Access
While the falls are on public land, they can only be reached via the Kaaterskill Falls Trail, a state-maintained yellow-blazed path running 0.4 mile (650 m) uphill from NY 23A, the only road through the clove. This has presented two safety issues.
First, the trail itself climbs rather steeply from the road, along the sometimes steep and rocky slopes alongside the creek. Challenging enough for experienced hikers, as the most-hiked trail in the Catskill Park it is used heavily by casual visitors who may be ill-prepared for the terrain between the road and the falls. The heavy traffic has compounded the trail's problems through erosion.
Second, the trail is served by two parking lots along 23A, both of which require a walk of at least 0.2 mile (400 m) to reach the trailhead at Bastion Falls, just above 23A at a bend in the road. Due to both the rugged surrounding terrain and the limitations placed on Forest Preserve land by the state constitution, New York's Department of Transportation (DOT) has been unable to expand the narrow shoulder on either side of the road, requiring that visitors walk very close to high-speed traffic, including trucks, some of which are in the middle of descending a pronounced grade. The risk of serious accidents is very high. Both DOT and DEC have indicated a willingness to sit down and work out a solution that will accommodate their concerns, however this has not happened as of 2006. Some hikers try to avoid this by parking near the Laurel House site or at North-South Lake and following the closed route of the former Escarpment Trail; this is equally risky as it runs very near the edge of the falls.
Read more about this topic: Kaaterskill Falls
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