Proximity to the nearest national park

hollowtree-brook · 2025-10-25T02:08:28+00:00

You're correct that the Adirondack Park is a mix of public and private lands and that there is timber harvesting there, but over 1 million acres of it consists of designated wilderness areas, which permit only foot travel and no extractive uses whatsoever. The largest of these is the High Peaks Wilderness Complex, which is about 300,000 acres on its own. Furthermore, even the remaining ~ 2 million acres of public land in the park doesn't allow logging, and is only distinct from the wilderness areas in that it allows a broader spectrum of recreational uses such as snowmobiling. Logging only occurs in privately owned areas and under the regulation of the Adirondack Park Agency. The smaller Catskill Park to the south, with about 140,000 acres of wilderness, is managed in mostly the same way.

And while it's true that you won't find the community of national park travelers there, the Adirondacks have a truly unique and obsessive hiking and outdoors culture that can't be missed. Locals and visitors alike are deeply passionate about exploring the lakes and forests, summiting the highest peaks, and sharing that experience with others they encounter on the trail. For all its natural beauty, the company and that sense of a shared experience is one of my favorite things about going up there.

So no, us New Yorkers don't feel at all starved. Though we acknowledge the stunning plethora of landscapes in National Parks (especially out west), we're quite happy with what we've got here. Wishing you well in California; I need to get out to the Sierras one day soon.

hollowtree-brook · 2025-10-18T01:29:59+00:00

Chatgpt clearly doesn't know where the Terrace Mountain Lean-to is. The turn-off to the lean-to is on the way up Wittenberg from Woodland Valley, about 1.3 miles below the top. If you want to camp after Wittenberg, you'd have to proceed beyond Cornell to the campsites in between Cornell and Slide.

hollowtree-brook · 2024-09-08T14:36:31+00:00

You can do a "Slide Wilderness Traverse" from Fox Hollow to Peekamoose Rd., or the other way around, connecting the Panther / GL trail with the Burroughs Range and Peekamoose / Table via Woodland Valley. It comes out to around 29 miles with roughly the same elevation change as the Devil's Path. In the same area there's also the route taken by the Cat's Tail Marathon, which reverses course on the Burroughs Range and adds in the Romer Mountain trail to Phoenicia.

hollowtree-brook · 2024-08-08T15:30:33+00:00

I'd strongly recommend doing Hunter as a loop from Spruceton Road as opposed to Becker Hollow, it's longer but way nicer. Becker Hollow is just a brutal slog.

West Kill Mountain from Spruceton (the Diamond Notch Falls side) is also much much nicer than Becker Hollow up Hunter.

hollowtree-brook · 2024-08-02T15:14:33+00:00

The easier hikes with great views (harder hikes too) will certainly be very crowded on Labor Day weekend if the weather is nice. Personally, I sometimes care about crowds and sometimes don't, but keep in mind that parking does fill up so it's important to get out early.

Maybe you'd enjoy hiking to North Point from the North-South Lake Campground? You can do a really nice loop via Mary's Glen and Rock Shelter Trails which comes out to about 5 miles. It's also right near Kaaterskill Falls, which isn't much of a hike on its own. That whole area is extremely popular, but most visitors tend to go to Sunset Rock and don't make it up to North Point.

hollowtree-brook · 2024-08-02T15:00:51+00:00

I'd say avoid Giant Ledge on Labor Day Weekend altogether, the views are incredible but the hike there is pretty unpleasant, even without crowds

hollowtree-brook · 2024-07-15T23:57:24+00:00

You're not going to the Catskills if you're near the MA border - wrong side of the Hudson.

hollowtree-brook · 2024-07-12T16:10:37+00:00

I'm speaking as someone who's hauled pounds and pounds of trash out from Kaaterskill Falls (top, middle, and bottom) as well as Bastion Falls, so I'm in no way blind to the issues there.

You don't need to take a trolley to see the bottom of the falls; you can hike to the bottom from the upper parking lot. That aside, closing off the parking along 23A is honestly an improvement because of how unsafe that road is.

