Kaaterskill Wild Forest

Parking for Long Path segment

Mile 0.00  -- On Steenberg Road about 250 feet north of the trailhead.  GPS Coordinates: 42.13387, -74.08194

Mile 9.80 -- DEC parking area on Route 23A. GPS Coordinates: 42.17620, -74.03041

The 7,620-acre Kaaterskill Wild Forest, located in the Catskill Forest Preserve is a popular destination for outdoor recreation with an abundance of hiking and other recreational trails, including Kaaterskill Falls.
  

Use the Web Map link on this site to view a trail map of the wild forest. The Trail Conference's Catskill Trails map set can be purchased from this site as well.

A 10-mile linear segment of the Long Path passes through from Platte Clove Road to Palenville featuring views of Buttermilk Falls and Wildcat Falls.  Nearby is also the very popular Kaaterskill Falls destination, site of one of the tallest water falls in New York State.  The web page also includes a summary of Department of Enironmental Conservation regulations for the area issued in 2018. 

In addition to the Long Path, listed and described on the Kaaterskill WF web page (use Contact Information on this site) are the following trails:

• Kaaterskill Falls Trail (0.5 mile)
• Kaaterskill High Peak Trail (6.5 miles)
• Huckleberry Point Trail (2.4 miles)
• Sleepy Hollow Horse Trail (4.9 miles)
• Poet’s Ledge (3.6 miles)
• Buttermilk Falls (4.8 miles) located along the Long Path
• Escarpment Trail (9.8 miles in Kaaterskill WF; 23.9 miles total)

The terrain within Kaaterskill Wild Forest varies significantly in topography with sprawling mountains, dramatic cliffs, scenic waterfalls, and deep valleys. The area is occupied by deciduous and boreal forest species as well as an abundance of other plants and wildlif

For a compilation of New York State lands in the Catskill Forest Preserve consisting of wild forests and wilderness areas click here.   For a description of Catskill Park and its trails click here.

A wilderness area is where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by humans --where we are visitors who do not remain. A wilderness is further defined to mean an area of State land or water having a primeval character, without significant improvements or permanent human habitation, which is protected and managed so as to preserve, and where necessary, enhance and restore, its natural conditions.  Wilderness areas offer outstanding opportunities for solitude or a primitive and unconfined type of recreation.

A wild forest is an area of Forest Preserve land which differs from wilderness in that generally the physical characteristics of wild forest areas are capable of withstanding higher levels of recreational use. Wild forest areas convey less of a sense of remoteness and provide fewer outstanding opportunities for solitude for visitors.  [Source: adapted from the State of New York, Catskill Park State Land Master Plan, August 2008]