Since it was spring and we had recent rains my friend Evan wanted to do a hike featuring a waterfall. He made four suggestions and I chose Kaaterskill Falls in the Catskill Mountans of New York since neither of us had been there before. The temperature had dropped below freezing the night before so we expected that to make the falls even more interesting.

We headed to the trailhead on Laurel House Road by a curvy road snaking along a gorge carved by Kaaterskill Creek. We passed by a lower stage of the waterfall that we later learned was called Bastion Falls. With our arrival on Sunday around noon the parking lot was nearly full but a recently arriving car reparked so we could fit in. We first hiked to a vista point above the falls and encountered our first icy spot. Then we headed down to the prime viewing area for the falls to get a really good look. As we got very close to the falls we encountered some serious ice on the trail so I put on my microspikes. The falls were breathtaking with ice on the rocks either side of the falls.

Next we decided to head down a trail toward Bastion Falls. There was a continuing series of rock steps on the way down until we finally reached the lower falls we had seen earlier from the curvy road. Evan was drawn to an island reachable by stepping stones where he found a perfect meditation spot next to the rushing water. He invited me to join him on the island, showing me a path to get there.

We headed back up and saw what we think was a muskrat on the trail as well as a friendly park ranger we had encountered two times earlier on our hike. We later decided this was one of our top hikes we had ever done.

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