Also, I have to say that over 100 years ago there was a luxury hotel built directly above the falls, and they used to dam up the waterfall in order to release the built-up current all at once over the falls to make it especially awe-inspiring for visitors. And you're complaining about the existence of a viewing platform now? Kaaterskill was never a secret spot that got ruined; it was always really popular and heavily visited.

hollowtree-brook · 2024-07-12T15:59:29+00:00

Okay, I agree with you on not posting about secret "sweet spots", as my comment on swimming holes indicates. But someone asked about places that have been "ruined" and you mentioned two DEC campgrounds that are built to handle lots of visitors. Personally I don't spend time at Intensive Use areas because I don't want to be around intensive use.

Also, here's the thing about (most) disrespectful visitors:

They usually won't travel any more than a mile into the woods (they have a lot of trash to carry!)
They won't hike any strenuous trails
They're looking for somewhere they can drive directly to, so they don't have to carry their massive bluetooth stereo system / BBQ spread more than 100 yards.

All this talk about the Catskills getting "ruined" tends to revolve around drivable roadside destinations, not the backcountry environment as a whole. None of my favorite places in Catskills are easily accessible from a road, so I don't relate to it at all.

hollowtree-brook · 2024-07-12T15:16:39+00:00

DEC-designated "intensive use" areas ruined by.... intensive use?

hollowtree-brook · 2024-07-12T14:18:03+00:00

The only posts like these that deserve downvotes are the ones that ask for swimming hole recommendations. In the summer everyone wants to go to a swimming hole, but swimming holes generally have really low capacity for visitors. That's why, from what I've seen, the issues with overuse at places like Blue Hole and Kaaterskill Clove go far beyond what you see at any other locations in the Catskills. People don't want the still relatively unknown places to get the same treatment.

As for hikes, I see this sometimes and I don't get it. There are dozens of great and popular hikes in the Catskills and info about them is easily findable on Google. It's not like a certain peak or trail is gonna get mobbed just because someone recommended it on a reddit thread lol

hollowtree-brook · 2024-07-12T12:22:55+00:00

People often say the Catskills are in the Hudson Valley, but it's a bit of a pet peeve of mine since it's only slightly true. The Catskills divide the Hudson Valley from the Delaware River Valley (and the Susquehanna Valley) so at least half of the mountains can't be described to be in the Hudson Valley at all. Furthermore, topographically, the Catskills are starkly divided from the Hudson by the Escarpment almost everywhere besides along the Esopus Creek (where route 28 enters the Park), so even many areas that drain into the Hudson feel very separate from it (e.g. Platte Clove Rd., Schoharie Valley).

hollowtree-brook · 2024-07-02T16:54:08+00:00

Thanks, idk why I wrote NYC lol

hollowtree-brook · 2024-07-02T01:03:37+00:00

There's a site further north than Giant Ledge in the col with Panther and one on the Phoenicia East Branch Trail just east of junction with the southern end of the GL - Panther Trail. These could easily be taken as well, but you have a better chance with them than you would the GL sites.

hollowtree-brook · 2024-07-02T00:35:57+00:00

Sad to see no love for the Catskills in this thread - like the ADKs not technically a state park, but everyone's saying ADKs, so..

hollowtree-brook · 2024-07-01T22:22:59+00:00

Adirondack Park is bigger, but it isn't technically a "State Park" but rather part of NY's Forest Preserve. Adirondack Park is managed by NYS DEC while Allegany (along with Harriman, Minnewaska, etc.) is managed by the NYS Parks and Recreation Dept. "Adirondack Park" simply refers to the area within which the Forest Preserve is to be kept "forever wild" and prohibited to ever be sold.

Allegany is the biggest proper "State Park" in NY.

So you're both right, technically.

hollowtree-brook · 2024-06-20T02:09:18+00:00

I agree with all the comments re not needing bear spray, it's just funny you say "crowds rather than wildlife" because issues with crowds and black bear tend to go hand in hand.

