to a trickle, which admittedly makes the flame easier to see and photograph. The seep does not care what month it is and burns through winter, but the descent under ice is a genuinely different undertaking.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: Wikipedia · www3.erie.gov · exploringupstate.com
last checked: 2026-08-25