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A long difficult loop with several entry/exit points — but no easy bail-out points.

Hiking Trail Description

The Huckleberry Loop Trail is the only true loop hike in the Catskills. It’s long and difficult and deeply rewarding. You likely don’t know about this hike, but you absolutely should.

Catskills hikers tend to be focussed on The Catskills 3500 Challenge. But Huckleberry Loop is a prime example of how much the Catskills have to offer hikers “off-list”. While this route is not on most people’s radar, it might be my favorite trail in the entire Catskills.

So far, I’ve hiked Huckleberry Loop twice — once in June and once in September — and both times I’ve had an intensely special experience. I’m committed to hiking this trail in every month of the year.

When I first completed the trail in 2021, I had such an amazing experience that, actually, I began to doubt it was truly as amazing as it seemed. I was so blown away, I thought that maybe I’d had some kind of weird mental experience unrelated to the qualities of the trail. LOL.

But I hiked it again in 2022 and now I’m certain: this hike really is an amazing experience!

BTW, a week later, a friend also did the loop and texted me from the trail, “This is the most beautiful hike in the Catskills.” Indeed.

This hike is for the soul.

If you hike this hike — however it went, good or bad — I’m deeply interested in hearing about your experience. Comment below or shoot me a DM on Instagram.

BTW, you might also enjoy…

ADK › Whiteface Mountain via Marble Mountain
DANGER › 6 Feet Under? How Our Adirondack Hike Turned Deadly Serious (Substack)
ADK › Hurricane Mountain Fire Tower
CATSKILLS › Catskills Fire Tower Challenge 2025

Follow › My Instagram @TotalCatskills
Follow › My writing for Times Union

Table of Contents

Parking for Huckleberry Loop Trail

Bear with me, because I have strong opinions on the best place to begin and end this route.

There are two lots on Huckleberry Brook Road. The lower trailhead is near the footbridge that marks the route’s entrance into the forest. The upper trailhead is near a large green DEC storage shed, which makes a fun landmark for the beginning and end of this hike.

IMO, the upper trailhead is the best place to begin and end the hike.

A third lot is 0.4 miles to the north on Hill Road which runs parallel to Huckleberry Brook Road.

There’s also a fourth lot on Ploutz Road, which is what I consider the half-way point on the loop.

Direction: Clockwise or Counterclockwise?

Because Huckleberry Loop Trail is a loop, it can be hiked in either direction. Here’s the skinny…

If you hike the route clockwise, both the beginning and end of your hike will be hiked uphill. Hiking ¾ mile uphill after 12¼ miles is not for me.

If you hike counter-clockwise, both the beginning and end of your hike will be hiked downhill. You’ll also end the hike walking through the magical red spruce plantations, shuffling the last miles on wonderfully soft pine-bed trail, right when your knees need a break.

So counter-clockwise is my strong recommendation. (If you want to do it clockwise, park at the lower trailhead so, at the end, you don’t have to do an uphill road walk.)

Hike the Huckleberry Loop Trail

At 13 miles, and with 2700 feet of elevation gain, including a few steep sections, Huckleberry Loop is not technically challenging.

However, it is navigationally challenging. Sections of the trail are so remote they’re barely maintained.

Once you step on the loop, you quickly enter a remote and rarely-visited part of The Catskills. Overall, this hike will test your legs and knees.

There are several parking spots along the route where you can hop on and off the trail, but there are no easy bail-out points.

The Huckleberry Loop Trail DOES NOT include…

High-peaks or substantial summits
Fun rock scrambles
Epic views
Well-maintained trail

Huckleberry Loop Trail DOES include…

A big green shed
A different mile every mile
A large meadow on top of a 7000-year-old bog
One of the only legit navigational cairns in the Catskills
Fantastic historical ruins
Streams, blowdown, prickers, nettles
One billion ferns
Extreme solitude
A small stream at the half-way point
One solid scenic view
Rare plants like wineleaf cinquefoil
Old-growth forest
One cliff walk
A demon tree
Four amazing spruce plantation forests
An absolutely spectacular ending

BTW, this is not the same hike as the much shorter, and much easier, hike to Huckleberry Point in the Eastern Catskills.