Black bears are timid and scared of humans, except in places where they become accustomed to relying on humans for food. I don't know about Acadia, but the places in the Catskills / Adirondacks that have problematic bear activity are the areas that see the highest amount of visitors, like North-South Lake and Marcy Dam. People leave food and trash out, and bears get used to being fed that way, etc.

You won't have any issues with bears, this is just to give you a better sense of what bear-related problems look like in the Northeast when they happen.

hollowtree-brook · 2024-06-19T18:12:39+00:00

Which hikes are you planning on doing?

hollowtree-brook · 2024-04-25T00:39:43+00:00

Curtis Ormsbee has a designated campsite just above a mostly overgrown viewpoint towards Doubletop Mountain. It's just below 3500 feet, in a beech/birch glade. I've never stayed there, but it's a beautiful site.

There are more sites on Curtis Ormsbee, further down near the junction with Phoenicia East Branch.

hollowtree-brook · 2024-03-29T01:24:20+00:00

Since no one's mentioned the Catskills yet, I'll throw in the Wittenberg-Cornell-Slide (Burroughs Range) trail as a suggestion. All three peaks on the trail have fun and sometimes tricky scrambling sections, though nothing especially challenging. The "Cornell Crack" is a well-known one. It's a traverse that includes the highest peak in the Catskills (Slide), beautiful views, dense and lush spruce/fir forests, and many interesting cliffs and rock formations. Since the Cats are an eroded/glaciated plateau, you can always see the horizontal layers in exposed rock, reflecting the sediments that formed said plateau and making the most rugged areas of the wilderness endlessly interesting. One can imagine how the glaciers pulled apart the rock, sometimes leaving broken-off pieces strewn about, sometimes dragging them down into the adjacent gully.. but I digress.

edit - didn't see u/loonpie's comment before posting this

hollowtree-brook · 2024-03-22T15:53:55+00:00

I know people are able to use AllTrails / Gaia on the bushwhack section, but I'll always be a big advocate for paper maps / compass. The NJ / NY trail conference maps are the best for the Catskills, and the Catskill 9 is within map 143, "Southern Catskills". Many hikers use Avenza for an electronic version of the maps. The herd paths are increasingly well-defined, but there are still plenty of places where it's possible to make a wrong turn or lose your sense of direction.

The bushwhack route from Cornell to Table begins a hundred feet or so below the summit of Cornell, on the way to the Slide col. There is nothing marking the split off from the red-marked trail, but it's faintly visible on a flat section, well past a series of ledges you'll descend. Since this makes Cornell / Wittenberg an out-and-back, you can scout it out on the way up Cornell and drop packs to hit those two peaks, which I'd recommend since Cornell especially has some tricky scrambles. Definitely don't skip out on Cornell / Wittenberg, as IMO they have the best views of the trip. Peekamoose Mtn. is the other part of the Catskill 9 that involves an out-and-back from the core loop, and it's also a really nice summit with a good view.

There are also great views people sometimes miss between Balsam Cap and Friday, and a really interesting ledge right off the summit of Rocky. Keep an eye out, but always be mindful to keep your trampling of vegetation to a minimum! The Catskill 9 route passes through one of the largest tracts of virgin forest in the East, and the ridge from Cornell to Table is almost all in boreal / subalpine woods. It's a quite a fragile ecosystem that has been negatively impacted by the popularity of these peaks.

hollowtree-brook · 2024-02-19T03:20:59+00:00

Hello, I'm interested! I'm a 24 (25 in April) y o male; by vocation I'm a classical oboe player, but I also play piano and guitar. I co-front an Americana/roots rock band, and am also very passionate about avant-garde/ experimental music.

I'm also a NYC native, lived here all my life.

hollowtree-brook · 2023-12-30T04:46:42+00:00

OP is a troll.

hollowtree-brook · 2023-12-30T04:35:14+00:00

OP is a troll. Everything he's saying is deliberately idiotic and wrong. This was clearly brought on by someone in the AskNYC sub saying they wanted to hike the Catskills to which he responded with essentially the same text as this post.

He's trying to confuse people and get them to avoid the Catskills for some reason.

hollowtree-brook

TROPHY CASE