Catskill Escarpment
Encyclopedia
The Catskill Escarpment, often referred to locally as just the Escarpment or the Great Wall of Manitou, and known as the Catskill Front to geologists
, is the range
forming the northeastern corner of the Catskill Mountains
in Greene
and Ulster
counties in the U.S. state of New York
. It rises very abruptly from the Hudson Valley
to summits above 3000 feet (914.4 m) in elevation, including three of the Catskill High Peaks
, with almost no foothills. The plateau
to the south and west averages 2000 feet (609.6 m) above sea level.
The Escarpment was the first area of the Catskills to attract the interest of European settlers
. Botanist John Bartram
wrote a widely-read account of an expedition there prior to independence, and a century later the North-South Lake
area he had visited became home to a number of exclusive resorts, including the Catskill Mountain House
. Views of it inspired Thomas Cole
and other painters of the Hudson River school
, the first art movement in the United States. Today much of it is New York State Forest Preserve
within the Catskill Park, and a popular place for hiking
, camping
and other outdoor recreation.
. The graded trail to the summit and the 360 degree unobstructed view from the fire tower is a popular destination. The next mountain in the chain, directly to the north-northeast, is Plattekill Mountain, at 3100 feet (944.9 m) dwarfed by its western neighbor, Indian Head Mountain
, eastern end of the Devil's Path
. To the north of Plattekill the ridge is broken by deep and narrow Platte Clove
, the first of three breaks in the Escarpment. Just north of it the range crosses the Greene County
line.
It rises again quickly to a high area around 3655 feet (1,114 m) Kaaterskill High Peak
, the easternmost Catskill High Peak
and the first of three along the Escarpment. North of it the Escarpment is again breached by Kaaterskill Clove
, the largest of its three breaks. It carries NY 23A
through the Escarpment to the towns of Haines Falls
, Tannersville
and Hunter
. Along its northern side is Kaaterskill Falls
, one of the Catskills' oldest tourist attractions.
Above Kaaterskill Clove rises South Mountain, after which the ridge levels to North-South Lake
, the former locale of the Catskill Mountain House
and other resorts of the late 19th century. Today it is a busy public campground. North of it the ridge rises again to 3180 feet (969.3 m) North Mountain
, with the open views from North Point to its south one of the Catskills' most popular hikes.
Beyond North Point the Escarpment turns to the northwest. The land drops off slightly, then rises once again to Stoppel Point, 3420 feet (1,042.4 m) in elevation. Then the Escarpment is broken once again by Dutcher or East Kill Notch, traversed only by an old road now used as a hiking trail. Another sharp rise leads up again to a ridge almost as high as Stoppel Point known unofficially as Arizona due to its dryness.
North of it rises Blackhead Mountain, the easternmost peak of the Blackhead Range and fifth highest in the Catskills overall. Its 3940 feet (1,200.9 m) summit is the highest point along the Escarpment, visible with its neighbors from as far north as Albany
. After its steep northern slope the range curves more sharply to the west. Minor peaks Burnt Knob and Acra Point form the northern wall of Big Hollow along with 3523 feet (1,073.8 m) Windham High Peak
, the last of the three High Peaks along the Escarpment and the mountain traditionally considered its northern end, as the lesser ranges to its west divide and do not rise as drastically as the Escarpment itself does from the nearby land.
Hydrologically, the entire Escarpment is within the Hudson River
's drainage basin. To the east, Plattekill and Kaaterskill creeks drain the two cloves that share their names, and runoff from the ridge feeds Catskill Creek
and other smaller tributaries of the Hudson in that area. To the west, with the exception of Kaaterskill High Peak
, runoff feeds the headwaters and upper tributaries of Schoharie Creek
, which rises at the height of land between Plattekill and Indian Head mountains. This makes them part of New York City
's water supply due to the creek's impoundment at Schoharie Reservoir
. Beyond there the Schoharie drains into the Mohawk
and then back into the Hudson at Cohoes
.
The Escarpment is considered the only place in the Catskills where the region's boundary is distinct and unambiguous. In other directions the slow descent of the mountains into the hills of the Allegheny Plateau
leads to arbitrary delineations of the range's extent.
Due to its prominence, the Escarpment can be seen from a long distance around. It is a constant sight from not only the New York State Thruway
in Greene County and the river but the Taconic State Parkway
across the river and the mountains of western Connecticut
and Massachusetts
. From the Escarpment it is possible to see all those areas, plus Vermont
, on a clear day. An overlook along Route 23 as it climbs the northern Escarpment is called Five State Lookout since New Hampshire
's White Mountains
are also visible.
Along the lower slopes, it forms part of the border between Ulster and Greene counties at its southern end. Within Greene County, it separates the towns of Catskill
, Cairo
and Durham
on the lowland side from Hunter
, Jewett
and Windham in the mountains. The Catskill Park Blue Line
also follows an irregular path along old property lines along its slopes from its southern end to the Route 23 junction, the northernmost point in the park.
. Two different processes shaped the range into what it is today.
Its limestone
bedrock
began forming 400 mya, during the Silurian
period, when the Catskill region was a river delta
and the shallow sea it drained into. The river carried
eroded
material from the Taconic Mountains
to the northeast, then reaching as high as 15000 feet (4,572 m) over present-day sea level. Later, during the Acadian orogeny
, the sea became the deeper Appalachian Basin
, and the sand
and clay
from the newer mountains became the shale
and sandstone
found throughout the Catskills today.
Eventually the sea floor itself began to drain and uplift
. The area of today's Escarpment and northeastern Catskills had been the river's distributaries and had the thickest layer of Devonian
sediments, leading it to uplift as a whole and become a plateau
rather than fracturing into mountains. Gradually, the upper levels of the plateau began to erode
and create stream basins, eventually becoming today's mountains and valleys
The Escarpment of that time was more gradually sloped than it is now, with much loose rock from its uplift. Sometime between 100,000 and 300,000 years ago, the Illinoian glaciation swept through the region. This had two impacts on the Escarpment. Not only did it scour and steepen its slopes, leaving the many bare cliffs found today, it carved out both Platte and Kaaterskill cloves from the narrower, shorter and shallower valleys of smaller streams.Titus, 132. In the latter, the gouge in the Escarpment was so deep it resulted in stream capture, as the outflow streams from North-South Lake
, the headwaters of what would eventually be named Schoharie Creek
instead flowed down into the new gorge. This both created Kaaterskill Falls
, one of the Catskills' early tourist attractions, and relocated the source of the Schoharie to its present location.
As the Escarpment began to revegetate in the wake of the retreat of the Wisconsin glaciation
, its forests remained exposed to weather due to their location. Lightning
in particular caused many forest fires. Catskill forest historian Michael Kudish
believes that the southern Escarpment "has been burned over many times, perhaps hundred of times, during the last several thousand years".
tribes of Native Americans
indigenous to the Hudson Valley did not live in the mountains, but settled heavily in the valley below. They went up the Escarpment only to hunt or start fires to nurture hunting grounds and provide defensive barriers against other tribes, or to follow trails to other communities on the far side of the mountains. While nothing has been recorded from the early years of contact with European settlers
of what role the mountains above them played in their religious beliefs, but it is very likely that they did, given their animistic
traditions.
In 1609 Henry Hudson
's Halve Maen
sailed up the river later named for him in search of a route to China
. They became the first Europeans to see the Escarpment, and thus the Catskills. No one would explore them for a century, until Johannes Hardenbergh
secured the 2 million-acre (810,000 ha) land grant
that bore his name from colonial governor Lord Cornbury
in 1708, a patent later affirmed by his cousin, Queen Anne
. The language of the document specified that its northeastern corner was at a lake above the Escarpment believed to be the source of Kaaterskill Creek, later North-South Lake
. The murky circumstances of the patent, likely involving official corruption,, compounded by litigation from a competing group of claimants and interference with the crews attempting to survey
the property limited efforts to explore or settle the Escarpment, much less the whole region.
That began to change in 1741 when early American naturalist
John Bartram
climbed up to a "shady vale" around North-South Lake, where he collected samples of the resin of the "Balm of Gilead" tree (balsam fir
) to send to his English patron, Peter Collinson). He returned the next year for more. Collinson regularly prevailed on Bartram over the next several years to return for some seeds of the tree, which the former hoped to grow in England, and in 1753 he did, accompanied by a guide and his son William
. Despite being seriously ill, he returned to South Lake. He was unable to harvest any seeds, but in the process became the first person to record a visit to Kaaterskill Falls
. His account, "To ye Cats Kill Mountains with Billy", illustrated by the boy, was the first scientific report on the Catskills. It listed most of the flora of the area and speculated on how the mountains might have been formed.
, the members of the Livingston family
whose ancestral estate were the portion of the Hudson's eastern shore now the Hudson River Historic District
, a National Historic Landmark
(NHL), continued to enjoy the semi-feudal landownership they had broken with the Crown to protect. They made sure their estate houses, like Clermont Manor
and Montgomery Place
, both also NHLs, provided ample views of the Escarpment across the river, lands which the family had started to acquire. "The view to be had from these houses became of the very first importance," according to Catskill historian Alf Evers
. "... [A] man looking toward the Catskills from the east bank could see a view the equal in almost every respect to the already famous ones admired by so many tourists to England's Lake District
." Horatio Spafford
voiced a similar opinion at the time. "[The mountains] associate a mass of interesting, picturesque and sublime objects, no where exceeded in this country", he wrote in his 1813 gazzeteer of the state. Later on, they followed the principles of Andrew Jackson Downing
in designing their landscapes to provide views from its roads and paths. Even after the Livingstons moved on to other regions of the country, their reputation made the Catskills known in Britain as well as the U.S.
