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More a state of mind than an actual place, the Catskill Mountains State Park is a vast area stretching across four counties in New York State. There is no welcoming center, there is no visitor kiosk, there is no office where you can go and get all the information you are searching for about the park. In fact, there is quite literally no park there.

Instead, what compromises the Catskill Mountains State Park is a tapestry of preserved state lands, various wilderness and wild areas owned and protected by New York State interwoven with private lands, homes, businesses, villages and hamlets. Overseen primarily by the Department of Environmental Conservation, these protected areas combine together to preserve for all time these antique mountains and the extraordinary richness of the environment.

Long of legend, the Catskills formed the backdrop of early colonization up and down the Hudson River. As an imposing physical barrier, they early established the limits of royal authority over the land. Seeming to spring up from the very banks of the mighty Hudson River, they were the stuff of mystery and lore stretching back into the mists of civilization. Honored and revered by Native Americans they were quickly transformed into the focus of folk lore and legend by the newly arriving Europeans. Their imposing high peaks and their hundreds of secret and hidden coves and dells were populated by myths and fables, strange powers and frightening sounds and apparitions. Venturing into these fabled mountains the unwary could fall to their spells and dominion.

In the hollowed bowl beneath the Kaaterskill Falls, Rip Van Winkle, an noted lethargist and back country idler, himself fell victim to the powers of the Catskills. Lured ever deeper into the misty forests and mossy glens, Rip fell victim to the powers of these mountains, time fell away and all that mattered in his life down in the valley passed on without him.

So to will you fall under the magical spells of the Catskills. One of the oldest ranges of mountains in America, the Catskills have been weathered, softened, rounded and carved into an inviting and friendly terrain. Although the highest peaks still reach skyward to over 3,500 feet, the Catskills form the perfect environment for hiking, back country skiing and wilderness adventure. They are traversed by hundreds of miles of developed and well maintained trails. Hiking in the Catskills ranges from the simple family friendly path to challenging mountain scrambling. As you walk the trails the scenery ranges from dense hardwood and hemlock forests carpeted with moss and dripping with water to escarpments with views stretching dozens of miles into the distance. Depending on the time of year and whether you are in a "Wild Area" or a "Wilderness Area" you may go for days without seeing another person or hearing a sound created by man.

The Catskills is filled with small and quaint hamlets and villages offering a range of accommodations from log cabins to luxury spas. If your idea of fun is camping under the stars, the Catskills has both private campgrounds as well as extremely well maintained public camping areas. Wilderness camping is permitted in certain areas as you hike the trails and backwoods of the Catskills.

For the more active outdoors entheuasists, the Catskills offer a range of possibilities. In the Greene County section of the Catskills are to be found the major ski centers of New York at Hunter Mountain and Windham. Various locations offer horseback riding and guided tours through the Catskills, small museums abound and centers of arts and music show and perform all levels of artistic expression. And throughout the Catskills innumerable ponds, streams and kills wander and cascade through the tumbled boulders under the canopy of the forest making for an ideal fly fishing experience. In fact, fly fishing was created and developed in the Catskills.

All in all, though a little difficult to approach and a little difficult to gather information on, the Catskills is a special place to visit and spend time. They require you to arrive and immerse yourself in their lore and relax into their reality. Time really does seem to stand still in the Catskills.

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As you go speeding along your way from one place to the next, the very unimposing Durham Center Museum sitting back off the side of the road is one of those places you will probably just drive on by without a second thought. It doesn't look like much, isn't really on the way to just about anywhere and with only rare exceptions you will only see one car parked over to the side under the trees.

But beware, if you choose to drive on down the road or not take that turn and wander back into the country side just a little, you are going to miss the most spectacular little museum in the entire Hudson Valley. We do not say this lightly or without careful consideration. As a travel guide we have been just about everywhere and wandered into and out of just about everything there is in the Hudson Valley. And in our opinion, no location in the Valley is a better visit, has more interesting stuff or more engaged people than this tiny little out of the way museum and collection.

When you first enter the museum you are going to say "Wow!" You'll probably just stand there for a moment trying to get your bearings and figure out which way to go first. It's a true and totally authentic small town country museum, filled from floorboards to rafters with stuff. Stuff of every possible description. Stuff of grandeur and stuff of mundane country life. Stuff piled upon stuff, stuff hanging from stuff and even more stuff sitting on other stuff.

The beneficiary of decades long local traditions of donations, the Durham Center Museum is filled with a dizzying array of artifacts and memorabilia. One case holds memorabilia from Lincoln's funeral, another holds mother of pearl encrusted vanity sets, another holds sheet music dating back probably to before time began. There are small vignettes populated by farm implements, farmers boots and farm wives handiwork. Pieces from the columns of the Catskill Mountain House loom from the background amidst extraordinary tramp and primitive furniture. The delicate stuff is housed in long country store display cases down the center of the room and in a myriad of glass front china cabinets and library cases down one side. The more robust stuff is hanging from the walls and ceilings and draped over the rafters.