Huckleberry Loop Hiking Trail Notes & Gallery

Huckleberry Loop has none of the things I would normally look for and expect from an amazing hike. Yet, mile for mile, it’s consistently interesting. Every mile feels different. And it ends (or begins) in spectacular fashion.

This route is absolutely magical. I don’t even know what to say.

Here are my mile-by-mile notes and photos for Huckleberry Loop…

Huckleberry Loop Trail South

Assuming, you begin at the upper trailhead on Huckleberry Brook Road, you’ll see this large green DEC storage shed through the trees…

big green shed on huckleberry loop — DEC Storage Shed on Huckleberry Brook Road

In winter, it looks like this…

DEC shed at the start of Huckleberry Loop in The Catskills in winter — DEC storage shed in winter

Mile 1: From the DEC shed, hike downhill. The first ¾ mile is a road walk. But at least it’s by the very lovely Huckleberry Brook which is dotted with small waterfalls and edged with hemlock trees.

At the footbridge you’ll also find the trail register…

huckleberry loop footbridge — Footbridge over Huckleberry Brook

The next quarter mile is the first section in the woods. It’s immediately beautiful — although, in summer, nettles alongside the trail are something of an issue, so long pants are advised.

Mile 2: This mile has some of the steepest sections on the route, but there is also some elevation loss and several gentle switchbacks, and the nettles are less of an issue. The end of this mile is marked by a large glacial boulder.

Mile 3: Much easier going. Climb up/around the ridge and descend into an open meadow that sits atop a 7000 year old bog — one of the lowest elevation bogs in the Catskills. Look for a cairn on the left side of the meadow.

By late summer, the meadow is overgrown and the cairn can be difficult to see. Exit the meadow on the left.

The next section is also “shagbark hickory mile”, as you’ll pass many fine shagbark trees which are not common in the Catskills. It’s also the beginning of the ferny woods — including some wonderful giant ferns.

Finally, the end of Mile 3 marks the beginning of a welcome flat section. Overall, mile 3 is awesome.

Mile 4: Flat and easy but the trail is sometimes hard to follow. Note: at a junction in the ferns at the edge of a spruce stand, don’t go downhill to the left. Instead, keep going straight to pass through the spruces and reenter the fern forest. There’s lots of blowdown in this section which makes navigation tricky in spots.

Mile 5: This is the only boring mile. Lots of blowdown. And there’s a section with dense prickers. You’ll be glad of hiking poles or a selfie stick. This is the worst mile for blowdown obscuring the trail, and for in-grown trail. (Huckleberry Loop is not popular so the route is not well worn or maintained.)

The next mile, however, is super great…

Mile 6: Some elevation loss before entering the first large spruce plantation. At first, you’ll notice some spruce saplings along the trail. Then you’ll pass through two large boulders at the edge of the plantation. These spruce plantations are common in the Catskills. Typically, they’re in reclaimed pasture from the old farming days. The state bought the land and FDR’s Civilian Conservation Corps (which ran from 1933 to 1942 as part of his New Deal response to the Great Depression) planted a bunch of forests, among other projects for the outdoors. So we have FDR to thank for these amazing woods.

This spot, shown above and below, just blows me away. It shows clearly, on either side of a stone fence, the human-planted spruce forest inside the walls and the deciduous forest beyond them, lush and wild.

Huckleberry Loop Spruce Plantation NO. 1 — Two forests

This almost looks like a Photoshop job, showing the same scene in two seasons — but these are just basic iPhone panoramic photos taken on the same day.

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Congrats on completing the first half of the Huckleberry Loop Trail!

Huckleberry Loop Trail North

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