Vernooy Kill Falls in Rochester cascades through four stages with cold swimming pools, passing an 1700s mill wall on the trail up.
Vernooy Kill Falls steps down about 30 feet in four small drops, each feeding a pool cold enough for a proper swim by midsummer. The kill is a trout stream, and the trail up to the falls follows an old road along an early stone wall, the last visible piece of the Vernooy Mill that ground grain here from the early 1700s until 1809, a working crossroads for local farmers for a century.
The blue-blazed trail climbs Cherrytown Mountain gradually, with rocky and muddy stretches after rain. It takes 1.5 to 2 hours round trip depending on where you park: 3.6 miles from the Cherry Town trailhead, or about 2 miles from Trails End.
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