Took a couple of days off to do a few hikes around the Saugerties area. The second hike on the list was Kaaterskill Falls & Inspiration Point loop. It was about a 4.8 miles hike.
Kaaterskill Falls is a very very very popular hike; parking can be extremely limited on weekends and peak times. Can you really blame it? This two tier waterfall is fairly easily accessible 3 seasons out of 4. In Winter, it may be a mixed bag. When I soloed this hike back in February 2021, the waterfall was almost completely frozen with a good amount of snow blanketing the trail and stairs. When I went this time around… the conditions were completely different. Which yielded a different result.
After Kaaterskill Falls, we headed back a little and followed the trail to Inspiration Point. At Inspiration Point, we rested and ate lunch. The wind started to really whip around and began our hike back and took the carriage road trail.
While most of the time, the carriage road sounds lame, it was nice with the mix of wintry scene, icy trail, snow covered patches, and a stream right on the side of the road.
On our way back, we saw people that were completely unprepared for the icy conditions. I strongly urge anyone visiting Kaaterskill Falls to at least get some microspikes crampons when the trails are completely covered in ice. People were slipping and sliding all over the place. We saw some people that slipped and slid down the trail. Luckily, they were able to stop in time.
We got back to the bridge area in no time and went back to the viewing platform to get one more look of this lovely waterfall.