Falling Waters Preserve
Falling Waters Preserve in Wallkill runs three miles past waterfalls and a 19th-century ice house ruins, with views across the Hudson to the Catskills.
Falling Waters Preserve packs a lot into 149 acres: streams, meadows, wetlands, hardwood forest, and over a mile of Hudson riverfront, threaded by about three miles of trail.
The Waterfall Overlook loop is the main draw: a 2.7-mile route (Riverside Trail out, Upland Trail back) with about 230 feet of climbing that takes most people around an hour. It opens onto a meadow with a wide view across the river to the Catskills, drops past a couple of waterfalls and rock ledges that lean straight down into the water, and loops back past benches set for lingering rather than passing through.
Partway along, you'll encounter the ruins of the Mulford ice house, a windowless brick shell that once held 10,000 tons of Hudson River ice cut in winter and shipped down to New York City before refrigeration existed.
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