A Trip To Awosting Falls
I live in NYC but I’ve never been a fan of big cities. I’ve always preferred a quieter, less hectic type of life, even when I was a little girl, so taking trips upstate is always a special thing for me. I was spending the weekend at my aunt and uncle’s house so it was a very pleasant surprise when they took my us to Minnewaska State Park to see Awosting Falls, which has been on my hiking bucket list for year. (The Ice Caves at Cragsmoor in another area of Minnewaska is one of the other must see places on my list.)
This particular post might be a bit picture heavy for some of you, but I hope you enjoy it. When we’ve had a good rain the falls are gushing like a proper waterfall. It’s been very dry lately, so the falls were just a trickle when we went, but the scenery was beautiful and it was so nice to walk around and see other people/families enjoying the peacefulness of the park.
View from one of the lookout points.
My aunt and I decided to head to Awosting Falls first while my mom and uncle decided to go to Lake Minnewaska. Because of the dry weather people were able to walk at the top of the falls, which normally would be filled with water cascading over the edge.
As my aunt and I were walking back up the trail to meet my mom and uncle at Lake Minnewaska we saw a family of deer. We kept looking for them as we were walking (but being extremely careful of the edge.) This was taken when we were already almost at the top. I was using my beloved Fujifilm x100v and I’m really happy with how these pictures turned out.
After we got to Lake Minnewaska and walked around a bit, we decided to go to the Lake Minnewaska Vistor Center to cool off because it was just way too hot that day. I am definitely not a warm weather person. The sweating, the heat headaches (no matter how hydrated you try to stay and no matter how much you try to avoid direct sun.) It’s just not for me.
Their prices at the visitor’s center don’t seem bad to me. I’ve never hiked in the winter before (although that’s something I want to attempt this year) so maybe the price of the microspikes is high, but to me it seems reasonable. Any winter hikers reading this? Is it high or average? I definitely need a new hat. I lost my favorite winter hat at the tail end of the winter season, but it wasn’t fleece lined. I usually put it in my pocket when I get on the bus, but on that day for whatever reason, I had it in my lap. No surprise that when I got up, it fell off my lap and when I got off the bus and reached into my pocket for where my hat normally is, I remembered it was on my lap and probably still on the bus that was just driving away. 🤦🏻♀️
For how far this house was from where I was standing, I think the x100v captured it really well. A zoom lens would have been great, but when I’m hiking I like to keep the camera gear light and the fixed lens on the x100v worked beautifully.
On the way back to my uncle’s house, he stopped the car at this abandoned building so I could take some pictures. These were taken from the outside behind the gates. Honestly though, from what I saw on a scale of 1-10 of how hard would it be to go inside (with 1 being the least difficult), I’d say a 0. If you’ve been here, you know what I mean. It’s the same as a lot of places I’ve seen on my hikes (such as a certain area of Madam Brett Park in Beacon.) I am not encouraging trespassing. I’m just saying if you were so inclined, it would not be difficult. I’m a wimp. I know it would be just like when you were in school. Everyone else did something but when you did it, you were the one who got caught.
