| Directions
From the intersection of NY 28 and 30 in
Blue Mountain Lake, proceed west on route 28. Since this is
a significant distance, and vehicle guages vary, you
might want to look for landmarks rather than relying only
on the odometer. At about 9.5 miles, on your left,
you will see a yellow sign indicating "Stop.
Barrier Ahead". There is also a yellow gate.
This is just after a dip in the road where you cross a small
creek. Also note that just before this, there is a
road on the right that has the same type of yellow sign
and gate! This is the entrance to a park and you don't
want to be there, although the gentleman working there in
September 2011 was very cordial!
|
| County: |
Hamilton |
| Town: |
Arietta |
| USGS Map: |
Raquette Lake |
| Waterway: |
Death Brook |
| Latitude: |
N 43° 48' 43" |
| Longitude: |
W 74° 35' 40" |
| Drop: |
~70' |
| Type: |
Ribbon cascade |
| Region: |
On NY 28 between Old Forge
and Blue Mountain Lake |
| Parking: |
Roadside |
| Trail type: |
Dirt |
| Length of hike: |
0.2 mile/5 minutes |
| Difficulty: |
Easy |
| Accessibility: |
Public |
| Name: |
Common |
|
 We have also seen this location noted as Death Falls and the website AdirondackExperience.com
states that it is also known as Secret Falls. These are unofficial monikers but whatever you want to call
it, it is a very pretty location. As you are at the base of
these falls, you have the impression that you are in a fairly remote
location, and yet, it is less than a 0.2 mile walk and easy to get
to.
Park by the gate and walk up the dirt roadway. In about
400' you will come to an open field. Go straight across it
and the roadway continues, narrowing as it goes. The path
will bear left and reach the creek where you should turn right and
go upstream where you will soon find the falls.
The drop is not a free-fall plunge, but close to it. We
were there in September and there wasn't a tremendous amount of
water flowing, but it was nonetheless interesting because it pours
down the side of a nearly vertical rock wall. We suspect that
during spring run-off, the cascade would be quite impressive.
We also suspect that in the wetter times of the year, your walk
in would be a little more difficult. There is a swampy area
along the path that was quite damp even when we were there.
In the spring it would probably be very wet. We were even
able to walk up the creek-bed, from stone to stone, without getting
wet. Since our original posting, we have received
contributor pics with more water flowing.
Death Brook flows into the Raquette River. The Raquestte
flows through Long Lake and Raquette Pond (which could be considered
as part of Tupper Lake) as it makes its way into the St. Lawrence
River in Massena, New York.
Last update: October 4, 2017
|
