There is a moment on the drive north from New York City when the landscape changes completely. The last strip malls and highway interchanges fall behind, the Thruway climbs, and suddenly the horizon fills with something that two hours ago seemed impossible: actual mountains. Blue-green ridges stacked against the sky, dark hemlock gorges cutting between them, and a silence so absolute it makes your ears ring after the city. The Catskills are only 100 miles from Times Square, but they might as well be 1,000. This is where New Yorkers have come to disappear into the wilderness for over two centuries, and the mountains have never once failed to deliver.
The Catskill Mountains are not the Rockies. They do not have the soaring alpine drama of the Sierras or the vast emptiness of the desert West. What they have is something more intimate and, in its own way, more powerful: a deeply layered landscape where old-growth forest, cascading waterfalls, wild trout streams, and small mountain towns exist in an ecosystem that feels both ancient and lived-in. The painters of the Hudson River School came here in the 1820s and declared these mountains sublime. The fly fishermen came in the 1860s and developed an entire sport on these streams. The Jewish resort owners came in the 1920s and built an entertainment empire. The hippies came in 1969 and held a little music festival at a farm in Bethel. And now a new generation is arriving — artists, chefs, brewers, and weekenders — drawn by the same thing that has always drawn people to these mountains: the promise that somewhere up there, in the hemlock shade beside a cold creek, the noise of the world falls away.
Kaaterskill Falls — New York’s Greatest Waterfall
Kaaterskill Falls is where the Catskills announce themselves. Two tiers of white water plunge 260 feet through a rock amphitheater draped in moss and fern — the tallest waterfall in New York State and one of the most painted landscapes in American history. Thomas Cole and Asher B. Durand set their easels here in the 1820s, and their canvases launched the Hudson River School of painting, America’s first major art movement. The falls have not changed.
The hike is short but rewarding — 1.4 miles round trip from the Route 23A trailhead, gaining about 400 feet of elevation on a well-maintained path. The upper viewing platform looks down into the gorge from the top of the falls. For the full experience, continue down to the base of the lower falls, where the pool collects in a natural amphitheater that feels like a cathedral carved by water. In spring, snowmelt turns the falls into a thundering spectacle. In summer, the flow softens to a lace curtain. In autumn, the surrounding maples blaze orange and red against the dark rock.
Arrive early, especially on summer and fall weekends. Kaaterskill is the most visited site in the Catskills, and the small trailhead parking lot fills by 9 AM on peak days. The DEC has improved the trail significantly in recent years with stone steps, viewing platforms, and erosion controls, but it still demands proper footwear — the rocks are slippery when wet, which they almost always are near the falls.
Slide Mountain — The Roof of the Catskills
At 4,180 feet, Slide Mountain is the highest peak in the Catskills and the anchor of the Catskill High Peaks. The trail from the Slide Mountain trailhead on County Route 47 climbs roughly 1,800 feet over 3 miles through one of the most extraordinary forest transitions in the Northeast. You begin in hardwood forest — beech, birch, maple — pass through a band of mixed spruce and fir, and emerge into a boreal summit forest of balsam fir that smells like Christmas and feels like Canada. The summit viewpoint, a rocky ledge through the trees, looks south across the Neversink Valley to a horizon of undulating ridges that stretches to the edge of sight.
The round trip takes 4 to 6 hours at a moderate pace. The trail is well-marked but rugged in sections — exposed roots, mud after rain, and a final push through dense spruce that narrows to a single-track corridor. This is not a casual stroll. But for anyone with moderate hiking fitness, it is the definitive Catskills summit experience.
For peak-baggers, Slide Mountain is the first conquest in the Catskill 3500 Club challenge: summit all 35 Catskill peaks above 3,500 feet, including four that must be climbed in winter. The club, founded in 1962, has a devoted following, and the pursuit of all 35 peaks is one of the great hiking challenges in the eastern United States.
Mountain Wilderness
Ridge after ridge fades into blue haze from a Catskills summit — boreal spruce, wild creeks, and 700,000 acres of forest preserve stretching to every horizon, just two hours from the biggest city in America.
