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Location On unnamed tributary of Hemlock Lake near the Livingston/Ontario County line and Route 15A, in Livingston County.
Access

Map

Public hiking trail on municipal watershed property. Both Upper and Lower County Line Falls are on Rochester Water Supply land which is open to hikers who are carrying a permit on their person. A free permit and map can be obtained at anytime at the self-service kiosk near the park on the north end of Hemlock Lake. We simply stop there on our way to the waterfall so that we are sure to have the permit with us. You can also download a copy of the permit from the City of Rochester. Please read the permit since it has some good rules for all gully hikes.

You can reach Upper County Line Falls on a marked trail from a small parking lot on Johnson Hill Rd. (see Map). Access the Lower County Line Falls from Route 15A where the stream passes under the highway just south of the County line.

Hiking Easy walk in the woods from the Johnson Hill Rd. parking lot to the crest of Upper County Line Falls (about 2/3 mile round trip). If you do the full hike described below (2 miles, 1 hour), there is a short steep section going down to Reynolds Gull which is of medium difficulty.

For an ambitious hike (plan 2-3 hours), you could combine the County Line Falls hike with a trip up Reynolds Gull to see the three waterfalls in this larger stream.

Details We visited County Line Falls on a beautiful Fall day with color in the Hemlock hills at its peak. From the parking lot on Johnson Hill Rd., it is an easy walk on an old logging road to the crest of Upper County Line Falls (35'), which is in a beautiful hemlock glen. From the crest, we could just see the crest of Lower County Line Falls about 200 feet downstream. If you were determined and had a rope, you could probably get to the base of the Upper falls and then walk in the stream to the crest of the Lower Falls (but we did not try this).

We continued on the trail on the south side of the stream for another 1/4 mile until we came to a steep hill leading down into Reynolds Gull. At this point, the logging road took a sharp left to go up the hill. We found a small, somewhat indistinct trail which led down the hill to the right (west). Within 150' or so, we came to a cliff overlooking route 15A with a wonderful view up the length of Hemlock Lake and across the wetlands at the head of Hemlock Lake. We then scrambled down the hill to the left of the cliff into Reynolds Gull (this part is about 150' long and is the only moderately difficult part of the hike). Once down, we crossed the stream and climbed up to the parking lot at the base of Reynolds Gull. From there, we walked north on the shoulder of Route 15A and in less than 1/4 mile came to the the gully where the County Line Stream goes under the highway. The base of Lower County Line Falls (25') is less than 100 yards from the highway. (With determination, you could probably scramble up the left side of this waterfall and gain access to the base of the Upper falls, but we did not try it.) We then continued up Route 15A and returned to our car at the Johnson Hill Rd. parking lot.

We've driven by this gully hundreds of times and never noticed it. Thanks to Mike and Hazel for pointing it out to us