Overlooks in the Catskills, October 2013

Overlooks and vistas in the Catskills aren't like the ones I've experienced in other states. The roads and towns in the Catskills are located in the valleys, so getting a view from the top takes a bit of work. The three shortest hikes to overlooks I could find were the mile-long Tanbark Trail, four miles for the Giant Ledges, and six miles for the top of Slide Mountain, highest in the range. After my fall on the Tanbark I decided to leave the others for another day. So most of my vistas were from the valleys, and consisting of pull offs on the road.

One of the better ones was Palmer Hill, past Arkville on Route 28, the main east-west highway in the central Catskills. It had some rise, and there were several nice angles for photos.

The pulloffs on Route 28 I found to be boring, but one on Route 30 a few miles from the intersection of the highways was promising. However, I arrived late in the day and the light wasn't very good. When I am next in the area I'll have to visit again.








Side roads were hit and miss, and I didn't want to spend hours driving up and down mountains on gravel looking for vistas that might not be there. However, I did find two while headed elsewhere.

This photo was taken from the car. There was no pull off, but the road was quiet, and so I rolled down the driver's window and fired away. I was above the town of Fleishmann's - I don't remember the road.



Much of the Catskills is private land, and I generally respect property rights. However, while driving around I glimpsed a vista through a strip of trees. I parked the car, walked through an opening in the stone fence, and saw this. The owner hadn't posted "No Trespassing" anywhere I could see, and he had cut a short trail through the meadow. I took it, and took 50 photos from various angles. Because its private land I won't disclose where it is. Whoever the owner is, thank you.