Phoenicia — The Heart of Summer
Phoenicia is a small town in the Esopus Creek valley that punches far above its weight. In summer, it becomes the Catskills’ outdoor living room — a place where hikers, tubers, kayakers, and weekenders converge in a Main Street village that still has more locals than boutiques.
The Esopus Creek runs right through town, and tubing it is a Catskills rite of passage. Town Tinker Tubes rents tubes and provides shuttle service for a lazy, 2-hour float through Class I and II rapids — cold mountain water, overhanging hemlock branches, and the occasional rock garden that sends you spinning and laughing. It is simple, old-fashioned fun, and on a July afternoon with the sun filtering through the trees and the water running clear over smooth stones, it is one of the purest pleasures in New York State.
Beyond tubing, Phoenicia is a superb hiking base. Giant Ledge and Panther Mountain are accessed from a trailhead 15 minutes south of town. The Wittenberg-Cornell-Slide traverse, one of the great Catskills ridge walks, starts nearby. The Catskill Mountain Railroad runs scenic heritage rides from the village. And Main Street has evolved into an appealing row of restaurants, shops, and the legendary Sportsmen’s Bar — a wood-paneled tavern where fly fishermen, hikers, and second-home owners share space with locals who have been coming since before the weekenders discovered the place.
Bethel Woods and the Borscht Belt Legacy
On August 15, 1969, half a million people descended on Max Yasgur’s dairy farm in Bethel, New York — not in Woodstock, despite the festival’s name — and three days of music changed American culture forever. The Bethel Woods Center for the Arts now occupies that hillside, and the museum inside is one of the finest small museums in New York. The exhibits trace the 1960s counterculture through artifacts, film, and immersive installations that place you in the crowd at Yasgur’s farm. Standing on the original festival field, looking down the slope where the stage stood, is a genuinely moving experience — the grass, the sky, and the silence where half a million voices once sang.
Bethel Woods also hosts a summer concert series that brings major artists to the outdoor pavilion. The acoustics are excellent and the setting — rolling farmland backed by Catskill ridges — makes every show feel like an event.
The broader Borscht Belt story is woven through the western Catskills. From the 1920s through the 1970s, hundreds of Jewish resort hotels operated in Sullivan and Ulster counties, drawing hundreds of thousands of New York City vacationers each summer. The resorts were entertainment factories — comedy, music, dancing, swimming, and three meals a day in dining halls that seated thousands. Comedians from Henny Youngman to Jerry Seinfeld cut their teeth on the Borscht Belt circuit. The film Dirty Dancing captured the era’s romance. Most of the grand resorts have closed — Grossinger’s, The Concord, Kutsher’s — but their ghosts are everywhere: in the overgrown foundations visible from mountain roads, in the cultural memory of anyone who spent childhood summers here, and in the resilient spirit of the small towns that survived their departure and are now reinventing themselves.
Fly Fishing — Where the Sport Was Born
The Catskills are to fly fishing what St. Andrews is to golf: the place where the modern sport was created. In the mid-1800s, anglers on the Beaverkill and Willowemoc creeks developed the dry fly techniques, rod designs, and entomological approach that became the foundation of American fly fishing. Theodore Gordon, the father of American dry fly fishing, refined his craft on the Neversink River. The Catskill-style tied fly — sparse, elegant, riding high on the water — remains the gold standard.
The fishing today is as good as the history is deep. Wild and stocked brown trout, brook trout, and rainbow trout inhabit the Beaverkill, Willowemoc, Esopus, Neversink, and Delaware systems. The Esopus near Phoenicia is a freestone stream that runs cold and fast through hemlock gorges — technical water that rewards good casting. The Beaverkill in Roscoe (self-proclaimed “Trout Town USA”) offers classic pool-and-riffle trout water that is as beautiful to look at as it is to fish.
May and June are prime time. The hendrickson hatch in late April opens the season with a flourish, followed by march browns, sulphurs, and the legendary green drake hatch in late May and early June — when large trout that have been invisible all year rise aggressively to the surface. Watching a wild brown trout sip a dry fly off the surface of the Beaverkill at dusk, in the same water where the sport’s pioneers cast their first flies 150 years ago, is a connection to angling history that no other place in America can offer.
