Ranger Station and Pinic Table
Steeper Trail
Red Hill Sign
At the trail head, on Old Dinch Road.
Taken on Monday July 13, 2009 at Red Hill Firetower.Ashokan High Point
Ashokan High Point is a mountain overlooking West Shokan and the Ashokan Reservoir, however due to trees the views to the east are limited. It is reached from a parking lot off of Ulster County Route 42, a windy low-speed road that lacks guardrail protection.
I visited this after doing Red Hill Fire Tower in another section of the Sundown Wild Forest, some 15 miles to the west (30 miles via road).
The first two miles up the trail is up an old woods road, that is relatively flat and a pleasurable walk along the Kanape Brook and in a deep clove between Ashokan High Point and Mombaccus Mountain.
After you walk about a mile or maybe 45 minutes, you arrive at this nice little campsite right near the brook and the trail. It’s in a field, but has limited light for big portions of the day because the clove is so deep.
The trail seems a bit long at times, but this is the kind of delightful walking you experience. Markers are sparse along this section of trail, but if your following the old woods road it’s easier to follow.
You then reach the sharp turn off the old woods road, to where the trail splits to the upper loop. As you can see, the turn is well marked.From here on out, you gain about 1,000 feet over the next one mile. It’s quite a bit steeper, but nothing is hands and knees hiking.
As you start to do some serious climbing, you get partial views to the west.
And the trail gets steeper for the next 1/2 mile. They have put in several rock steps to make the climb a little bit easier. Nothing that couldn’t be made by a child or a pet though, and no scary views/ladders.
Once you are within a 1/4th mile to the top, you stop doing much climbing. If your caught in a storm, this rock offers some protection.
You’ve basically reached the top when you get this nice westerly view of Moccabus Mountain through the trees. You can stop over here, or continue to the top for better southernly views.
From the top, you have limited views looking south towards the Shawangunks, surrounded by trees. There supposedly is an unmarked trail you can take down to the “ledge” for 180 views. Without a good map, I decided not to proceed down to the ledge.
The Shawangunks, shrowed in haze. They are small compared to the Catskills but an interesting profile in the sky.
Along the top there is a trail that runs through a 1/2 mile of Blueberry fields. I was foruntate to be there when they where in season.
On the other side of the mountain, there is an informal campsite with fantastic views of the High Peaks Region of the Catskills.
The trail down the backside of the mountain is without views, and is less steep but much longer, and winds up and down a few ridges. Nothing really worth visiting — go back the way you came.
You return back to where the loop splits, and return back the trail you took up. It’s a 7.5 mile hike total, but a relatively easy one that you can do in a few hours in an afternoon, and not be totally exhausted.
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Red Hill Fire Tower
The Red Hill Firetower is on a relatively small in-holding of land by the state of New York that’s part of the larger Sundown Wild Forest. This was the forth Catskill firetower I have visited in recent weeks. I hiked on a beautiful Monday, which I had decided to take a vacation day on.
Red Hill is the easiest firetower to hike up to in the Catskills, even if it’s one of the most difficult to drive from the Albany-area. It is located outside of Grahamsville, about 10 miles North-West of Rondout Reservoir. There is only local dirt roads and windy county roads that run from NY Route 55, which itself is certainly not an expressway.
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Here is a sign telling you it’s not a tough walk.
This is typical, relatively flat trail which you walk on for the first 9/10 of a mile.
The last 1/2th of a mile is relatively steep compared to the first part, maybe gaining 400 feet in elevation, and you’ll have to stop and breath a few times as you go up towards there.
When you reach the top, there is an Ranger Station (open weekends) and several picnic tables. There are big signs saying fires are prohibited due to the fire danger, when the grass is dry. That should be a no brainier, but in the summer and winter, it seems a bit absurd. Must be a bad experience from years ago. There is no outhouse, you’ll have to walk off into the woods to find a place to squat and do your business.
This is the tower, directly across from the Ranger Station. It is staffed on the weekends.
The views aren’t anything to write home about, unless you want to see mountains that are less then remarkable in the distance. This is to the north.
Red Hill is the southern edge of the Catskills, and as you can see looking to the south, the landscape is quite flat.
Most of the area around the tower is heavily wooded and owned by either the State or New York City DEP Water. There are a few farms around, especially looking west.
On the weekends, you can go into the tower’s cabin. Weekdays it is closed, supposedly because of vandalism. It’s bullshit if you ask me, because who drives 125 miles into the sticks and hikes 1.4 miles to vandalize an old tower? Mount Tremper is open.
Despite the lousy views (it’s a relative term), the fire tower must be popular, or so the many signs that warn people the tower can only support six people.
When I was leaving the fire tower I happened to hear an SUV coming up with the former Ranger (now a private individual). They where planning to paint the tower steps on Monday. He offered to unlock the tower, but I was inpatient, and he wouldn’t let me do it with the keys myself. I don’t know if I or him was being more of a dick.
After I left, he closed off the tower, because he was painting the steps.
Here’s a map of the route to the fire tower.
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This gives you an idea of what you see from the tower. Most notably, Doubletop Mountain and Rondout Reservoir. Nothing really super impressive though, just mountains and very little civilization in this rural part of Sullivan County.
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