In 1812, Washington Irving
visited the Livingston estates for a week; he may have taken some of his inspiration for "Rip Van Winkle
", published seven years later, from that view. Other prominent American writers of the time took notice of the Catskills as well. In a famous passage in James Fenimore Cooper
's The Pioneers, written in 1823
, Natty Bumppo
describes both Kaaterskill Falls and the Pine Orchard, the area Bartram had explored and written about decades before.
The same year the hotel later to become the Catskill Mountain House
was built at the spot. DeWitt Clinton
was an early visitor. In 1824, the Hunter Turnpike, forerunner of today's Route 23A, was cut through Kaaterskill Clove, making the whole area more accessible. Otherwise, the area remained the same undeveloped wilderness
Bartram had explored.
It was an ideal subject for a young painter
named Thomas Cole
, who visited the Catskills in 1825 and stayed at the new hotel. Struck by its wildness and the many scenic views both from the Escarpment and of it, he took sketches of the area and returned several times to get more. The Catskills had been a subject of art since the 1730s, but the landscapes
Cole eventually painted caused a sensation back in New York, with John Trumbull
observing that Cole "has done what I have all my life attempted in vain". Other artists like Asher Durand and Frederick Church
began following Cole up the Hudson, and their similarly-styled Romantic
renderings of the region, called the Hudson River school
after a critic's derisive remark, became the young nation's first native art movement.
similarly used his art to glorify the Catskills, helping to create interest in the region as a tourist
destination. Steamboat
service up the Hudson, and later the railroads, made it even more accessible from New York City
. Charles Beach took over a failing Catskill Mountain House in 1846 and turned it into one of mid-19th century America's most exclusive resorts, visited by presidents and other dignitaries. Guests explored the area, following paths and trails that still exist, to visit Kaaterskill Falls and other scenic spots.
Competing hotels opened up nearby over the next several decades. The Kaaterskill Hotel, founded by a disgruntled Mountain House guest, was located near the summit of South Mountain. The more modest Laurel House stood near the top of Kaaterskill Falls. Several hoteliers attempted to make a similar success on the summit of Overlook Mountain.
In the 1880s, the hotels started to lose their luster. The Catskills had already been displaced as New York's highest mountains by Mount Marcy
and other Adirondack High Peaks; in 1879 Princeton
geology professor Arnold Guyot, a regular summer guest at the Mountain House since the Civil War
, announced that not only were the so-called "Shandaken
Mountains" in Ulster County to the southwest geologically continuous with the Catskills, one of them, Slide Mountain, was at 4180 feet (1,274.1 m) the highest peak in the entire range, instead of the Escarpment's Kaaterskill High Peak
. He had also found that the Mountain House itself was not as high as Beach claimed. Beach and the other Escarpment resort owners tried to discredit Guyot and his findings, but within years they had verified by others.
A few years later, in 1885, the state legislature responded to increasing concerns that rampant logging in the Adirondacks
might cause erosion that would silt up the Erie Canal
and make it unnavigable by creating the Forest Preserve
, under which any state land in several counties was to be left "forever wild". The Catskills were included in a later, revised version of the bill
, when the Ulster County delegation saw a chance to take some tax-delinquent properties, and the county's obligations to the state, off the counties' hands. In 1894 the legislature and voters responded to loopholes in the legislation by writing it into the state constitution, where it has remained as Article 14 ever since.
While this had no immediate effect on the hoteliers, other trends of the era began producing a decline in guests at the Escarpment hotels. Expansions of the railroad network meant that the wealthy guests who had previously been content to go to the Mountain House or Kaaterskill instead went to their own great camps
in the Adirondacks, or to other mountainous or coastal regions. Competing hotels in areas further inland now recognized as being in the Catskills claimed to offer a more genuine mountain experience, and purer air, to their guests. The guests who did come tended to stay for shorter periods, mainly hot weekends in the summer. Beach and the Mountain House made a long-planned joint venture to build an incline railway up the Escarpment to the hotel a reality in 1892, but it cut into their profits.
The next year the state acquired Stoppel Point, complementing its purchase of Kaaterskill High Peak, most of Overlook, Plattekill and Roundtop in 1921, which had capped two decades of acquisitions on the northern Escarpment. It closed in on the Mountain House with the purchase of South Mountain and the former Kaaterskill site as the decade ended, and the son-in-law who now owned the Mountain House had to sell most of the tract to the state to make ends meet.
Despite the onset of the Great Depression
, the Mountain House struggled through a few years, closing for a while, then reopening for one final season in 1942 under new ownership. New owners also began building a third Overlook Hotel in 1927 and continued throughout the 1930s; however, their supplies were stolen during World War II
and the project was abandoned. Its decaying frame remains near the mountain's summit.
There were some attempts to revive the Mountain House after the war, and preservationists
urged that it be restored
as an architectural treasure. But the increasingly decrepit building was becoming hazardous to the hikers who explored it, and after the state acquired the building and the lands around it in 1962, the then-Conservation Department
burned it down early the next year. Only its stone gateposts remain. Five years later the Laurel House was demolished as well.
The Escarpment's transition from private paradise to public playground was complete, although the last mountaintop parcel, the summit of Overlook, was not fully acquired until 1996. Over the course of the rest of the century, the state developed North-South Lake into the busy campground it is today and cut new trails and marked
old roads and paths throughout the range. Today the Forest Preserve along the Escarpment is divided into several different management units and administered according to the Catskill State Land Master Plan.
. The retreat of the glaciers, particularly on the ridgetops and northern and eastern slopes, scoured the rock, further distressing the growing environment on what are the Catskills' steepest and most exposed slopes. As a result the coniferous
evergreen
species characteristic of boreal forests such as red spruce
and the balsam fir
Bartram sought appear in much higher concentrations, and at lower elevations, then they do elsewhere in the Catskills. The summit of North Mountain, at 3,180 feet (970 m) above sea level, is covered in boreal forest, the lowest Catskill summit of which this is true. While there are no true alpine
zones in the Catskills, Kudish has found the only areas in the range which come close along the Escarpment at elevations between 2260 and 2720 ft (688.8 and 829.1 m) along the Escarpment as it rises from lakes to North Mountain. These are exposed ridgetops where three-toothed cinquefoil, and in one mountain sandwort
, is found. Since those species are shade-intolerant, it suggests that the sites have not reforested since the end of glaciation.
At lower elevations, the many fires that have raged over the region have left it with a mixed forest
where oak
and pine
predominate. Several large areas of Norway spruce
were planted on the north slopes of Windham High Peak
during reforestation
efforts following state land acquisitions in the 1930s. Due to the history of fires and logging
on the northern sections of the range, there are very few areas of first-growth
remaining outside of the boreal plots. The largest is the summit of Blackhead
; the largest hardwood first-growth is likewise the 0.9 square miles (233.1 ha) around the summit of Windham High Peak. The Eastern hemlock
s around Spruce Creek below Kaaterskill Falls are also a virgin stand. They survived the era when tanners
sought the species for the tannin
in its bark since the steep and perilous nature of that terrain made them too difficult to profitably extract. It and many of the other ravines draining into Kaaterskill Clove also support some plants species rare in New York State, such as roseroot stonecrop
and fragrant cliff fern (listed as threatened
and endangered
at the state level, respectively).
Dominant fauna of the Escarpment are the species found elsewhere in the Catskills: white-tailed deer
, porcupine
, fisher
, black bear
and snowshoe hare
. There have been some rare bobcat
sightings up on the ridge. Bird species like the rare Bicknell's thrush
and ruffed grouse
nest in the boreal forests. A few rattlesnake
dens are known to exist on the rocky ledges of Overlook at the southern end of the range. The paucity of water on the ridgetops and the slopes means that there are few major fish or amphibian species in the Escarpment, save around North-South Lake.
, requiring that it be kept forever wild. Private land is found only in the cloves, where some of it is also protected
. The Forest Preserve lands are divided into management units by the state Department of Environmental Conservation
(DEC). Initially all of the state lands save North-South Lake Public Campground were classified as Wild Forests, a protection level unique to New York that is slightly less restrictive than wilderness. In 2008 an updated Catskill State Land Master Plan combined the North Mountain, Windham High Peak and Blackhead Range
Wild Forests into one new unit, the Windham-Blackhead Range Wilderness. Two old roads through the Escarpment were also given a new classification, Primitive Bicycle Corridor, to accommodate mountain bike
s.
From north to south, the areas are:
, camping
and birding. Hunting
and fishing
are permitted within season and as otherwise regulated by the state. Unpowered boating
is permitted on Echo and North-South lakes.
Use is free except for North-South Lake Public Campground, for which a $8 fee is charged per vehicle in season (Campers are also charged $22 for the site). In return, heavier-impact camping and activities are allowed, and greater services are provided to visitors. There is also a 12-mile (18 km) snowmobile
loop trail around Kaaterskill High Peak and Round Top.
The Escarpment has many hiking trail
s. Foremost among them is the 22.3 miles (35.9 km) Escarpment Trail, which begins at Schutt Road just outside the campground gate. From there it goes north to Route 23, climbing over Stoppel Point, Blackhead and Windham High Peak along the way. All but the southernmost 2.5 miles (4 km) are also part of the Long Path
long-distance trail, which itself traverses Kaaterskill High Peak and descends Kaaterskill Clove to near Palenville and then reascends to join the Escarpment Trail. Backpackers
starting near Woodstock can use the trail up that mountain to hike the entire Escarpment, connecting to the Long Path between Indian Head and Plattekill mountains.
