I hiked up New York's highest waterfall with the Apple Watch 10 vs Garmin Instinct 3 — 5 things I learned

Tom's Guide

5 days ago

Kaaterskill Falls is the tallest cascading waterfall in New York State, with a height of 260 feet. This fantastic two-part waterfall is located in the Eastern Catskill Mountains, roughly 120 miles north of New York City. And it was positively raging when I hiked to it earlier this month while on a press trip with AllTrails (where I tested the app's promising new Custom Routes tool).
Of course, when life hands you an epic hike to an incredible waterfall, what do you do? Why, record the trek on as many devices as you can muster and compare all the data, of course!
And that's exactly what I did. Not only did I capture the journey on not one but two smartwatches, I also recorded it using the Strava app on my iPhone, along with the AllTrails app.
This isn't the first time I've pitted the Apple Watch Series 10 against the Garmin Instinct 3. Oh contrare. And it certainly won't be the last. After all, these are two of my favorite smartwatches currently on the market.
I appreciate the Instinct 3 for its impossibly long-lasting battery, playful and durable design, accurate fitness tracking and helpful training tools. Meanwhile, the Apple Watch Series 10 is my go-to full-featured smartwatch, thanks to a delightfully vibrant and easy-to-read display, lightweight case and access to more apps than I have time in my life to try out (though here are some favorites from the Apple Watch app store).
The latest Apple Watch is also a reliable fitness tracker, even if the Instinct 3 proved more accurate in the last walk test showdown between the two.
The Apple Watch Series 10 is a pleasure to have on the wrist thanks to a slender, lightweight case and immersive display. It's also jam-packed with useful smart tools, like on-wrist translations and global tide tracking. Plus, the Series 10 is compatible with a seriously enormous range of third-party apps, making it easily one of the best full-featured smartwatches you can buy today.
The Garmin Instinct 3 is a super-rugged and sporty smartwatch with class-leading battery life, support for an enormous range of workout types (including lots of extreme sports), impressive training tools and super-accurate location and holistic tracking. It also boasts a handy and unique onboard "torch" LED flashlight for navigating in the dark.
Despite heavy rain and rough terrain, I enjoyed every moment of my roughly four-mile hike in upstate New York. This was partly because the Timberland Motion Access hiking sneakers I was testing kept my feet bone dry. However, gorgeous surroundings and quality company all contributed to a grand time. Oh, and the giant waterfall. I can't forget the giant waterfall.
Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips.
And with that, on to the hike data and takeaways.
Apple Watch 10
Garmin Instinct 3
Strava app
AllTrails app
Distance
3.8 miles
3.5 miles
4.4 miles
3.9 miles
Elevation gain
2,011 feet
673 feet
638 feet
650 feet
Steps
no data
8,690 steps
8,082 steps
n/a
Average heart rate
123 bpm
121 bpm
n/a
n/a
Max heart rate
157 bpm
156 bpm
n/a
n/a
Calories burned
815 calories
711 calories
n/a
1,000 calories
Distance data is a little bit scattered, with nearly a mile separating the shortest distance of 3.5 miles (Garmin) from the longest of 4.4 miles (Strava). Meanwhile, the Apple Watch 10 and AllTrails app measured roughly the same ground covered at 3.8 and 3.9 miles, respectively.
The average of these four distance values equals 3.9 miles, suggesting that, indeed, Garmin likely undercounted by roughly a half mile and Strava probably overcounted by a slightly less egregious amount.
It's worth noting that I was careful to start and stop tracking all four methods without taking any additional steps. So, no, user error is not a factor here.
While Garmin, Strava and AllTrails each noted elevation gains in the neighborhood of 650 feet, give or take 25 feet, the Apple Watch Series 10 measured my climb as roughly three times that amount.
When it comes to calculating elevation gain, the best Apple Watch models tend to be fairly accurate; in a recent walk test between the Series Watch 10 vs Instinct 3, only 5 feet separate Apple's climb data from Garmin's.
So what in the world happened here? The short answer is, I have no idea. Clearly, something severely skewed Apple's data well beyond reality for this hike, which is a great reminder that even the top fitness trackers and best smartwatches sometimes muck up fitness data.
Note: I won't stop mentioning this until Cupertino addresses my grievance. Apologies in advance for sounding like a skipping CD.
The latest watchOS 11.4 software still doesn't support step count tallies for individually tracked workouts. Sure, your Apple Watch provides a daily step count total, but that's not enough. I want to know exactly how many steps I took during my afternoon walk or epic weekend hike.
In 2025, Apple is one of the only major brands that restricts step-count data to daily totals. Meanwhile, Amazfit, Fitbit, Garmin, Google, and Samsung all provide both individual tallies for exercises like walks and hikes, along with daily totals.
Perhaps Cook and Co. will bring the Apple Watch up to speed with the competition when watchOS 12 debuts later this summer. All we can do is hope!
With step count data from just the Garmin Instinct 3 and Strava, I can say for certain that I walked at least 8,000 steps during my hike to and around Kaaterskill Falls. Unfortunately, what I don't know is whether my actual total is closer to 8,100 steps as recorded by Strava or 8,700 steps as noted by Garmin.
A difference of roughly 600 steps over a four-mile hike is significant. For example, when I last pitted the Instinct 3 vs Apple Watch 10 in a 5,000-step walk test, Garmin's step count total was just six steps off from Strava's and four steps away from my actual (manual) count.
However, in a more recent hiking comparison between the Apple Watch Ultra 2 vs Garmin Instinct 3, more than 500 steps separated Garmin's tally from Strava's, a result more in line with this hike's data.
With so much conflicting data, it's reassuring to see nearly identical average and max heart rate data between the Apple Watch Series 10, which I wore on my right wrist, and the Garmin Instinct 3, worn on my left.
Looking ahead, I'd like to rerun this test on a similar-length hike. However, this time I'll manually count my steps to know for sure which device is most spot-on. I'll also be sure to carry but not wear the Apple Watch 10 until I get to the trailhead, and then note my day's step count total as soon as the hike has concluded.
With that, I should be able to say for sure which of these two popular smartwatches is more accurate for tracking hikes. Until then, the Instinct 3 remains my top choice over the Series 10 based on its prior victory over Apple.
Now the question is, can the Series 10 reclaim that title? Stay tuned.