Waterfall Hikes Near Paterson, NJ

Paterson has a major waterfall downtown: the Great Falls of the Passaic drops 77 feet through a basalt gorge less than a mile from the city center, with views from Haines Overlook Park, Mary Ellen Kramer Park and a footbridge over the gorge. Alexander Hamilton visited the falls in 1778 and saw their industrial potential, and Paterson was founded around them in 1792 as America's first planned industrial city. Maple Falls in South Mountain Reservation is about 15 miles southwest. The two Buttermilk Falls on the list are a roadside cascade of about 30 feet in Warwick, New York, about 22 miles out, and the one in the village of Highland Falls next to West Point, about 31 miles north. Twenty-five falls are within 50 miles, many of them in the Shawangunks and the Delaware Water Gap near the edge of the radius.