Other trails climb the ridge, all from the west with the exception of the Dutcher Notch Trail. They mainly provide access to the Escarpment Trail, except for the old trails around the Mountain House property at North-South Lake which provide short connections and loop trips between the campground and various sections of the Escarpment Trail. The most popular trail in the entire Catskills is the short trail up to Kaaterskill Falls from Route 23A, formerly the southernmost section of the Escarpment Trail until it was closed above the falls for safety reasons.
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
, is the range
Mountain range
A mountain range is a single, large mass consisting of a succession of mountains or narrowly spaced mountain ridges, with or without peaks, closely related in position, direction, formation, and age; a component part of a mountain system or of a mountain chain...
forming the northeastern corner of the Catskill Mountains
Catskill Mountains
The Catskill Mountains, an area in New York State northwest of New York City and southwest of Albany, are a mature dissected plateau, an uplifted region that was subsequently eroded into sharp relief. They are an eastward continuation, and the highest representation, of the Allegheny Plateau...
in Greene
Greene County, New York
Greene County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. Its name is in honor of the American Revolutionary War general Nathanael Greene. Its county seat is Catskill...
and Ulster
Ulster County, New York
Ulster County is a county located in the state of New York, USA. It sits in the state's Mid-Hudson Region of the Hudson Valley. As of the 2010 census, the population was 182,493. Recent population estimates completed by the United States Census Bureau for the 12-month period ending July 1 are at...
counties in the U.S. state of New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. It rises very abruptly from the Hudson Valley
Hudson Valley
The Hudson Valley comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in New York State, United States, from northern Westchester County northward to the cities of Albany and Troy.-History:...
to summits above 3000 feet (914.4 m) in elevation, including three of the Catskill High Peaks
Catskill High Peaks
The Catskill High Peaks are all of the mountains in New York's Catskill Mountains above 3,500 ft in elevation whose summits are separated either by one-half mile or a vertical drop of at least 250 ft between it and the next nearest separate summit...
, with almost no foothills. The plateau
Plateau
In geology and earth science, a plateau , also called a high plain or tableland, is an area of highland, usually consisting of relatively flat terrain. A highly eroded plateau is called a dissected plateau...
to the south and west averages 2000 feet (609.6 m) above sea level.
The Escarpment was the first area of the Catskills to attract the interest of European settlers
European colonization of the Americas
The start of the European colonization of the Americas is typically dated to 1492. The first Europeans to reach the Americas were the Vikings during the 11th century, who established several colonies in Greenland and one short-lived settlement in present day Newfoundland...
. Botanist John Bartram
John Bartram
*Hoffmann, Nancy E. and John C. Van Horne, eds., America’s Curious Botanist: A Tercentennial Reappraisal of John Bartram 1699-1777. Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 243. ....
wrote a widely-read account of an expedition there prior to independence, and a century later the North-South Lake
North-South Lake
North-South Lake is an 1,100-acre state campground in the Catskill Forest Preserve near Palenville, New York operated by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation near the site of the historic Catskill Mountain House overlooking the Hudson River...
area he had visited became home to a number of exclusive resorts, including the Catskill Mountain House
Catskill Mountain House
The Catskill Mountain House was a famous hotel near Palenville, New York in the Catskill Mountains overlooking the Hudson River Valley, built in 1824. In its prime, from the 1850s to the turn of the century, it was visited by three U.S. presidents The Catskill Mountain House was a famous hotel...
. Views of it inspired Thomas Cole
Thomas Cole
Thomas Cole was an English-born American artist. He is regarded as the founder of the Hudson River School, an American art movement that flourished in the mid-19th century...
and other painters of the Hudson River school
Hudson River school
The Hudson River School was a mid-19th century American art movement embodied by a group of landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by romanticism...
, the first art movement in the United States. Today much of it is New York State Forest Preserve
Forest Preserve (New York)
New York's Forest Preserve is all the land owned by the state within the Adirondack and Catskill parks, managed by its Department of Environmental Conservation. These properties are required to be kept "forever wild" by Article 14 of the state constitution, and thus enjoy the highest degree of...
within the Catskill Park, and a popular place for hiking
Hiking
Hiking is an outdoor activity which consists of walking in natural environments, often in mountainous or other scenic terrain. People often hike on hiking trails. It is such a popular activity that there are numerous hiking organizations worldwide. The health benefits of different types of hiking...
, camping
Camping
Camping is an outdoor recreational activity. The participants leave urban areas, their home region, or civilization and enjoy nature while spending one or several nights outdoors, usually at a campsite. Camping may involve the use of a tent, caravan, motorhome, cabin, a primitive structure, or no...
and other outdoor recreation.
Geography
The Catskill Escarpment begins in the south at 3140 feet (957.1 m) Overlook Mountain, just north of WoodstockWoodstock (CDP), New York
Woodstock is a hamlet in Ulster County, New York, United States. The population was 2,187 at the 2000 census.The community of Woodstock is in eastern part of the Town of Woodstock and is northeast of Kingston, New York. It is located along NY 212 near its junction with NY 375...
. The graded trail to the summit and the 360 degree unobstructed view from the fire tower is a popular destination. The next mountain in the chain, directly to the north-northeast, is Plattekill Mountain, at 3100 feet (944.9 m) dwarfed by its western neighbor, Indian Head Mountain
Indian Head Mountain (New York)
Indian Head Mountain is a mountain located in the southeast corner of Greene County, New York.The mountain, named for the appearance of its profile, is part of the Devil's Path range of the Catskill Mountains....
, eastern end of the Devil's Path
Devil's Path (Catskills)
The Devil's Path is the name of a mountain range and hiking trail in the Greene County portion of New York's Catskill Mountains. The mountains commonly considered to be part of the Devil's Path are, from west to east, West Kill, Hunter, Plateau, Sugarloaf, Twin, and Indian Head.The name comes from...
. To the north of Plattekill the ridge is broken by deep and narrow Platte Clove
Platte Clove
Platte Clove, sometimes Plattekill Clove, is a narrow and steep valley in the Catskill Mountains of New York. It is mostly in Greene County, although the lowest portions are in Ulster County....
, the first of three breaks in the Escarpment. Just north of it the range crosses the Greene County
Greene County, New York
Greene County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. Its name is in honor of the American Revolutionary War general Nathanael Greene. Its county seat is Catskill...
line.
Kaaterskill High Peak
Kaaterskill High Peak is one of the Catskill Mountains, located in the Town of Hunter in Greene County, New York, USA. It was once believed to be the highest peak in the entire range, but its summit, at 3,655 feet in elevation, places it only 23rd among the Catskill High Peaks. It is, however,...
, the easternmost Catskill High Peak
Catskill High Peaks
The Catskill High Peaks are all of the mountains in New York's Catskill Mountains above 3,500 ft in elevation whose summits are separated either by one-half mile or a vertical drop of at least 250 ft between it and the next nearest separate summit...
and the first of three along the Escarpment. North of it the Escarpment is again breached by Kaaterskill Clove
Kaaterskill Clove
Kaaterskill Clove is a deep gorge, or valley, in New York's eastern Catskill Mountains, lying just west of the village of Palenville. The clove was formed by Kaaterskill Creek, a tributary of Catskill Creek rising west of North Mountain, and is estimated by geologists to be as much as 1 million...
, the largest of its three breaks. It carries NY 23A
New York State Route 23A
New York State Route 23A is an east–west state highway in Greene County, New York, in the United States. It serves as a alternate route of NY 23 through the northern Catskill Mountains...
through the Escarpment to the towns of Haines Falls
Haines Falls, New York
Haines Falls is a hamlet located east of Tannersville, New York in the Town of Hunter, in Greene County, New York. Haines Falls is located at .-Transportation:...
, Tannersville
Tannersville, New York
Tannersville is a village in Greene County, New York, USA. The village is in the east-central part of the town of Hunter on Route 23A. The population was 539 at the 2010 census.- History :...
and Hunter
Hunter (village), New York
Hunter is a village in Greene County, New York, USA. The population was 502 at the 2010 census.The Village of Hunter is in the northwest part of the Town of Hunter on Route 23A.- History :...
. Along its northern side is Kaaterskill Falls
Kaaterskill Falls
Kaaterskill Falls is a two-drop waterfall located near in the eastern Catskill Mountains of New York, on the north side of Kaaterskill Clove, between the hamlets of Haines Falls and Palenville in Greene County's Town of Hunter...
, one of the Catskills' oldest tourist attractions.
Above Kaaterskill Clove rises South Mountain, after which the ridge levels to North-South Lake
North-South Lake
North-South Lake is an 1,100-acre state campground in the Catskill Forest Preserve near Palenville, New York operated by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation near the site of the historic Catskill Mountain House overlooking the Hudson River...
, the former locale of the Catskill Mountain House
Catskill Mountain House
The Catskill Mountain House was a famous hotel near Palenville, New York in the Catskill Mountains overlooking the Hudson River Valley, built in 1824. In its prime, from the 1850s to the turn of the century, it was visited by three U.S. presidents The Catskill Mountain House was a famous hotel...
and other resorts of the late 19th century. Today it is a busy public campground. North of it the ridge rises again to 3180 feet (969.3 m) North Mountain
North Mountain (Catskills)
North Mountain is a peak in the Catskill Mountains of New York, on the border between the towns of Catskill and Hunter, in Greene County. It is part of the Catskill Escarpment....
, with the open views from North Point to its south one of the Catskills' most popular hikes.
