Hike at Plotterkill Nature Preserve - Waterfalls!

Arrive at the trailhead on Mariaville road, which is a sharp right turn that pops up out of nowhere as you are travelling up past Maple Ski Ridge. There is another entrance on Coplan road, I suggest you DO NOT go to this one, the one I will show you is much better!

Begin on the trail and in less than a half mile you will reach a staircase. Continue down the staircase to continue to the falls, take a right if you wish to take a walk above the "gorge" and view some of the falls from the top. Continuing down the staircase, down a small hill, you will cross a bridge which goes over "Plotter Kill" the stream on which the waterfalls are located.

After crossing the bridge, go right to continue on the trail that hugs the creek . This is relatively flat until you reach a small tree root/rock climb of around 10 feet. Continue on the trail and you will soon have the option to turn right and go down a small hill, this is the top of the main waterfall at Plotterkill preserve, which is around 60ft. THE WATER IS NOT DEEP ENOUGH TO JUMP, DO NOT TRY! That being said, you may swim anywhere you deem fit, it is clean water! Do enjoy the view of the creek from the top.

Go back up the hill and continue on the trail that follows the side of the gorge. You will cross a few small bridges and eventually come to a trail junction where you will have the option to continue left or turn sharply right down a hill. Be careful, there are a few places that you MAY think that the trail is going, but the actual trail is well leveled and noticeably different than the floor of the woods. I believe there are now signs up around the park. We will call this junction the "Hill Junction".

Continue down the hill and you will reach the creekbed. Continue upstream, crossing the stream and following the trail on the left side of the creek to reach the bottom of the main falls. I WARN YOU: If the creek is flowing rapidly, DO NOT attempt this. Strictly view the falls from the top. You can see the creek varies in flow from the different pictures I have provided

Turn back the way you came and continue past the bottom of the hill you went down to see a small cascade on the stream, and continue further on a trail on the left (notice this left is when you are facing downstream) to reach the top of the second, 50ft tall, falls. PLEASE BEWARE: Someone recently died falling off of the slope to the left of these falls, so please do not try to ascend here. You may upon your skill level and confidence level, descend the falls CAREFULLY on the left side, you may be able to see there is somewhat of a trail on the scramble of rocks down the side. From here you can enjoy the bottom of the second falls.

Continue downstream from this point to see some smaller falls on Plotter kill, and soon you can turn left to view the third falls, which are much different than the other two, and is around 40ft tall. Again, you may ascend these falls on the left side but be very cautious.

So from the bottom of these falls, you may continue down the creek and follow the trail to the other entrance, it is then considered a longer hike but it is a beautiful preserve.

So now let me take you back to the hill junction...You can continue on the upper trail here, which take you uphill, then downhill to another creek which is the one that has the third falls on it. You can continue down this creek to get to the top of the third falls much easier!