Awosting Falls

Awosting Falls drops over a single sheer wall of the Shawangunk Conglomerate, a Silurian-age rock laid down roughly 420 million years ago in coastal-plain river systems that drained the rising Taconic mountains. The rock is the signature lithology of the Shawangunk Ridge: rounded white quartz pebbles, some up to a few centimeters across, cemented in a hard quartz-sandstone matrix. The pebbles are themselves the durable survivors of an earlier round of mountain-building, which is why the conglomerate is so resistant to chemical and physical weathering.

That resistance is the reason the lip of Awosting Falls is sharp-edged rather than smoothed and rounded. Most waterfalls in the eastern United States flow over softer sedimentary rock; the creek polishes the lip, the falls retreats slowly and evenly, and the rock behind the curtain takes on a concave bowl shape. At Awosting, the creek cannot wear the conglomerate down at a meaningful rate. Instead, joints in the rock control how slabs break off the wall, and the cliff behind the curtain is essentially vertical. Look at the falls in profile and the geometry is a clean rectangle, not a half-bowl.

The Shawangunk Conglomerate is the same rock that builds the cliff line running the length of the ridge: the Trapps, the Near Trapps, Millbrook Mountain, and the cliffs at Sam's Point. That continuous wall is the reason the Gunks are one of the best traditional rock-climbing destinations in the eastern United States, and it is the reason the ridge above the falls reads as a stripe of pale rock visible from the Wallkill Valley below.

Two practical options for reaching Awosting Falls, both family-friendly. The short version starts at the lower Awosting Falls parking lot just past the Route 44/55 gatehouse. From the lot, a flat, hard-packed carriage road runs about a quarter mile to the upper viewpoint of the falls. This is the wide cross-canyon frame, reachable on a wheelchair- and stroller-passable surface. A short steep descent on a rocky footpath drops to the base of the cliff and the plunge pool, which is the bottom-up power shot.

The longer version, the Awosting Falls Connection Trail, starts at the main upper Lake Minnewaska parking area and runs about 0.55 miles down a carriage road to the falls. It is the natural route if you are pairing the falls with the lake, the swimming beach, or the carriage-road loop around the upper rim. The carriage roads in the Preserve are old resort-era graded surfaces, level and wide, intended for horse-drawn traffic; they remain the easiest walking infrastructure in the Shawangunks.

For experienced hikers who want to skip the entrance fee, the long approach from the Mohonk Preserve West Trapps trailhead on Route 44/55 is 7.7 miles round trip, with a 561-foot elevation gain. That route is moderate, takes 3 to 3.5 hours, and crosses Mohonk Preserve land (which has its own day-use fee or member access) before entering the State Park Preserve.

One of the rarer features of the Shawangunk Ridge is the cluster of four sky lakes: ridge-top, oligotrophic, clear-water lakes that sit in basins on the conglomerate above 1,500 feet. From north to south they are Mohonk Lake (on Mohonk Preserve land at the historic Mountain House), Lake Minnewaska (in the Preserve, near the upper parking lot and the swimming beach), Lake Awosting (in the Preserve, about three miles southwest of the falls), and Lake Maratanza (in the Preserve, at Sam's Point at the southern end of the ridge). Awosting Falls drains the Lake Awosting basin via Peters Kill.

These lakes are oligotrophic because the conglomerate basin offers almost no soluble minerals, so the water carries very little dissolved nutrient load. The result is extreme clarity and a thin, acid-tolerant aquatic community. Lake Minnewaska is the only one of the four with a designated public swimming beach, and the beach is staffed by lifeguards on a posted summer schedule. The other three lakes are visit-and-look destinations rather than swim destinations, with Lake Awosting reachable by an 8- to 10-mile round-trip carriage-road walk from the upper lot.

Swimming is prohibited at Awosting Falls and in the plunge pool. The pool is deeper than the broad, shallow plunge pools at most regional waterfalls, and the surrounding canyon walls funnel cold water and currents that are hazardous even when the surface looks calm. NY State Parks enforces the rule; rangers post the closure and patrol the lot on warm weekends.

The legal swim option in the Preserve is the designated Lake Minnewaska beach, about a half mile from the falls on a flat carriage road. Lifeguards are on duty on a posted schedule, typically late June through Labor Day weekend. The beach is small, the water is cold (it sits at 1,650 feet of elevation), and the bottom shelves quickly. On hot July and August weekends the parking lot fills before mid-morning and NY State Parks turns vehicles away at the gate. If you want a guaranteed swim, plan to arrive at gate open (9 a.m.) and budget time for the falls separately.

One of the most common visitor confusions on the Shawangunk Ridge is the distinction between the Mohonk Preserve and the Minnewaska State Park Preserve. They share a ridge, share the same Shawangunk Conglomerate, and share carriage-road infrastructure built during the 19th-century resort era. They do not share an entrance fee, a management agency, or a membership.

The Mohonk Preserve is a private nonprofit conservation organization that owns about 8,000 acres on the northern ridge, including the Trapps and Near Trapps climbing cliffs and the West Trapps trailhead on Route 44/55. Day-use access to the Mohonk Preserve is by their own ticket or membership; their pass does not cover the State Park Preserve. Minnewaska State Park Preserve is a 24,272-acre state-run preserve to the south and west, managed by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. It contains Awosting Falls, Lake Minnewaska, Lake Awosting, and Sam's Point. The State Park Preserve charges $10 per vehicle at the Route 44/55 gatehouse and accepts the Empire Pass.

Both organizations work in partnership on land protection and trail maintenance, and the carriage-road network connects across boundaries; you can walk from Mohonk Preserve land into Preserve land on the same trail. But you need the matching pass for whichever gate or lot you parked at. The Open Space Institute and the Friends of the Shawangunks have spent decades helping assemble both holdings into the contiguous protected ridge that exists today.

Two windows justify a special trip. Mid-April through mid-May for snowmelt and spring rain off the ridge: in a normal year the falls runs as a thick continuous curtain off the cliff for two to four weeks, and the carriage road is still quiet before Memorial Day weekend. The second and third weeks of October for peak Shawangunk hardwood color above the cliff line; expect parking-lot overflow on those Saturdays and arrive at gate open (9 a.m.) or use the longer Connection Trail from the upper Lake Minnewaska lot. Summer is a quick stop on the way to the Lake Minnewaska beach; January and February occasionally produce a partial ice column in cold years, though the descent to the plunge pool is icy and microspikes are recommended.

Costs are straightforward. The Minnewaska gatehouse on Route 44/55 charges $10 per vehicle for day use, with the New York State Empire Pass accepted. There is no separate fee for the falls or the trail. Gates open at 9 a.m. daily and close at posted times that vary by season (typically near dusk). The Preserve is day-use only; there is no camping inside the boundary, and the closest reliable lodging and food are in New Paltz, about 11 miles east on Route 44/55.