Beyond North Point the Escarpment turns to the northwest. The land drops off slightly, then rises once again to Stoppel Point, 3420 feet (1,042.4 m) in elevation. Then the Escarpment is broken once again by Dutcher or East Kill Notch, traversed only by an old road now used as a hiking trail. Another sharp rise leads up again to a ridge almost as high as Stoppel Point known unofficially as Arizona due to its dryness.
North of it rises Blackhead Mountain, the easternmost peak of the Blackhead Range and fifth highest in the Catskills overall. Its 3940 feet (1,200.9 m) summit is the highest point along the Escarpment, visible with its neighbors from as far north as Albany
Albany, New York
Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...
. After its steep northern slope the range curves more sharply to the west. Minor peaks Burnt Knob and Acra Point form the northern wall of Big Hollow along with 3523 feet (1,073.8 m) Windham High Peak
Windham High Peak
Windham High Peak is a mountain located in Greene County, New York.The mountain is part of the Catskill Mountains.Windham High Peak stands within the watershed of the Hudson River, which drains into New York Bay....
, the last of the three High Peaks along the Escarpment and the mountain traditionally considered its northern end, as the lesser ranges to its west divide and do not rise as drastically as the Escarpment itself does from the nearby land.
Hudson River
The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
's drainage basin. To the east, Plattekill and Kaaterskill creeks drain the two cloves that share their names, and runoff from the ridge feeds Catskill Creek
Catskill Creek
Catskill Creek is a tributary of the Hudson River that drains the east northern Catskill Mountains of the U.S. state of New York. From its source at Franklinton Vlaie in Schoharie County it flows southeast through parts of Albany County and Greene County to its mouth at the village of Catskill on...
and other smaller tributaries of the Hudson in that area. To the west, with the exception of Kaaterskill High Peak
Kaaterskill High Peak
Kaaterskill High Peak is one of the Catskill Mountains, located in the Town of Hunter in Greene County, New York, USA. It was once believed to be the highest peak in the entire range, but its summit, at 3,655 feet in elevation, places it only 23rd among the Catskill High Peaks. It is, however,...
, runoff feeds the headwaters and upper tributaries of Schoharie Creek
Schoharie Creek
Schoharie Creek in New York, USA flows north from the foot of Indian Head Mountain in the Catskill Mountains through the Schoharie Valley to the Mohawk River. It is twice impounded north of Prattsville to create New York City's Schoharie Reservoir and the Blenheim-Gilboa Power Project.Two notable...
, which rises at the height of land between Plattekill and Indian Head mountains. This makes them part of New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
's water supply due to the creek's impoundment at Schoharie Reservoir
Schoharie Reservoir
The Schoharie Reservoir is a small reservoir in the Catskill Mountains of New York State that was created to be one of 19 reservoirs that supplies New York City with water. It was created by impounding Schoharie Creek...
. Beyond there the Schoharie drains into the Mohawk
Mohawk River
The Mohawk River is a river in the U.S. state of New York. It is the largest tributary of the Hudson River. The Mohawk flows into the Hudson in the Capital District, a few miles north of the city of Albany. The river is named for the Mohawk Nation of the Iroquois Confederacy...
and then back into the Hudson at Cohoes
Cohoes, New York
Cohoes is an incorporated city located at the northeast corner of Albany County in the US state of New York. It is called the "Spindle City" because of the importance of textile production to its growth. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 16,168...
.
The Escarpment is considered the only place in the Catskills where the region's boundary is distinct and unambiguous. In other directions the slow descent of the mountains into the hills of the Allegheny Plateau
Allegheny Plateau
The Allegheny Plateau is a large dissected plateau area in western and central New York, northern and western Pennsylvania, northern and western West Virginia, and eastern Ohio...
leads to arbitrary delineations of the range's extent.
Due to its prominence, the Escarpment can be seen from a long distance around. It is a constant sight from not only the New York State Thruway
New York State Thruway
The New York State Thruway is a system of limited-access highways located within the state of New York in the United States. The system, known officially as the Governor Thomas E. Dewey Thruway for former New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey, is operated by the New York State Thruway Authority and...
in Greene County and the river but the Taconic State Parkway
Taconic State Parkway
The Taconic State Parkway , is a divided highway between Kensico Dam and Chatham, the longest parkway in the U.S. state of New York. It follows a generally northward route midway between the Hudson River and the Connecticut and Massachusetts state lines...
across the river and the mountains of western Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
and Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
. From the Escarpment it is possible to see all those areas, plus Vermont
Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
, on a clear day. An overlook along Route 23 as it climbs the northern Escarpment is called Five State Lookout since New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
's White Mountains
White Mountains (New Hampshire)
The White Mountains are a mountain range covering about a quarter of the state of New Hampshire and a small portion of western Maine in the United States. Part of the Appalachian Mountains, they are considered the most rugged mountains in New England...
are also visible.
Along the lower slopes, it forms part of the border between Ulster and Greene counties at its southern end. Within Greene County, it separates the towns of Catskill
Catskill (town), New York
Catskill is a town in the southeast part of Greene County, New York, United States. The population was 11,775 at the 2010 census. The western part of the town is in the Catskill Park....
, Cairo
Cairo (town), New York
Cairo is a town in Greene County, New York, United States. The population was 6,610 at the 2010 census. The town is in the south part of the county, partly in the Catskill Park. Cairo is named after Cairo in Egypt, but is pronounced "Care-o" .- History :...
and Durham
Durham, New York
Durham is a town in Greene County, New York, United States. The population was 2,725 at the 2010 census. The town was named after Durham, Connecticut.The Town of Durham is in the northwest corner of the county.- History :...
on the lowland side from Hunter
Hunter (town), New York
Hunter is a town in Greene County, New York. The population was 2,732 at the 2010 census.The Town of Hunter contain two villages one named Hunter and the other called Tannersville. The town is on the County's south border.- History :...
, Jewett
Jewett, New York
Jewett is a town centrally located in Greene County, New York, United States. The population was 953 at the 2010 census. The town is named after Judge Freeborn Jewett.- History :The town was first settled around 1784....
and Windham in the mountains. The Catskill Park Blue Line
Blue Line (New York State)
The Blue Line is the term used in New York state for the boundaries of the Adirondack and Catskill parks, within which can be found the state's Forest Preserve...
also follows an irregular path along old property lines along its slopes from its southern end to the Route 23 junction, the northernmost point in the park.
Natural history
The Escarpment owes its formation to three phases in different geological epochsGeologic time scale
The geologic time scale provides a system of chronologic measurement relating stratigraphy to time that is used by geologists, paleontologists and other earth scientists to describe the timing and relationships between events that have occurred during the history of the Earth...
. Two different processes shaped the range into what it is today.
Its limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
bedrock
Bedrock
In stratigraphy, bedrock is the native consolidated rock underlying the surface of a terrestrial planet, usually the Earth. Above the bedrock is usually an area of broken and weathered unconsolidated rock in the basal subsoil...
began forming 400 mya, during the Silurian
Silurian
The Silurian is a geologic period and system that extends from the end of the Ordovician Period, about 443.7 ± 1.5 Mya , to the beginning of the Devonian Period, about 416.0 ± 2.8 Mya . As with other geologic periods, the rock beds that define the period's start and end are well identified, but the...
period, when the Catskill region was a river delta
River delta
A delta is a landform that is formed at the mouth of a river where that river flows into an ocean, sea, estuary, lake, reservoir, flat arid area, or another river. Deltas are formed from the deposition of the sediment carried by the river as the flow leaves the mouth of the river...
and the shallow sea it drained into. The river carried
Deposition (geology)
Deposition is the geological process by which material is added to a landform or land mass. Fluids such as wind and water, as well as sediment flowing via gravity, transport previously eroded sediment, which, at the loss of enough kinetic energy in the fluid, is deposited, building up layers of...
eroded
Erosion
Erosion is when materials are removed from the surface and changed into something else. It only works by hydraulic actions and transport of solids in the natural environment, and leads to the deposition of these materials elsewhere...
material from the Taconic Mountains
Taconic Mountains
The Taconic Mountains or Taconic Range are a physiographic section of the larger New England province and part of the Appalachian Mountains, running along the eastern border of New York State and adjacent New England from northwest Connecticut to western Massachusetts, north to central western...
to the northeast, then reaching as high as 15000 feet (4,572 m) over present-day sea level. Later, during the Acadian orogeny
Acadian orogeny
The Taconic, Acadian and Alleghenian orogenies are the three tectonic phases responsible for the formation of the present Appalachian Mountains. The Acadian orogeny is a middle Paleozoic mountain building episode dating back 325-400 million years which should not be regarded as a single event but...
, the sea became the deeper Appalachian Basin
Geology of the Appalachians
The geology of the Appalachians dates back to more than 480 million years ago. A look at rocks exposed in today's Appalachian Mountains reveals elongate belts of folded and thrust faulted marine sedimentary rocks, volcanic rocks and slivers of ancient ocean floor - strong evidence that these rocks...
, and the sand
Sand
Sand is a naturally occurring granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles.The composition of sand is highly variable, depending on the local rock sources and conditions, but the most common constituent of sand in inland continental settings and non-tropical coastal...
and clay
Clay
Clay is a general term including many combinations of one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter. Geologic clay deposits are mostly composed of phyllosilicate minerals containing variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure.- Formation :Clay minerals...
from the newer mountains became the shale
Shale
Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock composed of mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals and tiny fragments of other minerals, especially quartz and calcite. The ratio of clay to other minerals is variable. Shale is characterized by breaks along thin laminae or parallel layering...
and sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
found throughout the Catskills today.
