Red Hill Fire Tower in the Catskills

Friday, September 17, 2021

Hi Blog!

We woke this morning to another misty, moisty day in the Catskills. While the rain chances were low, so were the clouds. But since it wasn't actually raining, we decided to hit the trail. Because of the iffy weather, we settled on a short trail in the Sundown Wild Forest. The Red Hill Fire Tower is only 1.4 miles from the trailhead. After a beautiful drive along Rondout Creek, we donned our slickers and started up Red Hill.

The 30,100-acre Sundown Wild Forest covers a large swath of the southeast Catskills, including several ridges and 10 mountains over 2,000 feet. Sundown features an impressive mix of natural features - mountains, waterfalls, valleys and rivers - rich with trout streams, hiking destinations, hunting opportunities and snowmobile trails. The hike to the Red Hill Fire Tower offers unsurpassed views of the Catskill high peaks and the Rondout Reservoir -- assuming there are no low clouds or fog obscuring it. 

Kathy signs us in:

The trail circles the mountain, gaining elevation along the way. With all the recent rain, we passed a number of small waterfalls.

This part of the trail was just recently completed and opened to the public in February 2021. As Dave points out, the trail is well marked.

The Catskills began existence as a river delta 350 million years ago. Streams flowing off the then-mighty Acadian Mountains deposited sediment where the river met a sea. Eventually the mountains eroded and the waters dried up, leaving a mostly flat plain. Two hundred million years ago, as continental drift pushed up the Appalachians, the delta region rose almost uniformly into a plateau rather than breaking up into smaller mountains. Streams that formed over time eroded gaps and valleys, leaving today's Catskill "mountains." 

The trail took us along several exposed ledges. These rocks were once at the bottom of the sea.

Hiking on top of one of the ledges, is almost flat.

Time to climb up to the next ledge. Dave stops under an overhang. Water seeping under the top layer has created a hanging garden under the rocks.

We reached the top of Red Hill and first encountered a cabin.  Built in 1931, the Red Hill Observer's Cabin is one of the oldest remaining observer's cabins in New York, a rare intact example of the earlier style used by the then-state Conservation Commission. The tower and cabin are old enough to be considered contributing resources to the National Register of Historic Places.

One of the last state towers built, in 1920, the Red Hill Fire Tower filled a missing link in the Catskills' forest fire detection network. Observers working for the state conservation agencies manned the tower through 1990, making it the last fire tower closed in the Catskills. It was slated to be torn down in accordance with state policy prohibiting nonessential structures on Forest Preserve land. Preservationists and forest historians campaigned to save and restore it and four other Catskill fire towers, and they were listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 

We climbed the nine flights of stairs to the base of the observation platform. The platform was locked, so we couldn't reach the very top. The Catskill Center runs a volunteer program from May through October. Starting Memorial Day weekend in May, volunteers open the top cabin on weekends and holidays, and answer questions about the Catskill Park. 

While we couldn't get in, we could still peer out from the tower.  We peeked over the edge to see the picnic table below.

While the cloud ceiling had lifted, it hadn't lifted high enough. The surrounding mountains were lost in the mist.

We truly had our heads in the clouds! It made for some really spooky photos.

When out in nature, we rarely document our "nature calls." However, this privy deserves honorable mention. Not only did it have a motion-controlled solar light, beautiful nature photos, quilted toilet paper, an air freshener and hand sanitizer, it was completely devoid of musty odor.  We thought it unusual enough to merit special kudos, both in this blog and in the trail register when we returned to our trailhead!

We ate lunch on the porch of the Observers Cabin in a relatively dry patch. Another foggy band began to creep over the mountain. This little spider web caught tiny drops of water as the fog passed by.

After lunch, we began our descent back to the trailhead. We stopped at side trail which was marked as "Spring." Neither the trail map or the GPS noted a spring, so we were unsure how far off trail we would end up hiking before reaching the spring. Since our hike was relatively short, we decided to risk the extra yardage.

We didn't have to hike far before we heard the sound of water tumbling over rocks. Not only was water coming out of the pipe, but it was springing forth from various cracks and crevices in the rock wall.

Kathy didn't waste any time skipping over the rocks to the spring. The water coming from the pipe was ice cold. Scooping handfuls and pouring the water over her head, Kathy thoroughly enjoyed a refreshing cool down after a hot and muggy hike.

We only met two other sets of hikers all day. While we didn't get the big views, we really enjoyed having the trail to ourselves. The mist kept the bugs down, made everything really green and filled the woods with the sounds of babbling brooks and raindrops on leaves. There is a saying that there is no such thing as bad weather -- just bad clothing choices. Fear not the fog!