Today we drove about an hour south to visit Kaaterskill Falls. We’d never been before but had read good things about it. We left early to beat the crowds (pandemic, you know…) and parked at the start of a rail trail leading to the falls.
It was a lovely walk through the woods and we had the path to ourselves. It was about a half hour along the trail until we reached the main car park for the falls and a second trail leading to an observation platform.
And then we saw the falls, and were not disappointed!
It’s a two-stage waterfall that falls 260 feet in total, and from the platform you get a good view of the top stage. It’s quite spectacular and I loved how you could still see some remaining ice from winter. The view from the platform was fantastic and would be amazing in the fall:
Even though we were a little tired by now (we’d walked for about an hour) a second path led to the bottom of the falls and of course we had to take it. While the previous walking had been easy this was a bit more difficult, and that was before we reached the perilous steps:
They weren’t messing around with warnings here, and I read there was a death last year so I don’t think they are exaggerating:
There was no ice on the trail but the steps were wet and slippery. I became nervous about KLS and asked her to wait at the middle level while I scuttled to the bottom for some quick snaps of the entire falls:
Before we headed back we went closer to the pool in the middle of the falls. This was the closest we got to the water, which was misting over us as we took the photo. The water was very loud!
By now the crowds had started to arrive, and as we hiked back up (which was strenuous) there was a constant stream of sightseers (and their dogs!) heading down. It wasn’t even 10 am, so if you’re ever planning on visiting go early to avoid crowds!
By the time we got back to the car we were exhausted. All told we’d hiked for over 2 hours and about 14k steps. But it was a great place to visit and I’m sure we’ll return again one day 🙂