Eventually the sea floor itself began to drain and uplift
Tectonic uplift
Tectonic uplift is a geological process most often caused by plate tectonics which increases elevation. The opposite of uplift is subsidence, which results in a decrease in elevation. Uplift may be orogenic or isostatic.-Orogenic uplift:...
. The area of today's Escarpment and northeastern Catskills had been the river's distributaries and had the thickest layer of Devonian
Devonian
The Devonian is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic Era spanning from the end of the Silurian Period, about 416.0 ± 2.8 Mya , to the beginning of the Carboniferous Period, about 359.2 ± 2.5 Mya...
sediments, leading it to uplift as a whole and become a plateau
Plateau
In geology and earth science, a plateau , also called a high plain or tableland, is an area of highland, usually consisting of relatively flat terrain. A highly eroded plateau is called a dissected plateau...
rather than fracturing into mountains. Gradually, the upper levels of the plateau began to erode
Dissected plateau
A dissected plateau is a plateau area that has been severely eroded so that the relief is sharp. Such an area may be referred to as mountainous, but dissected plateaus are distinguishable from orogenic mountain belts by the lack of folding, metamorphism, extensive faulting, or magmatic activity...
and create stream basins, eventually becoming today's mountains and valleys
North-South Lake
North-South Lake is an 1,100-acre state campground in the Catskill Forest Preserve near Palenville, New York operated by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation near the site of the historic Catskill Mountain House overlooking the Hudson River...
, the headwaters of what would eventually be named Schoharie Creek
Schoharie Creek
Schoharie Creek in New York, USA flows north from the foot of Indian Head Mountain in the Catskill Mountains through the Schoharie Valley to the Mohawk River. It is twice impounded north of Prattsville to create New York City's Schoharie Reservoir and the Blenheim-Gilboa Power Project.Two notable...
instead flowed down into the new gorge. This both created Kaaterskill Falls
Kaaterskill Falls
Kaaterskill Falls is a two-drop waterfall located near in the eastern Catskill Mountains of New York, on the north side of Kaaterskill Clove, between the hamlets of Haines Falls and Palenville in Greene County's Town of Hunter...
, one of the Catskills' early tourist attractions, and relocated the source of the Schoharie to its present location.
As the Escarpment began to revegetate in the wake of the retreat of the Wisconsin glaciation
Wisconsin glaciation
The last glacial period was the most recent glacial period within the current ice age occurring during the last years of the Pleistocene, from approximately 110,000 to 10,000 years ago....
, its forests remained exposed to weather due to their location. Lightning
Lightning
Lightning is an atmospheric electrostatic discharge accompanied by thunder, which typically occurs during thunderstorms, and sometimes during volcanic eruptions or dust storms...
in particular caused many forest fires. Catskill forest historian Michael Kudish
Michael Kudish
Michael Kudish is an author, railroad historian, forester, and retired professor. He received his Ph.D. in 1971 from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry at Syracuse. His dissertation, on the history of Catskill forests, was the beginning of a lifelong...
believes that the southern Escarpment "has been burned over many times, perhaps hundred of times, during the last several thousand years".
Human history
The history of the Escarpment is, in its early stages, the history of the Catskills, as the two were one and the same until modern surveying and science broadened the definition of the region in the late 19th century. No longer home to the Catskills' highest peak, the Escarpment became just the most visible of the Catskill ranges.Native Americans and colonial era
The Munsee and MahicanMahican
The Mahican are an Eastern Algonquian Native American tribe, originally settling in the Hudson River Valley . After 1680, many moved to Stockbridge, Massachusetts. During the early 1820s and 1830s, most of the Mahican descendants migrated westward to northeastern Wisconsin...
tribes of Native Americans
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
indigenous to the Hudson Valley did not live in the mountains, but settled heavily in the valley below. They went up the Escarpment only to hunt or start fires to nurture hunting grounds and provide defensive barriers against other tribes, or to follow trails to other communities on the far side of the mountains. While nothing has been recorded from the early years of contact with European settlers
European colonization of the Americas
The start of the European colonization of the Americas is typically dated to 1492. The first Europeans to reach the Americas were the Vikings during the 11th century, who established several colonies in Greenland and one short-lived settlement in present day Newfoundland...
of what role the mountains above them played in their religious beliefs, but it is very likely that they did, given their animistic
Animism
Animism refers to the belief that non-human entities are spiritual beings, or at least embody some kind of life-principle....
traditions.
In 1609 Henry Hudson
Henry Hudson
Henry Hudson was an English sea explorer and navigator in the early 17th century. Hudson made two attempts on behalf of English merchants to find a prospective Northeast Passage to Cathay via a route above the Arctic Circle...
's Halve Maen
Halve Maen
The Halve Maen was a Dutch East India Company vlieboot which sailed into what is now New York harbor in September 1609. It was commissioned by the Dutch Republic to covertly find an eastern passage to China...
sailed up the river later named for him in search of a route to China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
. They became the first Europeans to see the Escarpment, and thus the Catskills. No one would explore them for a century, until Johannes Hardenbergh
Johannes Hardenbergh
Major Johannes Hardenbergh , also known as Sir Johannes Hardenbergh, was the owner of the Hardenbergh patent of land in the Catskill Mountains.-Biography:He was born in Albany, New York, was High Sheriff of Ulster County in 1690...
secured the 2 million-acre (810,000 ha) land grant
Land grant
A land grant is a gift of real estate – land or its privileges – made by a government or other authority as a reward for services to an individual, especially in return for military service...
that bore his name from colonial governor Lord Cornbury
Edward Hyde, 3rd Earl of Clarendon
Edward Hyde, 3rd Earl of Clarendon , styled Viscount Cornbury between 1674 and 1709, was Governor of New York and New Jersey between 1701 and 1708, and is perhaps best known for the claims of his cross-dressing while in office.-Career:Born The Hon...
in 1708, a patent later affirmed by his cousin, Queen Anne
Anne of Great Britain
Anne ascended the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland on 8 March 1702. On 1 May 1707, under the Act of Union, two of her realms, England and Scotland, were united as a single sovereign state, the Kingdom of Great Britain.Anne's Catholic father, James II and VII, was deposed during the...
. The language of the document specified that its northeastern corner was at a lake above the Escarpment believed to be the source of Kaaterskill Creek, later North-South Lake
North-South Lake
North-South Lake is an 1,100-acre state campground in the Catskill Forest Preserve near Palenville, New York operated by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation near the site of the historic Catskill Mountain House overlooking the Hudson River...
. The murky circumstances of the patent, likely involving official corruption,, compounded by litigation from a competing group of claimants and interference with the crews attempting to survey
Surveying
See Also: Public Land Survey SystemSurveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, and science of accurately determining the terrestrial or three-dimensional position of points and the distances and angles between them...
the property limited efforts to explore or settle the Escarpment, much less the whole region.
Naturalist
Naturalist may refer to:* Practitioner of natural history* Conservationist* Advocate of naturalism * Naturalist , autobiography-See also:* The American Naturalist, periodical* Naturalism...
John Bartram
John Bartram
*Hoffmann, Nancy E. and John C. Van Horne, eds., America’s Curious Botanist: A Tercentennial Reappraisal of John Bartram 1699-1777. Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 243. ....
climbed up to a "shady vale" around North-South Lake, where he collected samples of the resin of the "Balm of Gilead" tree (balsam fir
Balsam Fir
The balsam fir is a North American fir, native to most of eastern and central Canada and the northeastern United States .-Growth:It is a small to medium-size evergreen tree typically tall, rarely to tall, with a narrow conic crown...
) to send to his English patron, Peter Collinson). He returned the next year for more. Collinson regularly prevailed on Bartram over the next several years to return for some seeds of the tree, which the former hoped to grow in England, and in 1753 he did, accompanied by a guide and his son William
William Bartram
William Bartram was an American naturalist. The son of Ann and John Bartram, William Bartram and his twin sister Elizabeth were born in Kingsessing, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia. As a boy, he accompanied his father on many of his travels, to the Catskill Mountains, the New Jersey Pine Barrens,...
. Despite being seriously ill, he returned to South Lake. He was unable to harvest any seeds, but in the process became the first person to record a visit to Kaaterskill Falls
Kaaterskill Falls
Kaaterskill Falls is a two-drop waterfall located near in the eastern Catskill Mountains of New York, on the north side of Kaaterskill Clove, between the hamlets of Haines Falls and Palenville in Greene County's Town of Hunter...
. His account, "To ye Cats Kill Mountains with Billy", illustrated by the boy, was the first scientific report on the Catskills. It listed most of the flora of the area and speculated on how the mountains might have been formed.
Independence and 19th century
After the RevolutionAmerican Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
, the members of the Livingston family
Livingston family
The Livingston family of was a prominent family which migrated from Scotland to the Dutch Republic to the Province of New York in the 17th century. Descended from William, 4th Lord Livingston, its members included signers of the United States Declaration of Independence and the United States...
whose ancestral estate were the portion of the Hudson's eastern shore now the Hudson River Historic District
Hudson River Historic District
The Hudson River Historic District, also known as Hudson River Heritage Historic District, is the largest such district on the mainland of the contiguous United States...
