Site #5 Kaaterskill Falls

Introduction by Kevin J. Avery, Senior Research Scholar, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

"Why, there's a fall in the hills, where the water of two little ponds that lie near each other breaks out of their bounds, and runs over the rocks into the valley. . . . The first pitch is nigh two hundred feet, and the water looks like flakes of driven snow, afore it touches the bottom; and there the stream gathers again for a new start, and maybe flutters over fifty feet of flat-rock, before it falls another hundred."  So was the lofty (about 260 total feet in height), two-tiered Kaaterskill Falls described by Hawkeye, the colonial scout of James Fenimore Cooper's 1823 novel, The Pioneers.  Kaaterskill Falls was the scenic prize of any walk in the vicinity of the great hotels that crowned the mountaintop near Palenville and Haines Falls from 1824 to 1963.  Such a tourist magnet did the falls become that the proprietor of a mill near its crest, and after him a hotelier, charged a fee to open a dam gate constructed to regulate the flow in timed "performances."  (To watch, hotel guests and day visitors descended a wooden staircase—removed long ago—beside the cascade.)  Numerous artists represented the falls throughout the period, especially the first of them, Thomas Cole, whose earliest paintings (1825-26), showing the cataract from in front, behind (inside the cavern), and the top eventually helped earn him the nickname, "Father of the Hudson River School."

Map & Directions

Driving Directions: We recommend Google Map . Site coordinates: 42.19584, -74.06300 Long.

Location Notes: Kaaterskill Falls today is accessible via a viewing platform. This location enables visitors to avoid hazardous alternate routes. To reach the parking lot for the viewing platform, navigate to the Laurel House Trail. From there, the Falls are about a 10 minute walk.

Plan Your Trip

Contact
Visit their Website

Admissions
Free 

Parking
Free Lot 

Restroom
No

Accessibility
Not Accessible 
Meets no ADA standards and has major barriers. Most people with disabilities, even with assistance, will be unable to access

Hours
Open all seasons 
No restriction

Distance: .6 mile round trip