The Plattekill Falls in the Catskills. Easy hike and nice fall colors. Enough water for good shots.
Plattekill Falls
- hoohaa
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Where in the Catskills and public land?
My photo blog: P.J.'s look at the world
My regular blog: A 'lil HooHaa
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"Slow down and enjoy life. It's not only the scenery you miss by going too fast, you also miss the sense of where you are going and why." - Eddie Cantor
My regular blog: A 'lil HooHaa
My flickr: HooHaa Photos
"Slow down and enjoy life. It's not only the scenery you miss by going too fast, you also miss the sense of where you are going and why." - Eddie Cantor
- Matt
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great colors. I like when you include people as it gives a sense of how large the falls are.
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They are located on Greene County 16 just south of Tannersville in the north Catskills. They are in a public nature preserve.
- skiboarder72
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very nice!
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Great shots, one of my favorite places. I like it better than Kaaterskill, more wild & rugged, and usually less crowded.
Here's a shot when the water & sun combined just right to give a great rainbow:
Hey, what do you know, that looks exactly like my avatar
There are a lot more great falls on the Plattekill, at least one even taller than this one. I will get shots of the ones I have uploaded eventually. The lower gorge is also a popular swimming spot with the locals, though the access trail is posted, that doesn't seem to bother anyone. You can park along Becker road next to a formidable looking chain link fence with many posted signs on it. As I recall, the owner is either a power or water company, something municipal anyway. The fence only extends a few yards, and you can walk around it, which everyone does. After a short walk on a well-worn trail, you enter state land. When we were there (a local photographer friend of ours told us how to get in and to "ignore the posted signs") there were tons of people going up & down the trail to the various falls having a great time swimming on a hot summer day. I stopped bothering taking GPS points of all the falls and only took points for the major ones. We only got about a mile up the gorge before the heat & humidity got the best of us, plus the fact that the terrain was getting very rough, and decided to return to the car.
Here's a google map of the falls I've been to.
Russell Dunn Catskill Region Guide pages 63-76
Any chance of getting these listed on the main waterfall page?
Here's a shot when the water & sun combined just right to give a great rainbow:
Hey, what do you know, that looks exactly like my avatar
There are a lot more great falls on the Plattekill, at least one even taller than this one. I will get shots of the ones I have uploaded eventually. The lower gorge is also a popular swimming spot with the locals, though the access trail is posted, that doesn't seem to bother anyone. You can park along Becker road next to a formidable looking chain link fence with many posted signs on it. As I recall, the owner is either a power or water company, something municipal anyway. The fence only extends a few yards, and you can walk around it, which everyone does. After a short walk on a well-worn trail, you enter state land. When we were there (a local photographer friend of ours told us how to get in and to "ignore the posted signs") there were tons of people going up & down the trail to the various falls having a great time swimming on a hot summer day. I stopped bothering taking GPS points of all the falls and only took points for the major ones. We only got about a mile up the gorge before the heat & humidity got the best of us, plus the fact that the terrain was getting very rough, and decided to return to the car.
Here's a google map of the falls I've been to.
Russell Dunn Catskill Region Guide pages 63-76
Any chance of getting these listed on the main waterfall page?
LGD
- Matt
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yes, I'll add them shortly.
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Hey, that's great, I don't mean to sound pushy.... just enthusiastic!
Here's a pic of one of the falls in the lower gorge, apparently, I didn't have the enthusiasm that day, since there are at least two or three more major falls we saw that day that apparently I didn't bother taking pictures of. Strange. Well, it was about 90°F that day and maybe 150% humidity.
This is the next waterfall down from the large one that Crazyzouave & I posted above, I would say it's maybe 20 feet taller.
I've never been to the bottom of this one, because it's surrounded by cliffs as you can see. The only easy way to the bottom is to walk up from the bottom of the clove. Or, climb down the rocks as some people do, and sometimes, have to be brought back out by the rescue squad, which we saw happen one time we were there.
This is the one listed in Russell Dunn's book as the Old Mill Falls. It's right below the hiking bridge, and maybe 10-12 feet high. There used to be a bridge across the stream just below this with some type of mill, which the foundation can still be seen.
This is a small falls in Hell's Hole, which feeds into the main Platte Clove stream.
Oh yeah, here's one a friend snapped of me at the bottom of the upper falls, in very high water, I was getting a bit wet from spray even though I was a good distance from the bottom of the falls.
Oh yeah, the sequel: Here's a link to virtual earth showing the falls. The one on the left is the upper one, which has pictures posted here. The one on the right I have not been to, but it looks like a nice one. The large falls I posted a pic of is hidden in the trees. Hell's Hole is the side gully leading towards the road.
Here's a pic of one of the falls in the lower gorge, apparently, I didn't have the enthusiasm that day, since there are at least two or three more major falls we saw that day that apparently I didn't bother taking pictures of. Strange. Well, it was about 90°F that day and maybe 150% humidity.
This is the next waterfall down from the large one that Crazyzouave & I posted above, I would say it's maybe 20 feet taller.
I've never been to the bottom of this one, because it's surrounded by cliffs as you can see. The only easy way to the bottom is to walk up from the bottom of the clove. Or, climb down the rocks as some people do, and sometimes, have to be brought back out by the rescue squad, which we saw happen one time we were there.
This is the one listed in Russell Dunn's book as the Old Mill Falls. It's right below the hiking bridge, and maybe 10-12 feet high. There used to be a bridge across the stream just below this with some type of mill, which the foundation can still be seen.
This is a small falls in Hell's Hole, which feeds into the main Platte Clove stream.
Oh yeah, here's one a friend snapped of me at the bottom of the upper falls, in very high water, I was getting a bit wet from spray even though I was a good distance from the bottom of the falls.
Oh yeah, the sequel: Here's a link to virtual earth showing the falls. The one on the left is the upper one, which has pictures posted here. The one on the right I have not been to, but it looks like a nice one. The large falls I posted a pic of is hidden in the trees. Hell's Hole is the side gully leading towards the road.
LGD