Waterfalls in the Kaaterskill Clove

[mike]

It has been a while since my good friend, Rich and I, had a chance to hike together. I have been slowly working on surveying the waterfalls of the Catskills, but with Hurricane Irene, rain, more rain, and snow has slowed down our progress considerably. But, the weather forecast this weekend looked really good. It has been dry, so it was safe to venture down in the ravines. Our plan was to hike out Poet's Ledge and check out some new waterfalls. Before we were done, we had visited 8 waterfalls and could see another 6 waterfalls further down in the Ravines. Before we were done, we had made some new discoveries, and had completely worn ourselves out.

Our first side trip was to see if we could figure out where Johnson's Point was. We found the general idea of where it was, but we were not willing to venture down the clove. Too much energy to climb back up. Maybe another day.

We then moved on to the top of Buttermilk Falls #1. We could see Paradox Falls up the ravine, but we didn't stop to photograph it again. We then moved on to Wildcat Ravine. We stopped for a few minutes on the top of Wildcat Falls. We then moved up the ravine to photograph the falls directly above the falls. The lighting was actually pretty good. I think we got a good photo of this waterfall.

We then moved on to Poet's Ledge. Got a few good photos and a little to eat. We then bushwhacked to the top of Hillyer Falls and Shadow Falls. We searched for a route below the upper falls. Carefully hiked down to the bottom of the upper falls & top of the lower falls. Got some more pictures and took GPS reading to get the height of these two falls. Getting down to the bottom of these two falls looked very difficult, so we didn't get below these two.

We then followed the rim along the old trail that existed 50 years ago. Could still see the trail. While doing this we discovered the falls below Viola Falls. What a gorgeous water fall! Just incredible! Cannot understand why this trail was closed. What a gem! We both got some pictures.

We then got some new pictures of Viola Falls. Rich also made a video of looking over Viola falls. the video looks great.

We then moved up to the access point to the bottom Wildcat Falls. The route down is tricky, and the walk across to Wildcat Falls is steep and it had loose rock. Rich was very impressed with the bottom of these falls. By this time it was starting to get dark. So we headed back to the car. It was a long day. 8.2 miles in all.

Rich will add a few new pictures tomorrow. He took 200 pictures, and I took 10 pictures. Here are a couple pictures I took:


View from Poet's Ledge


Upper Hillyer Falls


Upper Shadow Falls


Waterfalls below Viola Falls - my pictures don't do it justice


Map of the hike

[mike]

Here are some of the pictures from Rich:


Poet's Ledge - Looking South-west (Kaaterskill High Peak in the background)


Poet's Ledge - Looking west


Poet's Ledge - Looking Northwest


Upper Hillyer Falls


Upper Shadow Falls


Viola Falls


Viola Falls


Viola Falls - Looking down


Middle Viola Falls


Middle Viola Falls - Looking down from the top


Wildcat Falls


Wildcat Falls


Wildcat Falls


Falls above Wildcat Falls

[mtnclimber]

I have always wondered where that old trail was. The one between Viola Falls and Poets Ledge. I looked for it, but could never find it. It looks nice. Why isn't it still a trail?

Some of those pictures are great! Really like viola falls and wildcat falls. Never seen a picture of wildcat from the bottom.

[mike]

The old trail is absolutely gorgeous! Not sure why it isn't a trail. If you hike it from Poet's Ledge to Viola Falls, it is fairly easy to follow. Once you have done it, it is easy to do either way. The distance from Poet's Ledge to Viola Falls is very short. Following the DEC trail is much longer.