Field notes · the Catskills, then & now
A Guide to Rambles from the Catskill Mountain House — written in 1863, walked today
A nameless visitor printed the walks worth taking. A century and a half later, most of them are still there.
“A visitor to the Catskill Mountain House has hastily drawn up the following as a guide for strangers in their rambles.” — Catskill, 1863
In 1863, a guest at the Catskill Mountain House — the great white hotel on the escarpment two thousand feet above the Hudson — sat down before he left and wrote out the walks worth taking. No name on it, just “a Visitor.” He had the local job printer in the village of Catskill run off eight pages, and the result is, as far as anyone can tell, one of the first trail guides ever written for these mountains.
Here’s why it doesn’t read like distant history to me. While that stranger was up at the hotel writing down the walks, my own family was a few ridgelines west, working the same county. The Ives line had been farming the Greene County ground at Ashland since 1789 — by the time this little pamphlet came off the press, four generations of them had turned that soil. So when I read his guide, I’m not reading about somebody else’s mountains. I make field guides to these same hills now; he made one then. Across 163 years, that’s a colleague. Here’s where he sent people, in his words, and how you’d walk it today — the complete original is reproduced at the foot of this page.
Station One — North Mountain and the Bear’s Den
He starts you down the mountain road and onto the ledges of North Mountain, promising views north you can’t get anywhere else on the hill — and then it turns wonderfully strange. There’s a rock that throws back a fine echo — “four distinct reverberations,” he counts. There’s a ladder up an abrupt precipice to a cavern called the Bear’s Den, which the old hunters told him was where the bears wintered. From the top, he says, you can see the Adirondacks, the Green Mountains, and — with a telescope — the cities of Albany and Troy.
Walk north from the old hotel site today and you’re on the Escarpment Trail — and the surprise is how many of his landmarks still answer to their old names. In the first mile or so you reach Artist Rock and the short spur to Sunset Rock, the conglomerate platforms the Hudson River School painters set up on, then Lookout Rock and the Bear’s Den — still a marked spot on the trail, where a wooden ladder climbed the rock within living memory. The cap rock finally opens at Newman’s Ledge to the same sweeping reach north toward Albany he chased with his telescope. What’s changed is the company: he had a near-empty escarpment; you’ll have a busy trailhead and a phone that already knows it’s looking at Albany.
Station Two — South Mountain, Fairy Spring, and the Lemon Squeezer
South Mountain is where the guide is most charming. He routes you up through “Pudding-Stone Hall,” a narrow fissure split open by frost and water, then along a ledge “through a rich collection of lichen, moss, and fern” to a spot he calls Fairy Spring — and he can’t help himself: “A view of this gem of the mountains compensates for any fatigue that may be encountered in the ramble.” To reach the summit you squeeze through a slot he says the mountaineers called the “Lemon Squeezer,” and the artists called the “Elfin Pass.” From the boulder at the top comes the finest view of the Kaaterskill Clove, and on a clear day the Shawangunks and the Jersey highlands beyond.
His Pudding-Stone Hall is still there — you can find it on South Mountain near the Pine Orchard, the same fissure split open by frost and water. Most of what else he names is still out on the South Mountain loops — the mossy ledges, the springs — and the southerly view into the Kaaterskill Clove that he calls the payoff is still exactly that from the rim today. The names have drifted over 160 years, but the bargain hasn’t: sweat up through a crack in the rock, collect the view as your reward. He understood the trade hikers make better than most trail signs do.
Station Three — Kaaterskill Falls, “a perfect whispering gallery”
The falls were the headline then as now. He gives the two drops as one hundred and eighty feet and ninety, describes the path that runs behind the upper fall around an amphitheatre where the rock projects eighty feet overhead, and calls the space below “a perfect ‘whispering gallery.’” Getting there in 1863 was its own small luxury: walk the two miles, or “take the omnibus that leaves the House twice a day” for a pleasant rural ride.
This is the one stop that needs a warning. His leisurely ways in are gone; today most people come from the other side entirely — a flat third of a mile from the Laurel House Road lot to a viewing platform built right at the lip of the falls, part of the state’s roughly $800,000 safety overhaul around 2015–16, with guard rails, stone steps, and rules against swimming near the edge. Reaching the foot of the falls, where he stood, is a steeper haul. Easy as that platform walk is, Kaaterskill has earned a reputation as one of the deadliest waterfalls anywhere — well over a hundred people have died here, almost always after stepping off the marked trail for a photo. You can still go, and you still should — but his easy intimacy with the place now has to come with real respect for the edge.
Station Four — High Peak and the Old Man of the Mountains
Farther off he points to High Peak — the long view of the whole range — and hands down the local weather lore: “When the Old Man of the Mountains puts on his cap, look out for a storm.” He passes along an Indian tradition of an old woman on the summit who kept day and night in a box, and notes almost in passing that near its base the Tories hid out after the burning of Kingston during the Revolution.
