"Streams and glaciers sculpted these mountains out of a plateau of rock that formed from ancient rivers. That is essentially the geologic story of the Northeastern Catskill Mountains. These mountains and their river valleys are the ongoing result of water interacting with landscape geology under the force of gravity over millions of years. 

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The Schoharie Creek watershed is uniquely oriented for Catskill drainage basins, with drainage to the west
and north rather than to the southeast or southwest typical of the other principal watersheds. Glacial geology sets the geologic framework for most of the Upper Schoharie Creek stream system, controlling such characteristics as depth of alluvium (water worked sediments), presence of non-alluvial boundary conditions (till and glacial lake sediments), sediment supply and stream channel slope and geometry."