OK Slip Falls

A place to discuss waterfalls. Including the parks that house them and the hikes to get to them.

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L_G_D
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My friend from Finch showed me their maps of the roads they have/had in place. There is a logging road from the access road to the camp that goes in the direction of the falls, this is probably what was taken by Heilman. Finch hasn't logged anything in that area in a long time, though, so those roads are probably grown in by now. The USGS topo for the area shows several trails in and around the upper part of the falls, apparently used by the Northern Frontier people. I also know there's a trail leading down to the river from their camp which is not on the map.
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Mudhawk

Well, the OK Slip Falls is open since last October 1 and I have been in there 4 times. There is a bushwack through a mature open hardwood red flagged trail (a little sketchy in the middle) off the Ross Pond trail, about a mile in from the main road. That is the way I have been going in. DEC says you can walk in the camp road, also, and that is the way most people are getting there. Walk in a couple of miles and there is a sign pointing right down an old logging road with blue dec hiking discs. Follow that for about a mile to the top of the falls. The blue trail ends at an overlook of the falls. There is a trail that goes to the left that leads to the top of the falls. Then go upstream a hundred feet or so and cross over the (camp)bridge to the other side, climb the trail to the top of the ridge and follow the trail to the right down to the Hudson River. This would be the access for those whitewater enthousiasts that want to se the falls. You can walk up the gorge, but not at high water and even at lower water, the rock hopping is strenuous, more like boulder climbing, as it is a narrow gorge with quite a mess of piled boulders. Very impressive, though. I found one map that shows a trail on the south side of the stream below the falls, but the one time I went down there, there was no sign of it from the Hudson River end. If you go right at the overlook, within about 100 feet there is a VERY sketchy scramble down to the base of the falls. I did do the rock hop to the Hudson once, and will probably do it again, but on a very warm day when I don't mind getting my feet wet.
By the way, I was there the first Saturday in October and the water flow was still quite impressive. Even now in January it is still flowing and the ice pile is impressive! There are people skiing in on the road and I hope to be going in on Sunday again, 1/5/14.
L_G_D
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Very interesting. We hiked in the Ross Pond trail in late September and saw the orange/red surveyors tape flag trial leading off to the right and figured that's where it lead to. There were still stern warning signs on the gate to the roadway though, with notices that any cars parked there would be towed. Where/how are people parking to be able to hike/ski in the road?
LGD
jholmesy

These are just a couple of the pics I took of OK Slip Falls. We were able to make the dangerously steep descent into the valley during our summer visit but decided not to chance it in our winter visit!
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... e614bfc22a ImageImage
jholmesy

jholmesy wrote:These are just a couple of the pics I took of OK Slip Falls. We were able to make the dangerously steep descent into the valley during our summer visit but decided not to chance it in our winter visit!
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... e614bfc22a ImageImage
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... b3f64a1cb5
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Des219
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Great pictures! Thanks for sharing.
L_G_D
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Nice shots, thanks for posting. How did you get in there? We are planning a trip soon and any info you have would be helpful. I see from the gallery that there are sign posts now? Is there a marked trail into the area? Last time we were there, the gate was closed, locked, and had stern warning signs that under no circumstances was anyone to enter.
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L_G_D
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Well, we made it in there over the weekend. After looking on a couple web sites, it seems the new "trail" is what people are using, and other means. We left from the Ross Pond trail head and at least half the entries in the log book there were for people going to the falls. The Ross Pond trail is bad enough, it seems it follows swamps and stream beds most of the way, so be prepared to get muddy. Then the new trail turns off towards the falls that is just marked with pink surveyor's ribbon, but there is a herd path already forming along the route. It also is a bit muddy in places but not terrible yet. A summer's worth of foot traffic on it might make a difference though. It hits the Northern Frontier road, crosses it, then follows an old logging road that is also a bit muddy in places until it turns steeply downhill towards the lookout across the valley from the falls. This part of the trail has signs and is marked with official blue trail markers. There is also a trail around the top of the falls, across a bridge and down to the river, but we didn't hike that section, so it will have to wait for another day.

Here's some pictures from the first overlook, there is another just down the trail, but it is not as open. The trail looks like it goes further down the ravine, but gets very steep quickly and might just end up on top of a cliff, I didn't look into it further.

Overall view
Image


More close up shot of the falls
Image

The day was bright and sunny, so not many options for pictures.

On the way out, we encountered two groups of people hiking in the road, I asked them where they parked, because the road is gated and locked with the stern warning signs still in place. They said they just parked along the shoulder of route 28 across from the entrance. We decided to hike out the road to see and that's indeed where they were parked. There was also a worker from the Northern Frontier camp doing some maintenance on the road and he didn't give us a second glace as we walked by. The Ross Pond parking area is about 3/4 of a mile up route 28, so if you don't feel like parking on the side of a fairly busy road and don't want to hike through the mud, parking at the Ross Pond lot and walking down route 28 to the Northern Frontier road entrance might be a viable alternative. I can see the state posting "no parking" signs along that stretch of route 28 if too many cars start parking there and cause issues. I don't think Northern Frontier can do anything about people walking the road, but can keep cars out. It looks like they maintain it, but I think it's entirely on state land now, I would imagine they have arranged some type of easement or right of way for it. Stopping pedestrian traffic, and even bicycles would be almost impossible.
LGD
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