Kaaterskill Falls

A place to discuss waterfalls. Including the parks that house them and the hikes to get to them.

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Des219
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Thank you Matt.
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Matt
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70 feet has to be off the top to the middle. Damn.
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Des219
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Most likely from the middle to the bottom which is between 70-80 ft. The top is about 180 ft. Only one person is documented as surviving the top fall.
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Yeah she fell off the top of the lower falls, probably hiking to the bottom of the upper falls, where the trail (herd path, no official trail up there) literally is on the edge of the cliff that the lower falls goes over. One small misstep there and you go over.
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Des219
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That is where I decided to turn around on my first visit. I was on the upper trail, I think once it was a DEC trail.
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Not sure if those trails were ever official. The one I'm talking about starts at the end of the marked trail at the bottom of the falls. There is a rocky steep hillside to the right of the trail end that you scramble up, then a herd path leads to the left. It splits after a little ways and the right branch goes uphill a bit then leads on to the rock ledge around the bowl at the bottom of the upper falls. The other branch goes left to the very edge of the cliff the lower falls go over and into the bowl at the bottom of the upper falls. This is where I would guess the woman fell off.

If you cross the stream above the lower falls, or keep following the upper trail around the bowl, you can scramble up the hillside to the left of the upper falls and continue up to a memorial about a dog who either fell off the cliff trying to protect his owner, or stayed there with his owner after the owner fell off the cliff, forget exactly. You can then scramble and rock climb a bit more to reach the top of the upper cliff and take the herd paths to the top of the upper falls where the official trail from the upper parking lot ends at the top of the upper falls.
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I love the frozen falls. Well done!
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