Beat cabin fever this winter. Get outside and and go hiking. Here are the top most exciting or beautiful Catskills Winter Day Hikes, ranging from easy or moderate to very difficult. All require crampons or snow shoes. If you’re a novice hiker begin with The Shavertown Trail in Andes. Read our Winter Hiking Tips post before you try winter hiking for the first time. Click on the header links to see a more detailed description of each hike.

The Shavertown Trail, Andes

This is family hike for all generations with a hemlock forest and long, panoramic views (pictured above). The first mile is the most strenuous, but the rest of it is relatively gentle. There’s a pond and a bench on which to rest if it’s not too cold.

Bearpen Mountain

Bearpen is bearish: a long, winding and slow snowmobile trail with spectacular views into Schoharie Valley at the top. Bearpen used to be a ski mountain and the old machinery still remains hidden in the undergrowth. There’s a magical winter wonderland at the top in the dead of winter. Gorgeous.

Belleayre Mountain from Lost Clove Road

This is a spectacular hike. You’re coming up the back of Belleayre Ski Center and there are picnic tables at the top where you can eat in front of magnificent views and watch skiers and boarders drop over the edge of the double-black diamonds like stones over a frozen waterfall. This is a long, interesting hike with lots to see. Keep dogs on a leash at the summit to keep them out of the way of descending skiers.

Slide Mountain

Slide is a long, steep hike for experienced hikers, but absolutely majestic in winter with breathtaking views. There’s also access to the rest of the Burroughs Range for the highly-prepared experts.

Westkill

The trail to the summit of Westkill is an extraordinarily difficult hike with a thigh-busting two-mile uphill struggle from the beginning, but the picturesque drive through the Spruceton valley, the double waterfall at Diamond Notch and Westkill Brewery make this a memorable experience, even if you don’t manage to get very far, because there’s a great of deal to see, and a tasty beer in a modern setting at the end.

Winter hiking in the Catskills can get dangerous very quickly. One minute you could be trotting along atop a magical winter wonderland, but take your gloves off for a few minutes to take a picture and end up with frostbite.

Water can freeze in your backpack by the time you’ve reached the summit of a mountain when you’re most dehydrated. If you’re layered with cotton and start sweating on your ascent, you’ll stay wet and soggy for the duration of the hike, which makes you more vulnerable to plunging temperatures. Your food can freeze and be impossible to bite or cut up. And then, of course, you can get lost or step into a deep snow pile and twist an ankle, which is easy to do on very rocky summits like Balsam and Giant Ledge.

Perhaps we should call this the Pessimists Guide to Winter Hiking. As we’re all keenly aware however, life in general is sort of dangerous these days wherever you go, and the outdoors is the safest option to enjoy the company of friends and extended family. Plus, there’s nothing more satisfying than eating your lunch while absorbing the views from some the Catskills’ highest ledges and summits.

Top tips: Don’t hike with a hangover. Start drinking water the night before and drink few pints of water before you set out, so you don’t have to carry extra, because water makes your backpack much heavier. Take an empty vessel so you can melt some snow in an emergency. Eat a hearty breakfast. Include highly calorific, but light foods in your backpack like grilled bacon, sliced meat, nuts, chocolate or boiled eggs. Take a hot beverage in a light flask to drink at the summit. Always take a lighter, some pocket hand warmers and a sturdy knife to break ice. Have a full battery on your phone. Most important: take the number of the local forest ranger before you start hiking and tell family or friends where you’re going.

Hiking our forest is a way to be 3ft, 6ft, 600ft, or even 6 miles away from the nearest person and possibly the best way to soothe body, mind and spirit during these testing times. New York State is waiving all park fees in state, local and county parks according to the latest news on the NY State website, which will no doubt encourage everyone to get outdoors. Enjoy one of the Catskills’ easiest hikes, the Kelly Hollow Loop, in the northeastern slopes of Balsam Lake Mountain Wild Forest that has an elevation gain of about 500ft making is suitable for all ages, including seniors who are probably self-isolating and need to get outside the most.

The trailhead and parking area for the Kelly Hollow Trail is on Mill Brook Road about five miles or so further west from the Balsam Lake Mountain Wild Forest trailhead and parking area on Mill Brook Road, which is where you pick up the blue-blazed Dry Brook Ridge trail that runs south towards Balsam Lake Mountain with its fire tower. So if you’re much fitter and need something more strenuous, you could do both the Kelly Hollow Loop and the hike down Dry Brook Ridge to the Balsam Lake Fire tower in one day. So there’s something for the whole family on this short stretch of Mill Brook Road, due south of Arkville, NY.

The hike to Mount Tremper Fire Tower on the Phoenicia Trail is surprisingly gorgeous in late April despite a severely moody atmosphere at the summit with thick rain clouds threatening to burst any minute. At this time of year, it’s more lush and green than other trails with multiple tributaries splashing across your path, and onwards down the mountain through vivid green moss towards the Esopus River. The trail head is on Route 40, outside Phoenicia and starts over two small wooden bridges that span waterfalls, and a steep climb up stone steps for a half mile that’s utterly beautiful but treacherous with tree roots and deep mud when wet.

Overlook Mountain was one of the first hikes written about back in 2015 here on Upstate Dispatch, the second hike taken with Jeff Vincent of Catskill Mountain Wild. It’s a gateway hike for novices and visitors, because it’s relatively short, with extra bonus features, a fire tower, and magnificent panoramic views of the Hudson Valley and Eastern Catskill Mountains, the sort of hike that inspires us all to want to hike more of these mountains.

The Fire Towers, built for early detection of forest fires, are a destination in themselves. The cabs at the top of the fire towers are closed on weekdays and in winter when they’re unmanned, but you can still climb the stairs almost all the way to the top if you’re not worried by the wooden floorboards that creak sharply underfoot in the freezing cold temperatures, or the whistling wind that rattles the metalwork.

© J.N. Urbanski

A few years ago, a tourist website ran an article about one of our swimming holes in the shadow of a mountain peak.

I’m doing the Catskill 35, so I’ve hiked the mountain under which the hole rests, but never used the hole itself. Why? Because since publication of the article, day-tripping tourists have returned year after year and used the site like their own personal kitchen, bedroom and toilet. They literally, eat, shoot and leave. We find used condoms, diapers and the empty contents of an average kitchen: huge containers of olive oil, bread wrappers, beer bottles, wine bottles, spent coals, styrofoam coolers, plastic containers and much more.

Kind spectators of the Sunday night scene at this hole have diplomatically said that city people “don’t realize there’s nobody to clean up after them”, but I’m a born and bred city girl and well accustomed to garbage cans. As a rule, if there’s no garbage can around, I put it in my pocket or backpack. Continue reading →