, a National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
(NHL), continued to enjoy the semi-feudal landownership they had broken with the Crown to protect. They made sure their estate houses, like Clermont Manor
Clermont Manor
The Clermont State Historic Site, also known as the Clermont estate, the Clermont Manor or just Clermont, is a New York State Historic Site in southwestern Columbia County, New York, USA...
and Montgomery Place
Montgomery Place
Montgomery Place, near Barrytown, New York, United States, is an early 19th-century estate that has been designated a National Historic Landmark. It is also a contributing property to the Hudson River Historic District, also a National Historic Landmark....
, both also NHLs, provided ample views of the Escarpment across the river, lands which the family had started to acquire. "The view to be had from these houses became of the very first importance," according to Catskill historian Alf Evers
Alf Evers
Alf Evers , was an American historian who lived in Ulster County, New York for much of his life and wrote lengthy, definitive histories of the Catskills and Woodstock, serving the latter as town historian...
. "... [A] man looking toward the Catskills from the east bank could see a view the equal in almost every respect to the already famous ones admired by so many tourists to England's Lake District
Lake District
The Lake District, also commonly known as The Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous not only for its lakes and its mountains but also for its associations with the early 19th century poetry and writings of William Wordsworth...
." Horatio Spafford
Horatio Spafford
Horatio Gates Spafford was a prominent American lawyer, best known for penning the Christian hymn It Is Well With My Soul, following a family tragedy in which four of his daughters died....
voiced a similar opinion at the time. "[The mountains] associate a mass of interesting, picturesque and sublime objects, no where exceeded in this country", he wrote in his 1813 gazzeteer of the state. Later on, they followed the principles of Andrew Jackson Downing
Andrew Jackson Downing
Andrew Jackson Downing was an American landscape designer, horticulturalist, and writer, a prominent advocate of the Gothic Revival style in the United States, and editor of The Horticulturist magazine...
in designing their landscapes to provide views from its roads and paths. Even after the Livingstons moved on to other regions of the country, their reputation made the Catskills known in Britain as well as the U.S.
Washington Irving
Washington Irving was an American author, essayist, biographer and historian of the early 19th century. He was best known for his short stories "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle", both of which appear in his book The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. His historical works...
visited the Livingston estates for a week; he may have taken some of his inspiration for "Rip Van Winkle
Rip Van Winkle
"Rip Van Winkle" is a short story by the American author Washington Irving published in 1819, as well as the name of the story's fictional protagonist. Written while Irving was living in Birmingham, England, it was part of a collection entitled The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon...
", published seven years later, from that view. Other prominent American writers of the time took notice of the Catskills as well. In a famous passage in James Fenimore Cooper
James Fenimore Cooper
James Fenimore Cooper was a prolific and popular American writer of the early 19th century. He is best remembered as a novelist who wrote numerous sea-stories and the historical novels known as the Leatherstocking Tales, featuring frontiersman Natty Bumppo...
's The Pioneers, written in 1823
1823 in literature
The year 1823 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* Clement Clarke Moore's poem, A Visit from St. Nicholas introduces the character named "Santa Claus"....
, Natty Bumppo
Natty Bumppo
Nathaniel "Natty" Bumppo is the protagonist of James Fenimore Cooper's pentalogy of novels known as the Leatherstocking Tales.- Fictional biography :...
describes both Kaaterskill Falls and the Pine Orchard, the area Bartram had explored and written about decades before.
The same year the hotel later to become the Catskill Mountain House
Catskill Mountain House
The Catskill Mountain House was a famous hotel near Palenville, New York in the Catskill Mountains overlooking the Hudson River Valley, built in 1824. In its prime, from the 1850s to the turn of the century, it was visited by three U.S. presidents The Catskill Mountain House was a famous hotel...
was built at the spot. DeWitt Clinton
DeWitt Clinton
DeWitt Clinton was an early American politician and naturalist who served as United States Senator and the sixth Governor of New York. In this last capacity he was largely responsible for the construction of the Erie Canal...
was an early visitor. In 1824, the Hunter Turnpike, forerunner of today's Route 23A, was cut through Kaaterskill Clove, making the whole area more accessible. Otherwise, the area remained the same undeveloped wilderness
Wilderness
Wilderness or wildland is a natural environment on Earth that has not been significantly modified by human activity. It may also be defined as: "The most intact, undisturbed wild natural areas left on our planet—those last truly wild places that humans do not control and have not developed with...
Bartram had explored.
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
named Thomas Cole
Thomas Cole
Thomas Cole was an English-born American artist. He is regarded as the founder of the Hudson River School, an American art movement that flourished in the mid-19th century...
, who visited the Catskills in 1825 and stayed at the new hotel. Struck by its wildness and the many scenic views both from the Escarpment and of it, he took sketches of the area and returned several times to get more. The Catskills had been a subject of art since the 1730s, but the landscapes
Landscape art
Landscape art is a term that covers the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, and especially art where the main subject is a wide view, with its elements arranged into a coherent composition. In other works landscape backgrounds for figures can still...
Cole eventually painted caused a sensation back in New York, with John Trumbull
John Trumbull
John Trumbull was an American artist during the period of the American Revolutionary War and was notable for his historical paintings...
observing that Cole "has done what I have all my life attempted in vain". Other artists like Asher Durand and Frederick Church
Frederic Edwin Church
Frederic Edwin Church was an American landscape painter born in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a central figure in the Hudson River School of American landscape painters...
began following Cole up the Hudson, and their similarly-styled Romantic
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
renderings of the region, called the Hudson River school
Hudson River school
The Hudson River School was a mid-19th century American art movement embodied by a group of landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by romanticism...
after a critic's derisive remark, became the young nation's first native art movement.
Hotel era
Poet William Cullen BryantWilliam Cullen Bryant
William Cullen Bryant was an American romantic poet, journalist, and long-time editor of the New York Evening Post.-Youth and education:...
similarly used his art to glorify the Catskills, helping to create interest in the region as a tourist
Tourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...
destination. Steamboat
Steamboat
A steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels...
service up the Hudson, and later the railroads, made it even more accessible from New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Charles Beach took over a failing Catskill Mountain House in 1846 and turned it into one of mid-19th century America's most exclusive resorts, visited by presidents and other dignitaries. Guests explored the area, following paths and trails that still exist, to visit Kaaterskill Falls and other scenic spots.
In the 1880s, the hotels started to lose their luster. The Catskills had already been displaced as New York's highest mountains by Mount Marcy
Mount Marcy
Mount Marcy is the highest point in New York State, with an elevation of . It is a popular destination for hikers due to its stature and great views, and the peak can get very crowded in the summer months...
and other Adirondack High Peaks; in 1879 Princeton
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
geology professor Arnold Guyot, a regular summer guest at the Mountain House since the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, announced that not only were the so-called "Shandaken
Shandaken, New York
Shandaken is a town in Ulster County, New York, United States. United States. As of the 2000 census, the town had a total population of 3,235. The name is from a native phrase for "land of rapid waters."...
Mountains" in Ulster County to the southwest geologically continuous with the Catskills, one of them, Slide Mountain, was at 4180 feet (1,274.1 m) the highest peak in the entire range, instead of the Escarpment's Kaaterskill High Peak
Kaaterskill High Peak
Kaaterskill High Peak is one of the Catskill Mountains, located in the Town of Hunter in Greene County, New York, USA. It was once believed to be the highest peak in the entire range, but its summit, at 3,655 feet in elevation, places it only 23rd among the Catskill High Peaks. It is, however,...
. He had also found that the Mountain House itself was not as high as Beach claimed. Beach and the other Escarpment resort owners tried to discredit Guyot and his findings, but within years they had verified by others.
A few years later, in 1885, the state legislature responded to increasing concerns that rampant logging in the Adirondacks
Adirondack Mountains
The Adirondack Mountains are a mountain range located in the northeastern part of New York, that runs through Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Hamilton, Herkimer, Lewis, Saint Lawrence, Saratoga, Warren, and Washington counties....
might cause erosion that would silt up the Erie Canal
Erie Canal
The Erie Canal is a waterway in New York that runs about from Albany, New York, on the Hudson River to Buffalo, New York, at Lake Erie, completing a navigable water route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes. The canal contains 36 locks and encompasses a total elevation differential of...
and make it unnavigable by creating the Forest Preserve
Forest Preserve (New York)
New York's Forest Preserve is all the land owned by the state within the Adirondack and Catskill parks, managed by its Department of Environmental Conservation. These properties are required to be kept "forever wild" by Article 14 of the state constitution, and thus enjoy the highest degree of...
, under which any state land in several counties was to be left "forever wild". The Catskills were included in a later, revised version of the bill
Bill (proposed law)
A bill is a proposed law under consideration by a legislature. A bill does not become law until it is passed by the legislature and, in most cases, approved by the executive. Once a bill has been enacted into law, it is called an act or a statute....
, when the Ulster County delegation saw a chance to take some tax-delinquent properties, and the county's obligations to the state, off the counties' hands. In 1894 the legislature and voters responded to loopholes in the legislation by writing it into the state constitution, where it has remained as Article 14 ever since.
While this had no immediate effect on the hoteliers, other trends of the era began producing a decline in guests at the Escarpment hotels. Expansions of the railroad network meant that the wealthy guests who had previously been content to go to the Mountain House or Kaaterskill instead went to their own great camps
Great Camps
Great camps refer to the grandiose family compounds of cabins that were built in the latter half of the nineteenth century on lakes in the Adirondacks such as Spitfire Lake and Rainbow Lake. The camps were summer homes for the wealthy, where they could relax, host or attend parties, and enjoy the...
in the Adirondacks, or to other mountainous or coastal regions. Competing hotels in areas further inland now recognized as being in the Catskills claimed to offer a more genuine mountain experience, and purer air, to their guests. The guests who did come tended to stay for shorter periods, mainly hot weekends in the summer. Beach and the Mountain House made a long-planned joint venture to build an incline railway up the Escarpment to the hotel a reality in 1892, but it cut into their profits.