High Peak and Round Top still loom south of the Kaaterskill Clove, and the saying still works — when cloud caps those summits, the valley gets weather. What’s quietly remarkable is how much living history he folds into a tourist pamphlet: Revolutionary refugees, native legend, folk forecasting, all as offhand asides between hikes. It’s a reminder that these mountains were never empty scenery. They were worked, walked, fought over, and storied long before anyone called them “recreation.”
One detail I can’t shake: north of the lake, he writes, you could be shown a bear trap where one Mr. Thorp — “the Man of the Mountain” — had caught three bears in the fall of 1857 using “the singular bait of dry codfish and honey.” Over in Stoney Clove, he notes, you could find ice in July, brook trout in the stream, and “with a Minié rifle a shot can be had at an eagle.” Two lines that tell you everything about how the relationship to these animals has turned over: the bears were a curiosity to trap, the eagles a target. Today the eagles are protected and back, and we go to those same cloves hoping to see one — not to shoot it.
What lasts, reading him, is the word in his own title: rambles. Not summits bagged, not miles logged — rambles. He had nowhere in particular to be and built a whole guide around that freedom. The mountains he describes are still here, better protected than they’ve ever been and threaded with trails he never had. The only thing genuinely missing is his willingness to go slowly.
So go slowly. Pick one of his stops — the whispering gallery behind the falls, the squeeze up to the South Mountain rim — and walk to it the long way. Don’t photograph it for ten whole minutes. That’s the oldest advice in Catskill hiking, and it still holds.
Walk where the 1863 visitor walked
I make field guides to these same hills — legal backcountry camping, water, and honest route notes for the Long Path and the Escarpment Trail that run right along his ledges. If this was your kind of walk, they’re built the same way: facts first, no filler.
See the field guides →The complete 1863 pamphlet
Reproduced in full from the original, set the way he wrote it — period spellings and all. Public domain.
Guide to Rambles from the Catskill Mountain House.
By a Visitor.
Catskill: J. Joesbury, Book & Job Printer. 1863.
A visitor to the Catskill Mountain House has hastily drawn up the following as a guide for strangers in their rambles.
North Mountain.
Take the road from the House leading down the Mountain: at the first turn in the road leading east, immediately on a ledge of rocks fronting east, take the more easterly path. Along this path you will have a more northerly view than can be had at any other part of the mountain.
After passing some three-quarters of a mile northward, an abrupt rock rises directly in front of the path; take the more northerly path, and from the summit of this rock a fine view can be had of both lakes—Round Top and High Peak. On the north side of this rock, a fine echo can be had; four distinct reverberations can be heard. Going still further north, you come to an abrupt precipice, which is ascended by a ladder. At this point a large cavern will be found, known as the Bear’s Den. Old hunters say that it was the winter resting and gathering place for the bears.
After ascending the ladder, a still more northerly view can be had. The Adirondacks, Green Mountains, Greene County and portions of Schoharie and Albany can be seen. At this point, the cities of Albany and Troy can be seen with a telescope. The ledges facing the east are abrupt and precipitous.
Head of the North Lake.
At the point at which you leave the road down the mountain for the North Mountain, take the westerly path. You will have a delightful ramble, a portion of the way, along the eastern shore of the North Lake.
South Mountain.
Take the path leading up the South Mountain, directly south of the House.
About two-thirds of the way up the mountain, Pudding-Stone Hall will be entered. In this vicinity, large masses of pudding-stone will be found. The hall proper is a narrow fissure in the rocks, in which the mass of rock has been separated by the action of frost and water. After ascending from Pudding-Stone Hall, go a short distance east—take a path underneath the ledge westerly. This path passes through a rich collection of lichen, moss, and fern, past the Portico Rocks, and terminates at Fairy Spring. A view of this gem of the mountains compensates for any fatigue that may be encountered in the ramble. After visiting the Spring, retrace your steps a short distance and turn to the south through a small fissure in the rock, and ascend to the summit of the South Mountain. This pass is known among the mountaineers as the “Lemon Squeezer,” and, among artists, as the “Elfin Pass.” After attaining the summit, a large boulder to the south will be seen. This is a prominent landmark in this part of the mountain. Your course will be directed for this boulder, from whence the best view of the Cauderskill Clove and the surrounding mountains will be had, and a view more southerly than at any other point. The Shawangunk range and the Minisink Mountains in New Jersey, and the pass of the Hudson in the Highlands, can be seen. The period of the day to visit the North or South Mountain is either about sunrise or in the afternoon. Near this boulder on the South Mountain, along the face of the ledge fronting south, will be found huge masses of rock detached from the face of the ledge by the action of frost and water.
A little to the east of the boulder will be found a fissure in the rock, through which is a pass leading southerly to the precipices overhanging the Clove—a very rough path.
To return, you will go north from the boulder until you make a slight ascent, and then follow the path north near the edge of the ledge until you reach Pudding-Stone Hall. A little to the south of the House, on the face of the ledge, are natural steps in the face of the rock, by which, with some care, a descent may be made in front of the House.
South Lake.
A beautiful view of the South Lake can be had, by leaving the road leading west from the Mountain House about a third of a mile, and turning to the left.
North Lake.