The Catskill Fly Fishing Center and Museum in Livingston Manor preserves this heritage with exhibits on rod-making, fly-tying, and the sport’s evolution. It is a small, passionate museum that any angler will appreciate.
Ski Season in the Catskills
When the mountains go white, the Catskills transform into the closest real ski country to New York City. Three resorts anchor the winter scene, each with a distinct personality.
Hunter Mountain is the big one — 67 trails, 1,600-foot vertical, and snowmaking that covers 100% of its terrain. Hunter draws serious skiers and can feel like a crowded extension of Manhattan on Saturday mornings. The terrain is legitimately challenging, with steep pitches and mogul runs that test expert legs. The base lodge is large and modern. Expect lift lines on weekends and holidays; midweek is a different mountain entirely.
Windham Mountain is Hunter’s more relaxed neighbor, 20 minutes north. Slightly smaller but beautifully groomed, Windham attracts families and intermediate skiers with wide, cruising runs and a less aggressive atmosphere. The terrain park is well-maintained, and the base area has an upscale mountain-town feel with good restaurants and lodging within walking distance.
Belleayre Mountain, owned and operated by New York State, is the locals’ choice. The most affordable of the three, Belleayre has diverse terrain — from gentle learning slopes to the expert-only Belleayre Supertrail — and a relaxed, unpretentious vibe. The upper mountain catches more natural snow than Hunter or Windham, and the weekday crowds are thin enough that you can ski continuous laps without waiting.
Beyond downhill, the Catskills offer excellent cross-country skiing and snowshoeing. The Catskill Forest Preserve has hundreds of miles of ungroomed trails through silent, snow-covered forest. Mountain Trails Cross Country Ski Center in Tannersville maintains 35 kilometers of groomed trails.
Four-Season Mountains
From summer swimming holes and fall foliage roads to winter ski runs and spring waterfalls — the Catskills reinvent themselves with every season, and every version is worth the drive.
Craft Breweries and Farm-to-Table Dining
The Catskills food and drink scene has undergone a quiet revolution. What was once a landscape of diners and pizza joints now includes some of the best craft breweries and farm-to-table restaurants in upstate New York, powered by the same creative migration that is reshaping mountain towns across the region.
Catskill Brewery in Livingston Manor brews excellent IPAs and farmhouse ales in a taproom that looks out at the mountains. Woodstock Brewing in Phoenicia pairs craft beer with wood-fired pizza in a converted warehouse. Roscoe Beer Co. in Trout Town USA serves a lineup that includes a brown trout brown ale — because of course it does.
The restaurant scene has evolved to match. Peekamoose Restaurant in Big Indian serves a farm-to-table menu sourced from Catskills farms in a refined-rustic setting that earned it a reputation well beyond the mountains. Brio’s in Phoenicia does wood-fired pizza and Italian dishes that draw crowds from across the region. The Kaaterskill in Hunter Village serves New American cuisine in a beautifully restored 19th-century building. And the roadside farm stands that appear every summer and fall — selling corn, tomatoes, apples, cider donuts, and maple syrup — remain some of the best eating in the mountains.
Where to Stay in the Catskills
The Catskills lodging scene spans the full spectrum, from backcountry camping to boutique luxury.
Camping: The Catskill Forest Preserve offers dozens of DEC campgrounds and hundreds of backcountry campsites. North-South Lake Campground in Haines Falls is the most popular, with lakeside sites and direct access to Kaaterskill Falls and escarpment trails. Woodland Valley Campground near Phoenicia is a quieter option in a deep hemlock valley. Backcountry camping is permitted on state land at elevations below 3,500 feet and more than 150 feet from trails and water — and it is free.
Mid-Range: The Catskills have embraced the boutique B&B and renovated motel category with enthusiasm. The Graham & Co. in Phoenicia is a stylishly converted motel with a pool, fire pit, and clean-lined rooms. The Spruceton Inn in West Kill is a farmhouse-turned-inn with a restaurant and cocktail bar. Numerous Airbnb and VRBO cabins dot the mountains, ranging from rustic to architect-designed.