20th century
The state made its first significant purchases along the Escarpment in 1900, with parcels along the ridgetop north of Blackhead. Beach, who had finally dropped his resistance to Jewish guests and electricity, died in 1902 and left his hotel to his sons. The roads up the cloves were paved to accommodate the then-new automobile. Since guests could then more easily reach the newer resorts further into the mountains, the Mountain House continued to suffer. The incline railroad was shut down in 1918. When the Hotel Kaaterskill burned down in 1924, it was not rebuilt.The next year the state acquired Stoppel Point, complementing its purchase of Kaaterskill High Peak, most of Overlook, Plattekill and Roundtop in 1921, which had capped two decades of acquisitions on the northern Escarpment. It closed in on the Mountain House with the purchase of South Mountain and the former Kaaterskill site as the decade ended, and the son-in-law who now owned the Mountain House had to sell most of the tract to the state to make ends meet.
Despite the onset of the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, the Mountain House struggled through a few years, closing for a while, then reopening for one final season in 1942 under new ownership. New owners also began building a third Overlook Hotel in 1927 and continued throughout the 1930s; however, their supplies were stolen during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and the project was abandoned. Its decaying frame remains near the mountain's summit.
There were some attempts to revive the Mountain House after the war, and preservationists
Historic preservation
Historic preservation is an endeavor that seeks to preserve, conserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artifacts of historical significance...
urged that it be restored
Building restoration
Building restoration describes a particular treatment approach and philosophy within the field of architectural conservation. According the U.S...
as an architectural treasure. But the increasingly decrepit building was becoming hazardous to the hikers who explored it, and after the state acquired the building and the lands around it in 1962, the then-Conservation Department
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation is responsible for the conservation, improvement, and protection of natural resources within the U.S. state of New York. It was founded in 1970, replacing the previous Conservation Department...
burned it down early the next year. Only its stone gateposts remain. Five years later the Laurel House was demolished as well.
Trail blazing
Trail blazing, or trailblazing, is the practice of marking paths in outdoor recreational areas with blazes, markings that follow each other at certain — though not necessarily exactly defined — distances and mark the direction of the trail...
old roads and paths throughout the range. Today the Forest Preserve along the Escarpment is divided into several different management units and administered according to the Catskill State Land Master Plan.
Natural environment
The forests of the Escarpment reflect their history, location and topographyTopography
Topography is the study of Earth's surface shape and features or those ofplanets, moons, and asteroids...
. The retreat of the glaciers, particularly on the ridgetops and northern and eastern slopes, scoured the rock, further distressing the growing environment on what are the Catskills' steepest and most exposed slopes. As a result the coniferous
Pinophyta
The conifers, division Pinophyta, also known as division Coniferophyta or Coniferae, are one of 13 or 14 division level taxa within the Kingdom Plantae. Pinophytes are gymnosperms. They are cone-bearing seed plants with vascular tissue; all extant conifers are woody plants, the great majority being...
evergreen
Evergreen
In botany, an evergreen plant is a plant that has leaves in all seasons. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which completely lose their foliage during the winter or dry season.There are many different kinds of evergreen plants, both trees and shrubs...
species characteristic of boreal forests such as red spruce
Red Spruce
Picea rubens is a species of spruce native to eastern North America, ranging from eastern Quebec to Nova Scotia, and from New England south in the Adirondack Mountains and Appalachians to western North Carolina.-Physical description:...
and the balsam fir
Balsam Fir
The balsam fir is a North American fir, native to most of eastern and central Canada and the northeastern United States .-Growth:It is a small to medium-size evergreen tree typically tall, rarely to tall, with a narrow conic crown...
Bartram sought appear in much higher concentrations, and at lower elevations, then they do elsewhere in the Catskills. The summit of North Mountain, at 3,180 feet (970 m) above sea level, is covered in boreal forest, the lowest Catskill summit of which this is true. While there are no true alpine
Alpine climate
Alpine climate is the average weather for a region above the tree line. This climate is also referred to as mountain climate or highland climate....
zones in the Catskills, Kudish has found the only areas in the range which come close along the Escarpment at elevations between 2260 and 2720 ft (688.8 and 829.1 m) along the Escarpment as it rises from lakes to North Mountain. These are exposed ridgetops where three-toothed cinquefoil, and in one mountain sandwort
Minuartia groenlandica
Minuartia groenlandica, the Greenland stitchwort or mountain stitchwort, is a rare perennial which grows low to the ground in clumps linked together at the bottom. It has three to five pairs of leaves in a linear opposite pattern along the length of the slender stem. The main stem breaks into one...
, is found. Since those species are shade-intolerant, it suggests that the sites have not reforested since the end of glaciation.
At lower elevations, the many fires that have raged over the region have left it with a mixed forest
Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests
Mixed forests are a temperate and humid biome. The typical structure of these forests includes four layers. The uppermost layer is the canopy composed of tall mature trees ranging from 33 to 66 m high. Below the canopy is the three-layered, shade-tolerant understory that is roughly 9 to...
where oak
Oak
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...
and pine
Pine
Pines are trees in the genus Pinus ,in the family Pinaceae. They make up the monotypic subfamily Pinoideae. There are about 115 species of pine, although different authorities accept between 105 and 125 species.-Etymology:...
predominate. Several large areas of Norway spruce
Norway Spruce
Norway Spruce is a species of spruce native to Europe. It is also commonly referred to as the European Spruce.- Description :...
were planted on the north slopes of Windham High Peak
Windham High Peak
Windham High Peak is a mountain located in Greene County, New York.The mountain is part of the Catskill Mountains.Windham High Peak stands within the watershed of the Hudson River, which drains into New York Bay....
during reforestation
Reforestation
Reforestation is the natural or intentional restocking of existing forests and woodlands that have been depleted, usually through deforestation....
efforts following state land acquisitions in the 1930s. Due to the history of fires and logging
Logging
Logging is the cutting, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks.In forestry, the term logging is sometimes used in a narrow sense concerning the logistics of moving wood from the stump to somewhere outside the forest, usually a sawmill or a lumber yard...
on the northern sections of the range, there are very few areas of first-growth
Old growth forest
An old-growth forest is a forest that has attained great age , and thereby exhibits unique ecological features. An old growth forest has also usually reached a climax community...
remaining outside of the boreal plots. The largest is the summit of Blackhead
Blackhead (New York)
Blackhead is a mountain located in Greene County, New York.The mountain is part of the Blackhead range of the Catskill Mountains.Blackhead is flanked to the northeast by Black Dome....
; the largest hardwood first-growth is likewise the 0.9 square miles (233.1 ha) around the summit of Windham High Peak. The Eastern hemlock
Eastern Hemlock
Tsuga canadensis, also known as eastern or Canadian hemlock, and in the French-speaking regions of Canada as pruche du Canada, is a coniferous tree native to eastern North America. It ranges from northeastern Minnesota eastward through southern Quebec to Nova Scotia, and south in the Appalachian...
s around Spruce Creek below Kaaterskill Falls are also a virgin stand. They survived the era when tanners
Tanning
Tanning is the making of leather from the skins of animals which does not easily decompose. Traditionally, tanning used tannin, an acidic chemical compound from which the tanning process draws its name . Coloring may occur during tanning...
sought the species for the tannin
Tannin
A tannin is an astringent, bitter plant polyphenolic compound that binds to and precipitates proteins and various other organic compounds including amino acids and alkaloids.The term tannin refers to the use of...
in its bark since the steep and perilous nature of that terrain made them too difficult to profitably extract. It and many of the other ravines draining into Kaaterskill Clove also support some plants species rare in New York State, such as roseroot stonecrop
Rhodiola rosea
Rhodiola rosea is a plant in the Crassulaceae family that grows in cold regions of the world. These include much of the Arctic, the mountains of Central Asia, the Rocky Mountains, and mountainous parts of Europe, such as the Alps, Pyrenees, Carpathian Mountains, Scandinavia, Iceland, Great...
and fragrant cliff fern (listed as threatened
Threatened species
Threatened species are any speciesg animals, plants, fungi, etc.) which are vulnerable to endangerment in the near future.The World Conservation Union is the foremost authority on threatened species, and treats threatened species not as a single category, but as a group of three categories,...
and endangered
Endangered species
An endangered species is a population of organisms which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters...
at the state level, respectively).
Dominant fauna of the Escarpment are the species found elsewhere in the Catskills: white-tailed deer
White-tailed Deer
The white-tailed deer , also known as the Virginia deer or simply as the whitetail, is a medium-sized deer native to the United States , Canada, Mexico, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru...
, porcupine
Porcupine
Porcupines are rodents with a coat of sharp spines, or quills, that defend or camouflage them from predators. They are indigenous to the Americas, southern Asia, and Africa. Porcupines are the third largest of the rodents, behind the capybara and the beaver. Most porcupines are about long, with...
, fisher
Fisher (animal)
The fisher is a medium-size mammal native to North America. It is a member of the mustelid family, commonly referred to as the weasel family. The fisher is closely related to but larger than the American Marten...
, black bear
American black bear
The American black bear is a medium-sized bear native to North America. It is the continent's smallest and most common bear species. Black bears are omnivores, with their diets varying greatly depending on season and location. They typically live in largely forested areas, but do leave forests in...
and snowshoe hare
Snowshoe Hare
The Snowshoe Hare , also called the Varying Hare, or Snowshoe Rabbit, is a species of hare found in North America. It has the name "snowshoe" because of the large size of its hind feet and the marks its tail leaves. The animal's feet prevent it from sinking into the snow when it hops and walks...