By taking the road west and leaving it at a short distance before arriving at the junction of the two lakes, turning to the right, the remains of an old road will be found. Follow this road easterly until you make the first descent, and then turn to the north. At this point will be found a large cranberry bed and a very rare plant. The leaf is in the form of a cup, and is always two-thirds filled with water by capillary attraction.
To the north of this lake, to those who have a desire to see mountain life, may be found a Bear Trap, in which Mr. Thorp—the “Man of the Mountain”—caught three bears in the Fall of 1857, with the singular bait of dry codfish and honey.
The Cauderskill Falls.
There are two foot-paths leading to the Falls—one directly in the rear of the Barns—the other turning to the left after passing the Lakes near the corner of the fence—distance about two miles.
By calling at the office and getting a boat, the lake can be passed, and a short ramble brings you to the Falls.
A preferable way is to take the omnibus that leaves the House twice a day, and runs over a good mountain road, giving the passenger a pleasant rural ride, unlike any that can ordinarily be had in the country.
The stream that forms the outlet of the lakes passes over two precipices—the first of a height of one hundred and eighty feet—the second of ninety feet.
The scenery and views at the Falls are unsurpassed. Underneath the first Fall is a path passing directly in the rear of the Fall around an amphitheatre. At one point the rock projects overhead eighty feet. The amphitheatre is a perfect “whispering gallery.” By following the stream, a rough mountain path will be found, leading to the Cauderskill Clove.
The Cauderskill Clove.
Lies south of the Mountain House—is a wild gorge in the mountains, running nearly north and south. A good turnpike road leads through it. Abrupt precipices inclose it on every side—some are over two thousand feet. Over one of them two hounds were in such close pursuit of a deer, that in the eagerness of escape and pursuit all leaped the precipice and were lost. In this gorge are several falls—the one at the head of the Clove is well worth a visit. Another, called the “Fawn’s Leap,” will be found a short distance below the Old Tannery. An old legend is, that a doe made the leap of the chasm over the fall, and that her fawn, in attempting to follow, fell into the deep pool made by the fall, and swam round the pool for two days, the doe remaining near and watching it. Below and above the bridge are also beautiful falls.
Moses’ Rock.
Descending the road leading down the mountain about three-quarters of a mile, turn to the first path to the right, and follow the old mountain road to the south about the same distance. At this point you reach a large mass of rock, some thirty feet in height by eighty feet in length, covered with moss. A short distance from the base a small stream of water issues from a circular fissure in the rock. A more beautiful spot cannot be found in the mountains, nor cooler and better water.
To a good pedestrian, a beautiful walk will be found from this spot to the foot of the mountain, leading along the old mountain road to the small red house directly below the Mountain House. From this house take the road leading south until you strike the road leading through the Clove; follow this road until you cross the bridge above the Old Tannery, over the Cauderskill; turn to the right and follow the path along the South Lake to the House.
On the ledge above Moses’ Rock, a large tree will be found, marked. From this a new path has been cut, leading to the precipice overhanging the Clove. From this point a better appreciation of height can be had than at any other point on the mountains.
Bear’s Gap, or Stoney Clove.
This is some nine miles west of the Mountain House, and is one of the wildest spots in the Catskills. The gorge is a narrow one—the precipices over two thousand feet. Ice can be found in it in July and August; small brook trout are found in the stream passing through it, and with a Minié rifle a shot can be had at an eagle.
High Peak.
Take the road leading west some five miles, then turn into a road leading south to the south side of the mountain. From this point procure a guide, and from High Peak one of the most extensive views can be had that will be found in the whole range of mountains. This is the mountain upon which, (agreeably to the Indian tradition,) the “Great Spirit” placed an old squaw and gave her the control of night and day. She had a box, which when she opened it was day, and when she closed it was night. She took down the moon at certain seasons, and cut it up and placed the pieces in the heavens as stars.
High Peak is the barometer for the farmers in the valley of the Hudson. It is a common saying with them, that “When the Old Man of the Mountains puts on his cap, look out for a storm.” Near the base of the High Peak, in the early settlement of the country, there was a place of refuge for the Tories after the burning of Kingston, during the Revolutionary war. They are said to have been guided to the place by an old Indian called Yonton, a compeer of Leather Stocking.
On the return from the High Peak or Stoney Clove, by going to Parker’s—about a mile north of Gray’s—a view of the range of mountains, running east and west, can be had, which will well repay any one for the small sacrifice of time.
Plattekill Clove.
This gorge in the mountains lies about six miles south of the Cauderskill Clove, and can be reached by either descending the mountain road and passing in front of the house, or by taking the road to the High Peak.
This Clove is well worthy of a visit from any one who has a taste for wild mountain passes. It is unlike the Cauderskill Clove, and in many respects surpasses it in wildness and grandeur. There are several falls in the stream passing through it. This is one of the passes through which the French and Indians are said to have found their way in their attacks upon the early settlers of the valley of the Hudson.
Catskill: J. Joesbury, Book & Job Printer. 1863.
Source: Guide to Rambles from the Catskill Mountain House, by “a Visitor” (Catskill: J. Joesbury, Book & Job Printer, 1863). Public domain; digitized by the Library of Congress via the Internet Archive.