In May, we headed up to Haines Falls, New York and camped at North-South Lake Campground. It’s only about an hour north of us so we were able to leave after Carter’s tee -ball game on Saturday and still get there with plenty of time to enjoy the day!

We set up camp, then drove to the lake and played on the playground for a bit.

Back at the campsite, we had dinner and then ended the night with a campfire and s’mores.

After breakfast on Sunday morning, we explored Kaaterskill Falls. The cascades of Katterskills’ Lower Falls and Upper Falls total 260 feet in height making it one of the highest waterfalls in New York. We hiked to the Upper Falls viewing platform first.

Then we decided to check out the Lower Falls as well. We took the trail and 180 steps (yes, I counted!) down to the Lower Falls. We took a million pictures and had some snacks on the gigantic rocks before heading back up.

It was a bit of a hike for Ben & Jack, but we decided it was worth it despite all their moaning and groaning.

We headed back to the campsite for lunch and checked out a bit more of the campground afterwards. The boys rode their bikes and I ran to the Catskill Mountain House parking lot and then we all hiked the Escarpment Trail together to the Catskill Mountain House Site. The historic Mountain House was open from 1824- 1941 and was visited by many distinguished guests. It was a beautiful site with wonderful views of the Hudson River Valley but it was also super buggy!

We ended the night with another fire — we loved this hearth! — and s’mores.

On Monday morning, we went for a hike to Ashley Falls. It was a bit of a rough hike for Ben and Jack — A little too much rock hopping, so we needed to help them a bit on the trail. There was another trail off of it that Chris wanted to go check out with Carter, but I wouldn’t have been able to make it back by myself with the twins, so we called it a day and headed back to the campsite.

We headed to the playground one last time, and had some lunch before heading back home. It was a short trip — both in travel time and duration there, but it was well worth it!