Issue #9 — Wednesday, June 24, 2026
One family-friendly hike within a 2-hour drive of Hoboken — plus where to take the kids to eat in the city and NJ. Hike it or skip it; either way your weekend's sorted.
Bash Bish Creek drops 60 feet off a granite ledge in the Taconic Mountains, then splits around a house-sized glacial boulder into twin white curtains of water crashing into a pool below. That boulder landed in the exit channel roughly 12,000 years ago and created Massachusetts' tallest single-drop waterfall — with an identity crisis. The whole thing is 0.75 miles from the parking lot, on a blue-blazed gorge trail gentle enough for a four-year-old, through a narrowing hemlock canyon that gets louder with every turn.
Short enough for a tired-kid week. Specific enough to earn the drive.Park at the Taconic State Park Copake Falls Area lot on Route 344 in Copake Falls, NY. From the lot, pick up the blue-blazed Bash Bish Gorge Trail heading south into the hemlocks. The grade is gentle from step one — this isn't a mountain approach, it's a river canyon walk. Bash Bish Brook appears on your left within a few minutes, and the trail crosses and recrosses it on stepping stones as the walls start rising around you.
At roughly 0.6 miles you cross into Massachusetts, though there's no dramatic marker. The gorge gets narrower here, the air noticeably cooler, and the roar of the falls starts building around the last bend. Then it resolves: 60 feet of granite cliff, one stream, two waterfalls, split by the boulder that's been sitting there since the glaciers dropped it. There's a railed viewing area where you can get close. The stone staircase that used to lead down to the pool at the base is permanently closed — rangers have blocked it, and it's not worth hunting for.
Turn around and head back the same way. The descent is negligible. You'll be back at the car in under an hour if you don't linger. Linger anyway.
The trail takes 90 minutes tops. Great Barrington is about 20 minutes east and is genuinely one of the better small towns in western New England for a post-hike afternoon — not a tourist trap, just a walkable main street with good food and the kind of shops that hold a kid's attention for an hour.
Water (at least 1 liter per person — more on an 87°F Sunday), closed-toe shoes with rubber soles, sunscreen, snacks, a change of socks for the brook crossings, and a phone with the trail map downloaded offline (cell service drops in the gorge). A light layer isn't a bad idea — the gorge stays noticeably cooler than the parking lot.
Not feeling the drive this week? Here's where to take the kids instead — in the city and across the river. (No connection to this week's hike.)