Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park

1/22/24: Update- Visiting the Great Falls is always a great experience.
Visiting the Falls in the wintertime is a "Spectacular Experience".

It's like you're in a live winter scene from a Thomas Kincaide painting.

Now is the time to catch the most incredible views of ice formations. (Please wear boots as it's very slippery).
You'll even catch an invigorating cold mist facial from the falls. : )

Nature has created such beauty from our erratic weather.

You can enter the Great Falls from 46 West to Mary Ellen Kramer Park or from local streets of downtown Paterson.

While you're in the area, check out the historical Paterson Museum.
The museum has free admission and free parking.

Here's a really cool place to visit! Guess how I found it?!?! Google maps ahaaah :P
In search of some naturescapes while not knowing any names of places, this area came up looking like a mass of greenery. I zoomed in the map and found "Great Falls". Then, I recalled others mentioning it before. It landed on my list of musts when visiting New Jersey.

The thimg that made my visit lovlier was I went with my cousins. All the more merrier cuz they hadn't been to Paterson Great Falls either, and they're from the east coast!

The views are fantastic! You can even climb up the staircase or hike up the street to see the reservoir. There are viewpoints above the treetops too. With a great camera you may be able to get some awesome captures.

The only sucky thing was the observation bridge directly above the falls remained closed since COVID. Construction or renovations around the lower observation area was in progress as well, so some photography shots were photo-bombed by nets, gates, and equipment.

Their parking lot is a bit small and gets packed. You'd be lucky to find street parking or a spot nearby. It's a nice walk around where you can find information booths. There's a shaded grassy area, pleasant for relaxing.

One of my favorite places to visit when i'm in New Jersey. Majestic waterfalls with no hardcore hiking involved. You can park & see the waterfalls almost right away.

This is the first time we visited on the spring & we spotted flowering cherry blossoms which was an unexpected treat.

Some of the bridges was being repaired this time that hindered us from viewing the falls at some of its beautiful vantage spots but it was still a beautiful visit.

The area feels a little sketchy but there are lots of park rangers around enough to make us feel safe.

No bathroom available, only porta potties.

Another national park site checked off my list. Parking is easy, but parking for the site was unclear. We figured it out. Signage in general was unclear.

The foot bridge is closed. Check the park's website before you visit. There's interesting history about hydro power, Hamilton, Paterson, and EPA's efforts to clean the polluted water due to industry dumping. The water now serves as drinking water for the local area.

I visited the park on Boxing Day aka day after Christmas aka the holiday Monday. No one was working on-site. The visitor center is open Wednesday through Sunday so we missed out but got brochures and passport stamps left at the door. A nice touch!

Accessibility:
Poor accessibility route signage. My brother use crutches and the route we took to the falls led us up a set of stairs or you had to walk all the way back to the parking lot to access the sidewalk on the other side of the fence. We took the sidewalk on our way back but it empties into the parking lot road. The other option is to use the ramp to the visitor center but there are stairs down to get to the walkway leading to the parking area. You can see the falls from the parking lot but if you want to get closer, it's not clear if there's another parking area or better access.

Bathrooms:
There were portable restrooms but they were locked.

It's too bad there wasn't more open. It was a cold day which made things more exciting because the spray froze an entire section of the falls. I'm sure it's a lovely picnic spot in warmer weather.

No matter the season, Paterson Great Falls is magnificent. Today the grass was green and the trees were lush, but it's also stunning in fall or when everything is covered in ice. The national park service was giving a tour today, and explained the hydroelectric plant and how the river has been used in the past to run silk mills. Efforts to clean up and make more of the nature areas around the river usable park space, is going well. Coming here is always a pleasure.

Great place in Paterson. Beautiful areas to walk around and see the waterfall from different view points. Great posts that let you learn of the types of wildlife around and about the history of the waterfall. There is parking but can get quite full. There's street parking in the surroundings business and homes, if you don't mine a small but doable walk. The main bridge over the falls were closed for safety, hopefully gets fixed soon. The only thing that made it less than fun was that towards the backside of the falls, there were more than group of people drinking beer and leaving their bottles and cans thrown around.
I do recommend for the same of the falls and history.

There is potentially a spectacular natural beauty here in the heart of Paterson New Jersey. They are still improving the site...it's taking a few years to accomplish this. There's a lot of history here from Alexander Hamilton, one of the founders to William Paterson. I didn't get a chance to see the museum since it was closed due to the holidays and shortness of staff.

It's a nice place to take a walk and enjoy the beautiful waterfall. The place can be somewhat crowded. There is a parking lot but it can get full. It's worth visiting if you live in the area.

This is a pretty substandard NPS site. Falls are pretty, but interpretive content is lacking. Rangers did not seem interested in engaging (need to knock on a locked door to talk to a ranger). This is a place only worth checking out if really into NPS sites.

I would go with 2.5 stars but the app does allow it so I'm rounding up. The area overall is very disappointing as it's really ghetto. There is nothing to do other than look at the falls leave. The area around the falls itself it's full of trash, food, and clothes. Definitely don't plan a day around going to this place. It's more like if you're in the area, then go. Parts of the walkway were closed but the area is so small walking around wasn't a big deal. I think this place can be so much more if they wanted it to be.