Kaaterskill Falls

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

Moderators: Brenda, Kelly

User avatar
backpacker
Board Expert
Board Expert
Posts: 881
Joined: Sat Sep 15, 2007 9:16 am
Camera Model: Nikon D90, D40x, Lenses Nikor 12-24, 18-105 vr, 18-135, 70-300 vr, sigma 150-5oo os
Location: Oriskany Falls

Kaaterskill Falls is located on route 23a in Greene County, between the towns of Haines Falls and Pallenville in the Catskill Mountains. A century ago it was call the tallest waterfalls in New York, once a play ground for the rich it has since reverted back to nature. The hike in is about ½ a mile from the road with about a .2 mile walk from the parking lot. Bastion Falls is on the same creek and right at the road. The hike in is easy with about a 300 foot elevation gain. The trail ends at the base of the falls with side routes to the top half on loose shale and dirt. The overall height is 260 feet with the top at 180 feet and the second at 80 feet. The shelf breaking the two falls (and creating the huge pool) is the break between the Manorkill Sandstone formed in the Middle Devonian period and the Oneonta-Genesee sandstone-shale mix of the late Devonian period.

The water falls
Image

The Upper falls with ice
Image

The Lower falls
Image

Lower falls
Image

I was supprised to see little water flow for this time of year, this is an evening falls to shoot. I was their early morning (8:30ish) and had problems with the sun.
The Mountains are Calling and I must Go John Muir
my flickr gallery
46er interview
User avatar
Matt
President
President
Posts: 13374
Joined: Sun Apr 23, 2006 5:01 pm
Camera Model: Olympus OMD EM-1 m1, m2; Panasonic GM5, Osmo Pocket
Location: Rochester, NY
Contact:

wow, that quite a dramatic-looking falls! :up:
L_G_D
Board Expert
Board Expert
Posts: 629
Joined: Fri May 29, 2009 2:29 pm
Camera Model: Sony Alpha 700
Location: Capital District area, upstate NY

Thought I'd take a break from the Adirondack waterfalls for a bit and add to the great shots Backpacker posted for the jewell of the Catskill waterfalls, Kaaterskill.

Here's a late winter shot my friend took of me in front of the lower falls. It was a warm enough day that I hiked in wearing just a t-shirt (well, also pants & boots with ice cleats, but you get the idea), but there was still plenty of ice & snow at the falls.

Image

Compare that to this summer shot with no ice, from about the same vantage point. You can see that I was standing on about 30-40 feet of ice & snow in the previous shot. Took this on slide film in bright sun, so the shadows have gone inky black, nothing to be done about it :woof:

Image

The lower falls from the side, with a bit of a rainbow, same day as the shot above.

Image

The upper falls, same day, different rainbow. The film I shot these two on, Konica Impresa 50, really picked up the red of the dirt there, and that's pulling the saturation back a bit, strange. Ah, the good ol' days of film.

Image

The upper falls from above, with some ice yet.

Image
LGD
User avatar
Matt
President
President
Posts: 13374
Joined: Sun Apr 23, 2006 5:01 pm
Camera Model: Olympus OMD EM-1 m1, m2; Panasonic GM5, Osmo Pocket
Location: Rochester, NY
Contact:

wow!
L_G_D
Board Expert
Board Expert
Posts: 629
Joined: Fri May 29, 2009 2:29 pm
Camera Model: Sony Alpha 700
Location: Capital District area, upstate NY

It is quite a place. There's a great aerial view on bings maps, too.

later...

The colors on my film shots still bug me, so I dug out my slides shot on Elite Chrome Extra Color and gave them a whirl, just to see. The color is definitely different, maybe a little closer to true life. Plus, on this shot I did a sort of HDR where I scanned the slide twice with two exposure settings to get a bit more info out of the shadows so they aren't so black:

Image

There's actually a double rainbow on this one, that I didn't even notice on the day I was there. Not as noticable on the scaled-down version, but on the full size scan, you can see another faint rainbow above the main one.

And, just a regular scan of the lower section:

Image
LGD
L_G_D
Board Expert
Board Expert
Posts: 629
Joined: Fri May 29, 2009 2:29 pm
Camera Model: Sony Alpha 700
Location: Capital District area, upstate NY

Another shot I just dug up in my film scanning excavations. This is a winter shot, obviously, January to be precise. The large cone of ice and snow at the bottom of the falls that is probably 30-40 feet high. There are also three people in the shot for scale, see if you can find them :D . At web size, they are pretty small in the frame.

Image

This is a pseudo-HDR by scanning the frame three times at -1, 0, +1 exposure to get every bit of information out of the film. Still not 100% satisfied with the results, but you get the idea.
LGD
User avatar
Matt
President
President
Posts: 13374
Joined: Sun Apr 23, 2006 5:01 pm
Camera Model: Olympus OMD EM-1 m1, m2; Panasonic GM5, Osmo Pocket
Location: Rochester, NY
Contact:

I think thats a fantastic shot. Well done!
User avatar
George
Senior Guide
Senior Guide
Posts: 394
Joined: Mon Oct 05, 2009 1:21 pm
Camera Model: Nikon D300, Calumet 4x5
Location: Castleton-on-Hudson, NY

Fantastic. Looks like a Hudson River School painting.
Post Reply