The Shawangunks' photogenic 65 foot plunge in Minnewaska State Park Preserve, an easy carriage-road walk and a four-season photography stop.
Mid March through mid June
Big water window
in a typical year
Snowmelt
What drives it
Peters Kill
Climatology
Data on this page
Peters Kill is ungauged
NY State Parks
Managed by
their rules govern
Trail status, closures and safety rules belong to each falls' managing agency, named and linked on every page.
The season
What fills Awosting Falls, and when
The Peters Kill drains quartz conglomerate ridge country that sheds water fast: big and loud through the snowmelt window, lean in dry summers, and reliably beautiful iced up. The parks system's own photography guide calls Awosting accessible regardless of season, which is the right frame: the falls always shows, the volume varies.
Typical best flow: Mid March through mid June
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What the agency itself says
The cascading waters of Awosting Falls offer breathtaking views for any photographer. This 65+-foot waterfall is an accessible location for portraits, regardless of season.
Minnewaska State Park Preserve (New York State Parks)What a snowmelt year looks like at full send: Palouse Falls in mid April, when the Palouse River is still carrying the melt. The same falls in late August is a ribbon. Timing is most of the visit. “04-15-14-palouse” — Dsdugan — CC0
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Right now
Current flow at Awosting Falls
The other half of the story: the same Palouse Falls in late August. Nothing is wrong; this is what a snowmelt river does every year once the melt is spent. “Palouse Falls 20100829” by Mark Wagner, CC BY-SA 2.5
Getting there
Access, in the agency's words and ours
A short carriage road walk from the Route 44/55 entrance reaches the falls. The preserve prohibits swimming in all streams and waterfalls, and 2026 trail restoration closed a portion of the Lake Awosting carriage road, per the preserve page.
The reliable big-water window is Mid March through mid June. The Peters Kill drains quartz conglomerate ridge country that sheds water fast: big and loud through the snowmelt window, lean in dry summers, and reliably beautiful iced up. The parks system's own photography guide calls Awosting accessible regardless of season, which is the right frame: the falls always shows, the volume varies.
Peters Kill has no USGS gauge near the falls, so the seasonal pattern above is the flow guide for Awosting Falls, and Minnewaska State Park Preserve (New York State Parks) is the source for current conditions on the ground.
Late summer can thin it substantially; the plunge pool amphitheater still earns the walk. Winter builds an ice column that draws photographers on purpose.
Minnewaska State Park Preserve (New York State Parks). A short carriage road walk from the Route 44/55 entrance reaches the falls. The preserve prohibits swimming in all streams and waterfalls, and 2026 trail restoration closed a portion of the Lake Awosting carriage road, per the preserve page. Trail status, closures and safety rules are theirs, and their page is linked on this one; nothing here overrides what they publish.
In their own words: "Swimming is NOT permitted in any streams or waterfalls." That sentence is Minnewaska State Park Preserve (New York State Parks)'s, quoted verbatim, and their page is the place to check before you go.
Yosemite Falls in May, running on snowmelt that will be gone by late summer. The National Park Service tells visitors the falls can be dry by August, which is why every falls page here starts from its watershed. “Tourists below Yosemite Falls (39832011431)” by Mike McBey, CC BY 2.0
The most famous falls on the continent runs on a 1950 treaty: 100,000 cfs must come over during tourist season daytime hours, half that the rest of the time, with the balance sent to power plants.
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