Catskillmountaineer.com Forum

The DEC has ordered that all trails to Kaaterskill Falls be closed. This means the trail from Bastion Falls (by Rt 23a) to Kaaterskill Falls is closed. They have also closed the trail from Laurel House Road to Kaaterskill Falls closed.



Both of these hike routes are closed: http://www.catskillmountaineer.com/NSL-KF.html

I am very sorry to hear the trails to Kaaterskill Falls are closed. What is the "official" reason? Were the trails literally washed away?

Also, does the term "closed" simply mean the trail is no longer maintained or does it mean that hiking to the falls is now prohibited?

Thanks in advance for any light anyone can shed.

Rich

From what I was told, the trails are heavily eroded, and dangerous. This is why they were officially closed. This is not a recommendation. You will be fined $250 if caught hiking on the trails. There may be other issues, but I don't know them.

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the "heads up" about the trails to Kaaterskill Falls. We'll have to stay clear until conditions improve.

Rich

I made it up to Windham on Friday and Saturday (will start a separate thread tomorrow, too beat tonight). Before returning to Windham on Saturday morning, I stopped at Kaaterskill Falls and Platte Clove. I hit Kaaterskill first around 8am, with only 3 cars in the lot. You could tell that the waterline was either at the top or slightly above the bridge. The first set of steps past the guardrail entering the trail had multiple "steps" missing or completely gone. I walked in only about 500 feet and started talking to someone who was returning from the falls. He said they weren't raging and the trail had some washed out areas. Multiple trail markers were either displaced or missing. So I sat and talked for about 20 mins and turned around to go to Platte Clove because I was anxious to get to Windham. Now I kind of wish I had went to the falls. As noted in other posts, 23A was open at the time, except one portion was down to one lane.

I knew they closed all the trails but I went to overlook mountain and it was packed so me and my brother hiked it, there were no closer signs but you could tell it had been cleaned up.
So this mourning I took a trip to katterskill falls and there was a closed sign and they had a strip of orange tape there. So I went to the chimney hole in boiceville I think it was on 28 but not sure.
I wish I could of done the falls.

Technically if they don't have a closed sign up, you can hike it. From what I heard there were many places where there wasn't a closed sign, and legally you could hike it. Not sure why they did this. Most of the trails are in excellent condition.