Hemlocks
The trails listed below are great places to enjoy excellent stands of hemlock in the Catskills. Read the Hemlock Wooly Adelgid post to learn why hemlock is such a special tree — and how the species is under threat here.
Hike Cross Mountain from Woodland Valley
This moderate hike along quiet trail packs a punch: stunning forest, dramatic rock formations, and a spectacular panoramic scenic lookout.
Hike Twin from Roaring Kill
This is one of the most entertaining hiking trails in the Catskill Park, leading up to one of its grandest panoramic views — but it also contains what is maybe the Park’s most challenging, technical and potentially dangerous trail sections. The Devil’s Path is famous for being one of the most difficult hiking trails in the US.
Catskills Hemlocks Under Threat
Spend any time in the Catskills and you’ll see how special our hemlock groves are, and how unique their micro-environment is. Learn about Hemlock Wooly Adelgid and how you can help.
Israel Wittman Sanctuary
This beautiful, serene and contemplative nature walk has so much to recommend it: lovely quiet woods of mixed evergreen and deciduous trees, easy stream crossings over delightful footbridges, dozens of stone fences built by settlers, small quarries and exposed rock faces, as well as fine field of glacial erratics.
Hike Balsam From Rider Hollow
A truly delightful Catskills hike. Climb Balsam Mountain by hiking up Mine Hollow and down Rider Hollow. One of the most picturesque hikes in the Catskills.
Sloan Gorge Preserve
You don’t have to climb a mountain to experience the Catskills. The lowlands have so much to offer. Sloan Gorge Preserve is a great example: an absolutely delightful, short, and family-friendly nature walk.
Kenneth L. Wilson State Campground Nature Trail
This kid-friendly nature trail winds through mature hemlock, spruce, and red/white pine woods between Ticetonyk Mountain and Mt Tobias. There are views of Wittenberg and Cornell, and the campground amenities are top notch.
Slabsides / John Burroughs Nature Sanctuary
Slabsides is the rustic two-story cabin hand-built by famous naturalist John Burroughs at the end of the 1800’s. It is preserved just as he left it, including its personal contents. A series of short interconnected trails wind through hemlock-heavy woods and a swamp, past dramatic rock outcroppings and magical waterfalls, and alongside peaceful lakes. The terrain is rugged but the trails are appropriate for well-managed children.
Hike Onteora Lake (3 Loops)
Just a 10 minute drive from both Kingston and Woodstock, Onteora Lake is a fantastic set of three interconnected loop trails that are perfect for a hit of the real Catskills. Its lake, ponds, streams, trails, old quarries, hemlock and oak forests on gently rolling hills — with occasional cliffs — are ideal for hiking, mountain biking, fishing, hunting, and cross-country skiing.
Tanbark Loop: a Short, Difficult, Beautiful Hike
A short, steep, rocky intense hike right in the heart of Phoenicia. Lots of dramatic Catskills geology. Two excellent views.
Hike Rochester Hollow
An easy hike through beautiful woods leads to a series of magnificent stone fences, ruins, and a memorial to John Burroughs. This is an underutilized and under-appreciated trail. Especially suited to skiers, trail-runners and animal track lovers.
Kelly Hollow Loop: An Easy & Exceptionally Beautiful Hike
Short, easy and thoroughly absorbing, Kelly Hollow Loop is one of the most beautiful trails in the Catskills. It came highly-recommended to me from several friends and it really delivered.
Hike Halcott
I didn’t think too much of Halcott when I did it last spring, but this hike changed my mind. There’s a lot to see: the woods are spectacular, the ravines are beautiful and, at sunset, the summit is a Catskill photographer’s dream.
Hike Indian Head
Indian Head is the smallest mountain on the infamous Devil’s Path trail. But it’s also the most delightful. The other five peaks are wonderful too, of course, each in their own way — the scale! the drama! the views! — but hiking Indian Head is a very special, intimate, and rewarding experience.
Hike Sugarloaf from Roaring Kill, Clockwise
Pass through Dibble’s Quarry, rock-hop over a stream and around a beaver pond, make your way up to the col between Sugarloaf and Twin, and then head west over Sugarloaf’s enormous boreal summit — to a fantastic view of the Southern Catskills. The western descent is tough and long. Sugarloaf is a lot of mountain. An awesome lot.