. There have been some rare bobcat
Bobcat
The bobcat is a North American mammal of the cat family Felidae, appearing during the Irvingtonian stage of around 1.8 million years ago . With twelve recognized subspecies, it ranges from southern Canada to northern Mexico, including most of the continental United States...
sightings up on the ridge. Bird species like the rare Bicknell's thrush
Bicknell's Thrush
The Bicknell's Thrush, Catharus bicknelli, is a medium-sized thrush, at 17.5 cm and 28 g . It was named after Eugene Bicknell, an American amateur ornithologist, who discovered the species on Slide Mountain in the Catskills in the late 19th century.Adults are olive-brown on the upperparts,...
and ruffed grouse
Ruffed Grouse
The Ruffed Grouse is a medium-sized grouse occurring in forests from the Appalachian Mountains across Canada to Alaska. It is non-migratory.The Ruffed Grouse is frequently referred to as a "partridge"...
nest in the boreal forests. A few rattlesnake
Crotalus horridus
Crotalus horridus, the timber rattlesnake, is a species of venomous pitviper found in the eastern United States. This is the only rattlesnake species in most of the populous northeastern United States. No subspecies are currently recognized....
dens are known to exist on the rocky ledges of Overlook at the southern end of the range. The paucity of water on the ridgetops and the slopes means that there are few major fish or amphibian species in the Escarpment, save around North-South Lake.
Protected areas
Most of the Escarpment, including all its mountaintops and ridges, has been acquired by the state and added to the Forest PreserveForest Preserve (New York)
New York's Forest Preserve is all the land owned by the state within the Adirondack and Catskill parks, managed by its Department of Environmental Conservation. These properties are required to be kept "forever wild" by Article 14 of the state constitution, and thus enjoy the highest degree of...
, requiring that it be kept forever wild. Private land is found only in the cloves, where some of it is also protected
Protected area
Protected areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognised natural, ecological and/or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the enabling laws of each country or the regulations of the international...
. The Forest Preserve lands are divided into management units by the state Department of Environmental Conservation
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation is responsible for the conservation, improvement, and protection of natural resources within the U.S. state of New York. It was founded in 1970, replacing the previous Conservation Department...
(DEC). Initially all of the state lands save North-South Lake Public Campground were classified as Wild Forests, a protection level unique to New York that is slightly less restrictive than wilderness. In 2008 an updated Catskill State Land Master Plan combined the North Mountain, Windham High Peak and Blackhead Range
Blackhead Range
The Blackhead Mountains range is located near the northern end of the Catskill Mountains, in Greene County, New York, where it divides the towns of Windham and Jewett...
Wild Forests into one new unit, the Windham-Blackhead Range Wilderness. Two old roads through the Escarpment were also given a new classification, Primitive Bicycle Corridor, to accommodate mountain bike
Mountain bike
A mountain bike or mountain bicycle is a bicycle created for off-road cycling. This activity includes traversing of rocks and washouts, and steep declines,...
s.
From north to south, the areas are:
- Overlook Turnpike Primitive Bicycle Corridor: The road up Overlook Mountain and past Plattekill Mountain to the end of Prediger Road in the Town of HunterHunter (town), New YorkHunter is a town in Greene County, New York. The population was 2,732 at the 2010 census.The Town of Hunter contain two villages one named Hunter and the other called Tannersville. The town is on the County's south border.- History :...
. - Overlook Mountain Wild Forest: 590 acres (238.8 ha) around the road up Overlook and the mountain's summit.
- Indian Head Wilderness Area. Eastern section of the wilderness area that includes the entire Devil's PathDevil's Path (Catskills)The Devil's Path is the name of a mountain range and hiking trail in the Greene County portion of New York's Catskill Mountains. The mountains commonly considered to be part of the Devil's Path are, from west to east, West Kill, Hunter, Plateau, Sugarloaf, Twin, and Indian Head.The name comes from...
located on the Escarpment. Includes Echo Lake, the only significant body of water in a Catskill wilderness area. - Platte Clove Preserve. A 288 acres (116.5 ha) tract owned by the Catskill Center for Conservation and DevelopmentCatskill Center for Conservation and DevelopmentThe Catskill Center for Conservation and Development, usually referred to as the Catskill Center, is a not-for-profit organization based in Arkville, New York, United States...
at the head of the clove. The only privately-owned protected area in the Escarpment. - Kaaterskill Wild Forest This 8550 acres (3,460.1 ha) management unit includes all the state land on Kaaterskill High PeakKaaterskill High PeakKaaterskill High Peak is one of the Catskill Mountains, located in the Town of Hunter in Greene County, New York, USA. It was once believed to be the highest peak in the entire range, but its summit, at 3,655 feet in elevation, places it only 23rd among the Catskill High Peaks. It is, however,...
, and, in the updated plan, the Kaaterskill Clove and South Mountain areas including Kaaterskill FallsKaaterskill FallsKaaterskill Falls is a two-drop waterfall located near in the eastern Catskill Mountains of New York, on the north side of Kaaterskill Clove, between the hamlets of Haines Falls and Palenville in Greene County's Town of Hunter...
. - North Lake-South Lake State Campground. The 1100 acres (445.2 ha) former site of the Mountain House and other hotels is the most-visited section of the Escarpment, with over two hundred campsites.
- Windham-Blackhead Range Wilderness. Created in the updated master plan from the merger of three smaller Wild Forests. Its 17100 acres (6,920.1 ha) surround the Big Hollow Valley and include the Escarpment from North Point to past Windham high Peak.
- Colgate Lake/Dutcher Notch Primitive Bicycle Corridor: The 2.4 miles (3.9 km) old road from the lake through the notch and down the east side of the Escarpment.
- Elm Ridge Wild Forest: Formerly part of the Windham High Peak Wild Forest, this 1355 acres (548.3 ha) unit occupies the north end of the Escarpment within the Catskill Park.
Recreational use
All the Escarpment's public lands are available for passive recreation such as hikingHiking
Hiking is an outdoor activity which consists of walking in natural environments, often in mountainous or other scenic terrain. People often hike on hiking trails. It is such a popular activity that there are numerous hiking organizations worldwide. The health benefits of different types of hiking...
, camping
Camping
Camping is an outdoor recreational activity. The participants leave urban areas, their home region, or civilization and enjoy nature while spending one or several nights outdoors, usually at a campsite. Camping may involve the use of a tent, caravan, motorhome, cabin, a primitive structure, or no...
and birding. Hunting
Hunting
Hunting is the practice of pursuing any living thing, usually wildlife, for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to applicable law...
and fishing
Angling
Angling is a method of fishing by means of an "angle" . The hook is usually attached to a fishing line and the line is often attached to a fishing rod. Fishing rods are usually fitted with a fishing reel that functions as a mechanism for storing, retrieving and paying out the line. The hook itself...
are permitted within season and as otherwise regulated by the state. Unpowered boating
Boating
Boating is the leisurely activity of travelling by boat, or the recreational use of a boat whether powerboats, sailboats, or man-powered vessels , focused on the travel itself, as well as sports activities, such as fishing or water skiing...
is permitted on Echo and North-South lakes.
Use is free except for North-South Lake Public Campground, for which a $8 fee is charged per vehicle in season (Campers are also charged $22 for the site). In return, heavier-impact camping and activities are allowed, and greater services are provided to visitors. There is also a 12-mile (18 km) snowmobile
Snowmobile
A snowmobile, also known in some places as a snowmachine, or sled,is a land vehicle for winter travel on snow. Designed to be operated on snow and ice, they require no road or trail. Design variations enable some machines to operate in deep snow or forests; most are used on open terrain, including...
loop trail around Kaaterskill High Peak and Round Top.
The Escarpment has many hiking trail
Trail
A trail is a path with a rough beaten or dirt/stone surface used for travel. Trails may be for use only by walkers and in some places are the main access route to remote settlements...
s. Foremost among them is the 22.3 miles (35.9 km) Escarpment Trail, which begins at Schutt Road just outside the campground gate. From there it goes north to Route 23, climbing over Stoppel Point, Blackhead and Windham High Peak along the way. All but the southernmost 2.5 miles (4 km) are also part of the Long Path
Long Path
The Long Path is a long-distance hiking trail beginning at the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee, New Jersey and currently ending at Altamont, New York, in the Albany area...
long-distance trail, which itself traverses Kaaterskill High Peak and descends Kaaterskill Clove to near Palenville and then reascends to join the Escarpment Trail. Backpackers
Backpacking (wilderness)
Backpacking combines the activities of hiking and camping for an overnight stay in backcountry wilderness...
starting near Woodstock can use the trail up that mountain to hike the entire Escarpment, connecting to the Long Path between Indian Head and Plattekill mountains.
Other trails climb the ridge, all from the west with the exception of the Dutcher Notch Trail. They mainly provide access to the Escarpment Trail, except for the old trails around the Mountain House property at North-South Lake which provide short connections and loop trips between the campground and various sections of the Escarpment Trail. The most popular trail in the entire Catskills is the short trail up to Kaaterskill Falls from Route 23A, formerly the southernmost section of the Escarpment Trail until it was closed above the falls for safety reasons.
External links
- Hiking trails of the northern Catskill Escarpment
- Virtual hike of North-South Lake from the CCCD
- Escarpment Trail Run, event held annually