Catskill Escarpment

The Catskill Escarpment rises behind the historic stone buildings and hotels of the Hudson Valley. Looking west from the Howard Johnson outside of Saugerties

Many of the places I hiked during my youth have come to seem small to me. The Catskill Escarpment on the other hand still provides a challenge, and a thrill, in its slightly depressing Upstate New York way.

I first glimpsed it from across the Hudson as a child, riding along the Taconic Parkway, at dusk. A fading glow in the western sky behind it accented the ridge line, a massive landform that dwarfed the scattered human-made lights in the valley in front of it.

 The sense of unqualified awe that I felt has diminished some since I've had the privilege of comparing the Catskills with the Rocky Mountains and the Andes, but the escarpment still has the capacity for adult-sized adventure. Running down its edge on a steep trail, the Hudson Valley directly below you, and watching the low horizon across the river rise rapidly in your vision as you descend, is more exciting than a quiet walk in the woods.

The abruptness of the escarpment, apparently broken off by glaciers, makes for a fun approach driving from the east. It reminds me of the Sangre De Cristo range outside of Taos, New Mexico. You drive across the flat valley, watching the mountains get closer and closer, until suddenly you're in them. Of course as you can see from the photo, the Catskills are not jagged car commercial mountains, but still. The two Cloves in the escarpment (see the map) are big, steep, glacially sculpted features home to some of the most interesting terrain the Catskills have to explore. Both have sizeable rivers so deeply incised, and so full of cascades and rapids, as to make them hard to access. Their steep walls are home to tall waterfalls of mountain streams, and great perches for viewpoints.

 At the top of the escarpment are wide valleys that drain to the west, known collectively as the mountaintop.

This map of the Catskill Escarpment interprets the features visible in the above photo. The camera location and the route of our hike are shown on the map.

Kaaterskill Clove

We hiked up along the Escarpment Trail on the south side of Kaaterskill Clove. It very quickly gains the top of the clove, climbing 1700 feet in less than 2 miles. There is a great vantage point here straight down the whole height you have just ascended, east into over the low hills of the Hudson Valley, and north across the clove and along the escarpment. On a clear day, you can see Mount Equinox in Vermont, 80 miles to the northwest. Another viewpoint below, Poet's Ledge, commands the view west up the Clove, with state highway 23A boldly ascending, and some large lumps called Catskill High Peaks looming behind.

On top of the rugged post-glacial surfaces of the escarpment and the Clove, the land levels off somewhat into more typical lumpy Catskills terrain, at around 2100 feet of elevation. High Peak is still a 1500 foot climb above you, but it is set back. In spit of its size and steep hand-over-hand ascent, it has an underwhelming, less-than-mountainous profile common to the Catskills. The trail traverses just above the Clove's "canyon rim," where two waterfalls free-fall below you over sheer ledges, each with a distinctive view. I would like to continue from here for the full 3000 foot climb to High Peak, sometime when I have a full day.

 Other Highlights

 North of Kaaterskill Clove along the escarpment are some very popular short hikes, but I've never been.

To the south, around Plattekill Clove, the escarpment is at its steepest, and no trails climb it. Plattekill Clove is smaller and sharper than Kaaterskill Clove. A small road, closed in winter, climbs it, passing some scenic waterfalls. The hike to Huckleberry Point, a famous viewpoint off the edge, relies on this road to gain its elevation. The trail crosses gentler terrain above the clove's edge.

 Plattekill Mountain, along the escarpment south of Plattekill Clove, rises 2500 feet straight from the valley, but lacks a well-known viewpoint or a trail. Like some other Catkills, in spite of its considerable size, it is not much to look at. To climb it from the valley would be a challenging but not necessarily rewarding bushwhack. An easier route would start from the mountain top, but there are other more interesting hikes to be done there, such as Indian Head mountain, set back just a mile and a half to the west of Plattekill, 500 feet taller, and more shapely.

The hike to Overlook Mountain is very popular, but I've never done it. It involves driving to 1700 feet and walking the rest up an old fire road.

Forest

All the way up the escarpment, the forest is typical of the Hudson Valley, not the interior of the Catskill Mountains. It's mostly red oaks and white pines, with and paper birches. When the terrain levels off at the top, the ground is marshy in places. On our hike we encountered a rhododendron-filled swamp. Rhododendrons are common in southeastern NY, but I didn't expect to find one so high up in the Catskills. Just a short distance west (as we walked along the Escarpment Trail) the forest makes a quick transition to the Hemlock - Northern Hardwoods forest common in the rest of the Catskills. Sugar maple, yellow birch, beech and standing dead white ashes are familiar characters. Forest Historian Michael Kudish explains the change in the forest in terms of fire history. The escarpment has burned repeatedly throughout human habitation, because it is adjacent to low-elevation, long settled lands in the Hudson Valley. Where extensive fires reached, soils became acidified (for some reason), and forests regenerated with oaks. The interior of the Catskills rarely burned, and it has retained the northern hardwoods forest that developed after the glaciers retreated but before humans arrived.

The Catskill Escarpment may have some classically Upstate NY underwhelming features. It is a collection of dark rounded lumps. The higher, relatively more interesting mountains of the area are not to be found, set back from it to the west. Still, it is bold and massive in its way, with its share adventure and beauty to be found.