Sam's Point Area of Minnewaska State Park Preserve — Attraction in Town of Wawarsing

This place is so beautiful! It has something for everyone. If you're a novice hiker or just want a light workout, you can stay in the main loop road, or if you're looking for something more challenging you can take one of the many tells that branch off. Home of the famous Ice Caves fault, there's no shortage of things to do. I've been here several times, and I somehow find something new to see every time! When you arrive you'll find yourself in the parking lot, where there is a gift shop and bathroom facilities. It costs $10 to park for the day. Be wary if you visit on the weekends, especially Sunday. Parking is limited, and if the parking lot is full, the employees will turn you away, and you have to go all the way back down the mountain to Route 52. When you arrive to the start of the trail, you can choose to go right or left. The road loops in a circle, so if you are committed to walking the whole path (about 1.5- 2 hours) you will still see everything. If you veer to the left first, you will see the berry pickers huts and Lake Maratanza. The incline is also more gentle, so if you get winded quickly or have knee problems, I suggest you go this way. If you veer to the right you will see Sam's point. The incline is much steeper, but you will get to your first attraction quickly, so if you are pressed for time, or want to go somewhere specific, I suggest you take this way. The right will also get you to the ice caves trail quicker, but again, if you walk all the way around you will still see these attractions. Last Sunday I went with a friend, and we decided to start to the left. We sat by the lake and had some sandwiches. We then continued an on the ice caves trail. We were delighted to see that the trail was open for the year. This trail can get slippery and there's no secure footing, so make sure you wear good shoes. The ice caves takes you down into a fault, where you weave in and out of the rocks. There is still ice down there, even in the middle of summer, so it's a really refreshing hike that cools you down after a good workout. After the caves we continued on and ended our hike with the beautiful views off of Sam's point. We spent 4 hours here. You could easily spend more than 4 hours, or tailor your hike to a shorter time. Whatever you do, you will have...

READ BEFORE YOU GO!!!! First of all they are limiting hikers to 2 times on weekends. So you have to arrive at 9am and be out by 1pm and then 2pm or later arrival and gone by the time they close at night. We saw TONS of cars get turned away. They don’t let you in without a reservation. SCREENSHOT your reservation because there is VERY LIMITED CELL SERVICE. You won’t have service leaving the park so pay attention to your inbound route so you can easily get home.

We did the hike to the waterfall and I’ll break it down. BRING SO MUCH WATER if you go all the way to the falls which is about 6.5 miles round trip. The first part of the path up to the GORGEOUS overlook is easy and flat for first 1 mile. If you aren’t a hiker you could easily make it to this viewpoint. Mostly shaded and low effort for high reward. There’s even some stairs if you want to shortcut the path to the top. Then from there we went on to the waterfall hike. Honestly it had VERY LITTLE SHADE and we ran out of water we got so hot. The path is very rocky so the majority of the time you cannot take eyes off path. I would say you definitely need good hiking shoes or sneakers for this. Bring snacks too because you will need the fuel. The waterfall was pretty but honestly not sure I’d do it again. If I did it again I’d go see the ice caves (we didn’t do this). You can hike about 5-10 min down the waterfall path and get some beautiful pics and turn around. Not sure it’s worth the 4 mile RT rocky hot path. The entire area is gorgeous but definitely come prepared. Bring the following: -wear a hat -gallon of water per person -snacks -CHAPSTICK (no shade and you will thank me) -sunscreen -sunglasses (definitely for waterfall path because you are looking down entire time and it’s narrow so you def get whacked in face with trees) -hiking poles would help for waterfall hike because it’s super narrow and rocky and I tripped...

The park with it's beauty, space, wildlife deserves a 5 star review, but the park rangers and staff deserve a 1 star review.

The ice caves are always so beautiful, and the view from Indian rock was breathtaking with the mist coming off the valley. The nature was perfect. But the park rangers were rude, and very impolite. I came as the leader of a group of 19. It was a larger group, but we took all the necessary steps: parking permits, getting there on time, etc. But when we arrived, after a 2 hour drive, the park ranger came up to us, didn't say hi, didn't say welcome to sam's point, just started demanding to see our parking permit and the amount of people we have have in such a rude manner that absolutely shocked me and my clients. Even after we showed all of our correct paperwork and preparation it felt like she was looking for a "Gotcha" moment. Too bad it never came. After the beautiful hike, the first group got to the parking lot around 2:15 to 2:20, just past our allotted time; however, it was raining all day so the parking lot was about 2/3rds empty. We waited in the parking lot for the second group. At around 2:30, the park ranger came up to us and reminded us that we were past our time, which shocked me since the parking lot was very empty. The second group made it back around 2:40 and we made our way out of the Preserve, but it was shocking to see rangers be so rude, impatient, short, and overall curmudgeons. We are in nature, in a beautiful part of New York, there is no reason to be frustrated on a calm rainy day when the park was empty. An absolute shame of an experience for a place I have been to many times before with no issue. New York State, hire better rangers and staff for your beautiful parks...