And just about when you think you cannot possibly absorb any more, you discover a passageway into another set of rooms, an old schoolhouse filled with plates and kitchenware. Antique photos hang from the walls, posters and framed tat work fitted in between. A collection of stuffed animals lurk in the corner and woven hair ornaments in cases draw you to them. And all of this, virtually every single artifact in the museum, is lovingly and carefully identified with little hand written cards giving the details of the piece and where it came from.

All the while, the enthuastic curator or an engaging local docent will walk with you, pointing at things, explaining things, dropping back as you focus in on something, drawing your attention to special things hidden among the rest. In this bewildering assemblage of every description, having someone there to talk with and help you through the maze of local history and lore is a welcome addition to the experience. A friendly and inviting staff that is respectful of your desires is a real rarity these days. Their agenda is to make your visit and your exploration of their extraordinary collection a fun and educational experience.

Go to the Durham Center Museum, make a special trip, turn down that road and head off into the countryside. You will enjoy yourself and have an experience you and your whole family will enjoy and remember for ever.

And you see, we have kept our promise and not mentioned the bizarre yet very real two headed calf stuffed and hanging on one wall that brought fame and masses of visitors early in the museums history...

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I don't know about you, but when I think of old forests and ancient mountains I conjure up a picture in my head. That picture has a babbling stream cascading over boulders down a secret and quiet little valley. The sides of the valley are covered in dense forests hiding the near distance in floating vapors and shadows. It's a little damp and everything is covered in mosses and ferns. Mists drift along as I scramble along a simple path heading into something I know is wonderful, but that I also know I don't know. Legends and fables from my childhood are conjured up and from beneath the cool boulders and from under the layers of leaves I can see the fanciful beasts of my early imagination. Fairies and elves sprite amongst the shadows in a magical forest where the reality of the world has been banned. And sparkling in the distance is a waterfall spilling from a towering high cliff showering this hidden world with an effervescent and glittering rainbow of light. I take off my shoes and dangle my weary feet in the pool of the waterfall lazing in the dappled sunlight filtering in from overhead.

Well, guess what? Its real!

Kaaterskill Falls is a place of legend and a location of mystery. Long known, the falls were honored by Native Americans for their spiritual energy and as a place of the ethereal and mystical world. The very atmosphere of the place is evocative of magical possibilities. American tourists have flocked to the falls for over a hundred years, recognizing in them the splendor that is nature. In the 19th century, hotels and guest houses were erected atop the falls drawing tourists to their mystic spell.

Now, the falls have been allowed to turn themselves back into the primeval forests and dappled sunlight that is their true reality. The hike up the clove to New York's highest falls is an excursion back into the wilds of the early Catskills. Although not a very challenging trail, certain consideration must be given before casually approaching the walk. The trail is developed and maintained, but is an experience of cambering over roots and boulders, up and down steep slopes and coping with rough and uneven footings. It's a short adventure with a promise at each end.

To approach the trail to the falls, you must first reach the small parking area on Route 23A. Head west out of Palenville on 23A and start climbing up into the Catskills. A couple of miles in you will come to a very sharp hair-pin turn, the trailhead is now just behind you. Continue up the road and very quickly you will see a small parking area on the left, south side, of the road. Pull in being careful as the parking areas is on a turn in the road. LOCK YOUR CAR and carefully walk back down Route 23A to the trail head.

The trail to the falls is about a mile and a half long. Take your time, pack a picnic and have your camera loaded. Don't rush along the trail, take your time, sit on a table rock, dangle your feet and watch for the elves. In high summer, Kaaterskill Falls is a fairly popular trail and destination, so expect people. You'll see all kinds of people in season, youth scrambling along, older people carefully walking, whole families of adults and children chatting and laughing, and as they pass, it grows silent again, very fast, and the splendor and magic of the place invades in again.

Once you get to the falls, there are a number of very large table rocks that you can sit on and enjoy the view. The falls is actually two cascades, the upper and lower. Between the two is a pool carved out that you can wade in and sit in, although the water is colder than a you know what. When you are sitting enjoying the sunlight remember where you are. This is the place, this is the actual place of Rip Van Winkle's slumbers. This is the bowl carved out of the mountain where the elves bowled the night away under the flickering lights of their fires. It is on the mossy slopes of this very little valley that time stopped for Rip and the world passed him by. Allow yourself the chance to join him, even if for a brief moment. You might be surprised when you wake up!