Luxury: Urban Cowboy Lodge in Big Indian offers A-frame cabins with wood-fired hot tubs and mountain views. Scribner’s Catskill Lodge in Hunter reinvents the mid-century motel as a design hotel with a heated pool, sauna, and restaurant. Emerson Resort & Spa in Mount Tremper provides full-service spa treatments and polished country rooms.
Getting Around and Practical Details
The Catskills are a driving destination. Mountain towns are connected by two-lane roads that wind through valleys and over passes, and distances that look short on a map take longer than expected. Route 28 is the main east-west corridor through the heart of the mountains. Route 23A connects the northern Catskills to the Thruway via Kaaterskill Clove — one of the most dramatic mountain roads in the Northeast, climbing through a gorge with Kaaterskill Falls thundering alongside.
Cell service is unreliable throughout the mountains. Entire valleys have no signal. Download offline maps before you arrive and do not rely on your phone for navigation in remote areas. This is part of the charm, but also a practical reality.
Gas stations are less frequent than you might expect. Fill up in Kingston, Phoenicia, or Tannersville before heading into the backcountry. Many businesses in smaller towns are cash-only or have unreliable card processing.
The Catskill Forest Preserve, established in 1885, protects approximately 700,000 acres of state land under the “forever wild” clause of the New York State Constitution — the same protection that covers the Adirondacks. This means no development, no logging, and no motorized vehicles on state land. Hunting and fishing are permitted in season with appropriate licenses. Trailhead parking is free at all DEC access points.
- Friday Night Rule: Leave the city by 3 PM on Friday or wait until 8 PM. The 4-6 PM window on the Thruway northbound is brutal — what should be a 2.5-hour drive becomes 4 hours of crawling through traffic. Sunday return is the same in reverse. Leave by 10 AM or after 6 PM.
- Swimming Hole Permits: The Peekamoose Blue Hole requires a free DEC permit on weekends and holidays from May through September. Reserve online in advance — they fill up. Arrive early even with a permit, as the experience is best before the crowds arrive.
- Fall Foliage Timing: Peak color in the Catskills typically hits the second and third weeks of October, about a week earlier at higher elevations. The best drives are Route 23A through Kaaterskill Clove, Route 214 from Phoenicia to Hunter, and Route 30 through the Pepacton Reservoir area. Book lodging months ahead for October weekends.
- Fly Fishing Starter Move: If you have never fly fished, book a half-day guided trip on the Esopus or Beaverkill. A good guide will have you casting within 30 minutes and possibly catching trout by afternoon. The sport looks intimidating but the Catskills streams are where it was literally invented for a reason — the water is perfect for learning.
- Winter Midweek Secret: Ski Hunter, Windham, or Belleayre on a Tuesday or Wednesday and you will barely wait in a lift line. Weekend skiing at these resorts can feel like a subway platform with ski boots. Midweek, you get the mountain to yourself at lower prices.
- Pack Layers Always: Mountain weather shifts fast. A summer day that starts at 80 degrees in the valley can drop to 55 at a summit or when clouds roll in. In spring and fall, temperature swings of 30 degrees between morning and afternoon are normal. Bring a fleece and rain shell on every hike regardless of the forecast.
The Catskills do not overwhelm you. They do not have the scale of the Rockies or the grandeur of Glacier. What they do, better than almost any mountain landscape in America, is absorb you. You drive north from the city and the mountains close in gently — first as shapes on the horizon, then as forested walls on either side of the road, then as the entire world. The creek beside you is cold and clear. The trail ahead climbs through hemlock shade into spruce forest that smells like the north. The town at the bottom of the valley has a brewery, a fly shop, and a bar where nobody asks what you do for a living. By the second day, you have forgotten what day it is. By the third, you have forgotten that the city exists at all. That is the Catskills’ ancient trick — the same one that drew Thomas Cole, and the Borscht Belt vacationers, and the half-million souls who gathered at Yasgur’s farm. These mountains are close enough to reach on a whim and wild enough to make you forget why you ever need to leave.