Mount Utsayantha is a village park, high above Stamford, NY. It is accessable either by driving or hiking up a steep one-lane truck trail. I decided to drive up, mainly because I was interested in the view more then the hike up (which would be delightful too).

Here is looking off the firetower at the former gift-shop/observation building that was badly vandalized and is in process of being restored.

Driving up the truck trail to the park, when you almost reach the top, there is a location where you can pull off, and looking for a wonderful northernly view, with farmlands in the foreground, and Emmenence State Forest in the distance.

The views from atop of the fire tower are nothing short of amazing. This is from inside the tower, looking out the windows.

Here is Stamford, NY, looking off the mountain early on October 12th. They say on a clear day, in the distance you can see out towards Oneonta, or at least Hartwick College high up on the hill.

This is one of the amazing views looking out of the windows from the cabin of the fire tower.

Here is Churchhill Mountain in the foreground, with Lyon Mountain and Cowan Mountains in the background.

There are several radio towers on Utsayantha Mountain, which sometimes get in the way of pictures, but it’s still amazing what you see from the tower. In the background you see the area around Grand Gorge, and Irish and Pine Mountains inside of the park.

Here is the largely forested area north of Stamford, around places like Summit.

These are the many peaks around Roxbury, looking into the western Catskill Park.

The Mount Utsayantha Fire Tower.

If you ever heading over NY 23, heading back from Oneonta to Albany, or otherwise can take a detour from NY 30 in the area of Grand George, it’s well worth to take a drive up to Stamford, and then up to the fire tower.

The truck trail up to Mount Utsayantha is unmaintained in the winter. Once ice sets in on the trail, you’ll be pretty much limited to going up it with snowshoes or x-country skis (if your careful — it’s steep). It’s probably very cold and windswept in the winter, but the views are probably still amazing.

Here is a map. To get there, take NY 23 East from Stamford to Tower Mountain Road on the outskirts of town, then drive Tower Mountain Road for about 2 miles, until you reach the top of a ridge. You can park from here, and either hike/snowshoe “Utsayantha Mountain” the dirt road a mile to the top or drive up it in nice weather.

The Mount Utsayantha Project by the Village of Stamford and the Catskill Center for Conservation and Development has more information this mountain with amazing views.