On your hike back down to the road, almost as you reach the road the steam flattens out and plummets over the edge of a small escarpment down to the road. Walk out into the stream over the flat rock. Careful as you near the edge, but try and get as close as you can. On a good warm summer afternoon with the breeze just right, the mists come back up over the falls and quench the heat. If you haven't already, sit and have your picnic. On these rocks from this place the view is extraordinary.

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In a region made renowned in the 19th century for hospitality and gracious resorts, the Catskill Mountain House looms large as the most important and most famous of the Catskill resorts. In its day it drew potentates and presidents, millionaires and tycoons, the upper crust of society flowed onto and across its vast colonnaded porch overlooking the Hudson Valley from atop its high cliffside perch.

Everyone who was anyone took the steamship up the Hudson to Catskill and transferred to trains and carriages for the precipitous climb up to the Mountain House. People of culture and refinement flocked to the Catskills as part of the romantic movement centered on returning to the values of the natural and untamed world. A natural world, quite naturally held at bay and reformatted to the sensibilities and customs of the era.

The reward for the trip to the Catskill Mountain House was a resort where you were catered to and where your every need was seen to. But most of all, the reward was the setting and the view. Perched high up on the very edge of an escarpment, the Mountain House laid claim to the most spectacular location in all of the Catskill Mountains. Behind it a lake lazily rested reflecting the high peaks to the west in its blue toned waters and before it, the very mountains themselves fell dramatically away opening a 180 degree view stretching out across the Hudson Valley to the Berkshires in the east. Surrounding it was the majesty of nature and the great primeval forests covering the mountains.

Now long gone, the site of the Catskill Mountain House is now little more than a large clearing in the forest with some old pathways and a few piles of old stone foundations. What still draws people to the site is the view, the incomparable view afforded to anyone willing to take a very short walk on a well maintained path located at the eastern end of the North-South Lake State Campground. When you reach the site the mountains quite literally disappear and drip away and the mighty Hudson River cruises along in the middle of its wide alluvial plain. Farms dot the landscape as you look out across to the Taconic & Berkshire Mountains dozens of miles away in the east. To the north lies the capital city of Albany and south you can see down past Kingston. On a dark night with the sky clouded over with stars and the lights of country people flickering below, you would swear you are floating through the air.

This most spectacular of all views in the Hudson Valley is easily approached. Just enter the North-South Lake State Campground and drive till you cannot drive any more. You'll be in a dirt parking area past the beaches and a sign will point you to the path to the Catskill Mountain House. It's a fairly short path, possibly 1/4 mile, out to the site where you will be rewarded with the view. With a little effort, the trail is sort of handicapped accessible, but consideration should be given for a little assistance over a couple of rough spots.

Take a picnic and sit out on the lawn or over by the edge of the cliff. Make sure to go on a clear day. If you arrive on a humid August afternoon, all you will be rewarded with is a wall of gray haze as the nearest object down in the Valley that can be seen is quite literally over a mile away.

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How did they qualify to be included?

HV/Net has attempted to assemble for you the best, most important and most interesting sites to visit in the Hudson Valley. In other words, this is the "Must See" or "A List" of sites and attractions in the Valley. We have endeavored to go to every site, visit every historic museum, play at every attraction and delve into every hidden corner of the Valley to find and filter for you the best the Valley has to offer. We've walked, toured, pondered over, poked at, schlepped through, listened to and been interpreted at, we've slogged, enjoyed, been disappointed, trekked over, and sneezed at the dust of just about every place in the Hudson Valley there is.

From all of that, we have assembled the best of the best. Inclusion in this list was ultimately based upon a few basic criteria:

1. The site must be of major historical or cultural importance, or ;
2. The site must be a unique representation of its historic or cultural type, and therefore be of importance, or ;
3. The amusement or entertainment must be fun and exciting and ;
4. The location must be accessible, easy to find and worth the effort, and ;
5. The location must meet expectations of what should be found, and ;
6. The location must be clean, family friendly and safe, and ;
7. The staff must be friendly, helpful and willing to put in the effort to enhance your experience.

Exclusion from our list of the Must See Locations of the Hudson Valley doesn't mean a site or attraction isn't good or worth the time and effort to go. It does, however, indicate that the site or attraction is probably specialized in nature & not of broad general interest, may be difficult to find or get to and so given a limited amount of time..., or in a very few and thankfully extremely rare instances, may be dirty, perceptively unsafe or staffed by rude and unfriendly people.

HV/Net invites you and encourages you to explore the hundreds of sites and attractions in the Hudson Valley not on our Must See List. We provide you all the information we can on everything there is, just search through your listings.

But, armed with our Must See List and your knowledge of the amount of time you have and what your interests are, we think this is a start in your enjoyment of this most marvelous and historic of river valleys.

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