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Jul 19, 2021 — Kaaterskill Falls is an extremely popular destination, but I've never seen the falls and felt it was a spot I needed to check out. I extended the hike to reach South Mountain and the various ruins near its summit, plus a loop to view Inspiration Point. The falls are accessible from the north, but I prefered to do the hike from the base of the falls. Unfortunately the normal trailhead is closed (likely permanently), so an alternate parking area farther south requires a half mile walk up the loud and winding highway. Once at the trailhead, a well-manicured trail leads past some lower dalls and up a bunch of stairs to the base of Kaaterskill Falls. More stairs brought me to the top of the falls, where a viewing platform looks over at the falls from a distance.
Once I took a two-minute break to look at Kaaterskill Falls, I decided to head up to summit South Mountain. An uninspiring old roadbed wrapped around the peak's south side, serving as the trail. There's no trail to the true summit, so a hundred feet of bushwhacking was in order. I wrapped around a cute little pond near the summit, a nice trail leading the way. I passed an old well and the remains of Kaaterskill Hotel. Apparently you can sift through the overgrown to find old remnants of the hotel, but in the middle of summer I wasn't willing to risk accumulating ticks. I was content to see some old concrete blocks and move along.
The trail looped me back to the uninspiring road, which I followed southeast to get onto the Inspiration Point Trail. This was a proper trail, and althogh muddy today, had nice views and was definitely the highlight of the hike. It's marked as a road on Google Maps, but it's not at all. There were nice views along the way, and while the true "Inpsiration Point" is nice, there are various other comparable viewpoints. I continued west along the trail and reached a junction, which pointed me north, intersecting my earlier route. I headed back the way I came past Kaaterskill Falls.
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