Waterfalls in New York

New York waterfalls, from Niagara to the Catskills

Glaciers, an inland sea and a river cutting across its own tilted bedrock have left New York with waterfall country in several distinct landscapes rather than one. Of the 879 named falls recorded here across 53 counties, most cluster in four places: the Adirondack high peaks, the Catskill escarpment above the Hudson Valley, the glacially deepened gorges of the Finger Lakes, and the limestone ledge that the Niagara River pours over in the far west.

Where the waterfalls are

The Adirondacks hold the largest share by county: Essex County alone has 63 named falls, with dozens more in St. Lawrence County and Lewis County, all cutting into some of the oldest exposed rock in North America inside a forest preserve kept "forever wild" since 1894.

South of the Adirondacks, the Catskills are a plateau, not a true mountain range, its Devonian sandstone and shale cut into sharp relief where creeks cross the Catskill Escarpment above the Hudson Valley; Greene County and Ulster County hold most of this country around Kaaterskill Clove.

The Finger Lakes owe their gorges to glaciers that cut the main lake valleys faster than tributary streams could keep up, leaving side creeks hanging as much as 390 feet above the lakeshores. Tompkins County and Schuyler County hold Taughannock Falls and Watkins Glen, while Wyoming County and Livingston County share the Genesee gorge at Letchworth.

Farther west, Niagara County has Niagara Falls, and the Genesee crosses more falls in Monroe County at Rochester. Central New York's falls, including Chittenango Falls in Madison County and Tinker Falls in Cortland County, drop over a limestone escarpment near Syracuse, and Albany County has Cohoes Falls on the Mohawk.

Waterfalls worth the trip

• Niagara Falls drops 167 feet at its Horseshoe Falls, a curtain just over 2,700 feet wide; a short walk from the lots, Terrapin Point on Goat Island puts visitors beside the brink, where about 90 percent of the river's remaining flow pours through.
• Kaaterskill Falls drops 231 feet in two tiers (some give 260), a short 0.3-mile gravel walk from the Laurel House Road lot to a platform above the upper tier.
• Taughannock Falls, a sheer 209-foot plunge (the park still signs 215), falls into a stone amphitheater at the head of a mile-long gorge, a short flat walk from the main lot.
• At Letchworth State Park, Middle Genesee Falls, 107 feet and the tallest of three drops on the Genesee River, is a short walk from parking near the Glen Iris Inn; Upper Genesee Falls and Lower Genesee Falls, each 70 feet, sit up- and downstream in the same gorge, whose walls rise as high as 600 feet.
• Rainbow Falls in Watkins Glen State Park drops 95 feet along a mile-long gorge trail past 19 named waterfalls, including Cavern Cascade.
• Chittenango Falls, 130 feet in two tiers (older figures give 167), is a short walk from the gorge-top lot and the only known home of an endangered snail.
• Buttermilk Falls in Ithaca slides 95 feet down a wide ledge (older figures give 165) into a lifeguarded pool a short walk from parking.

When to go

Streams in the Adirondacks, Catskills and Finger Lakes peak with spring snowmelt and rain, then thin through summer: Chittenango Creek runs about 250 cubic feet per second in March and April and drops to roughly 30 by August and September, and Taughannock and Buttermilk creeks in Ithaca can shrink to a trickle in a dry late summer. Kaaterskill Falls runs all year but is most reliable in spring and fall. The Niagara and Mohawk rivers run strong regardless of season, though Cohoes Falls carries the most water from November through May, before summer hydropower diversion reduces it. Watkins Glen's gorge trail is open mid-to-late May through October 25 each year.

Fees, passes and closures

New York State Parks charges $10 a vehicle at most of its waterfall parks, including Taughannock Falls year-round and Letchworth from May 8 through October 18, 2026; the $80 Empire Pass covers unlimited entry. Watkins Glen's $10 fee includes pool admission, plus a $6 one-way shuttle between its three entrances in season. Niagara Falls State Park is free, but parking in its main lot runs $10 to $15 a day by season. DEC forest preserve trailheads charge nothing: Kaaterskill Falls and the higher, separate Buttermilk Falls on John Case Brook in the same clove are both free year-round, though parking is banned along Route 23A near Kaaterskill Falls from May through October, with towing enforced. At Letchworth, the trail from the Middle Falls to the Genesee Arch Bridge is permanently closed.

Safety

New York's gorges and cliffs have killed visitors who left the marked trail. At Kaaterskill Falls, rules call for staying more than six feet from cliff edges and out of the water within 150 feet upstream; several people have died there, including a 70-year-old hiker who fell from a ledge onto the stone steps in June 2025. Falling rock killed a woman at Taughannock Falls in 2005 after her family left the trail near the base. Four teenage camp counselors drowned together at Split Rock Falls in the Adirondacks in 2003, most of them while trying to help one another. Stay on the marked path and behind any railing.