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Maybe if you're from one of the great western states with their huge mining operations and vast caverns and passageways where once solid rock stood a small mine isn't going to impress. But we aren't and boy did our jaw drop when we carefully walked into the gloomy dark of the Widow Jane Mine. There's no elevator dropping away beneath you, there's no rail system with charming little tracks and cute little cars, all there is is a great hole.

As you approach the Widow Jane Mine all you see are a couple of large holes punched into the face of a tall cliff, holes at ground level. Walking up to them you suddenly realize they are actually vast, great gaping cavities with a looming darkness beyond. Standing in one of these entrances you suddenly feel small, tiny in comparison and before you is a immense darkness stretching into the distance. Descend a ramp and you find yourself in a expansive cavern, huge pillars of stone supporting the ceiling, and the room going back and yet further back into darkness.

It's an awe inspiring space on many levels. First and most obvious is its sheer scale, the dimensions of this excavation is immense. Water drips from somewhere filling a pool as the floor slopes downward. Light filters in from the openings trying to cut into the darkness, and failing. The second and more powerful sensation is less tangible, the effort, the sheer physical effort undertaken by nameless and uncounted people to hack the resources of the mine from the grip of the mountain. When this mine was dug technology was simpler and less sophisticated. This mine was dug with picks and shovels and black powder. This mine is the life effort of people, the sweat and pain of real men struggling against the rock.

Created to claim the vast lime resources to feed a booming cement industry made large by the D&H Canal running just yards away, the Widow Jane Mine now lies quietly behind a shady glen with mossy banks and dappled sunlight. You almost stumble across it down a grassy path, turn a corner and before you a short distance away are the entrances. Artifacts of the once vital economic engine of the Valley, the cement industry, lie beneath an enveloping blanket of vines and thickets of limbs all around you, peering from the shade. Remnants of the old kilns tower from behind a curtain of leaves and old hand trucks and implements lie beneath a layer of leaves. You are invited to explore the mine and grounds on your own at your pace not being interrupted by a streaming narrative. Or you can request a guide go with you and inform you of the site. It's a quiet and almost tranquil experience giving you the time to approach the mine, and recover from its impact.

Located on the grounds of the Century House, the Widow Jane Mine and associated small museum are one of any number of struggling historic sites in the Hudson Valley, little visited and a little off the beaten path. Even if you are looking for it, because of the configuration of roads and quick turns you can entirely miss it, we did twice. But it is absolutely worth taking the time to find it and experience its power and presence. Odd in a way to say that a void has a presence, but it does, it absolutely does.

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For some reason just about everyone is fascinated by lighthouses. Maybe its the romance they create, maybe its the isolation and separateness they embody, maybe its just the sheer pleasure of climbing up and getting a better view?

Whatever the reason, you will love the Saugerties Lighthouse!

The Saugerties Lighthouse is the only lighthouse in the Hudson Valley that you can actually walk out to. Located down a rustic path at the end of a nature preserve, the Saugerties Lighthouse is an excursion out into the middle of the river through a tranquil woodland out to a tranquil and peaceful isolation. The nature preserve is a result of the jetty lining the northern edge of the Esopus Creek and the dredging necessary to improve this important 19th century industrial harbor. Over the last century the spoils were added to by the currents of the river itself and were inhabited by water loving trees and shrubs. The result is a tranquil preserve rich in species providing a haven for all manner of wildlife and migrating birds.

From the banks of the preserve as well as from the lighthouse itself the views of the mighty Hudson River swirling around you are magnificent. The deep blue of the river continues to provide one of the best transportation pathways into the interior of New York with huge ships plying the waters between upstate and New York Harbor. Uncountable small pleasure craft, from small sailboats to large pleasure craft, skip across the waves filled with happy people out for a day on the river. You wave at them from your perch atop the lighthouse and they happily wave back, each of you beckoning to the other to experience the delights you are having.

Being a river lighthouse, the Saugerties Lighthouse is a short beacon only 46 feet above the river. But this seemingly short distance gets you up into the air high above the surrounding trees and landscape, giving you a complete panoramic view of the river and the banks. Once you reach the top you will want to spend some time enjoying this magnificent view.

Be sure to go to the lighthouse when it is open to the public so you can see the inside of the fully restored keepers house and climb the light. Access to the lighthouse is on weekend and holiday afternoons from Memorial Day to Columbus Day. But be aware that you can access the interiors of the lighthouse at other times too! The Keepers House is run as the most unique Bed & Breakfast in the Hudson Valley. Two of the bedrooms upstairs accommodate overnight guests in simple yet comfortable surroundings. Spend the night on the river for a real experience you will never forget!

But at any time you can walk the Nature Preserve out to the lighthouse and wander the decks and two small artificial islands on which it sits. At any time the views are spectacular and the experience is one you will always remember.

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Scattered around the world are hotels of such stature and history they can quietly sit without the need to advertise heavily to attract tourists and visitors. They are so famous that they are just known, their accommodations are sought after and their reservations lists are usually full. Each has a unique attraction bringing people to them, a distinct ambiance and distinctive hospitality that sets them apart from all other places in the world. They just are the best of the best, the reason for the trip not just a place to stay while on a trip.

Mohonk Mountain House is one of these very special places.

First constructed in 1869 on the deep blue waters of isolated Lake Mohonk high atop the Shawangunk Ridge, this 251 room Victorian wood and stone castle is the sole survivor in the competition of the great New York mountain resorts. The Mountain House and its surrounding thousands of acres of protected lands were the creation of Albert and Alfred Smiley, Quakers believing in the pure life and healthful regenerative powers of nature. Beyond the hotel, Mohonk offers 85 miles of hiking trails, tennis, golf, swimming in the lake, golf, horseback riding, carriage rides, spa services, children's programs and all manner of low impact winter sports.

The Mountain House itself is a marvel of wood and stone work. It's interior and exterior surfaces are the pallet for exuberant rustic Victorian details. The main stairway rises straight up in an explosion of plainness and functionality subtly overlaid with the pride of workmanship an overwhelming belief in the absolute beauty of wood. The paneled walls of the public rooms glow with rich oak and pine and in the cooler months the great fireplaces are ablaze with scented woods filling the parlors with another warm glow. On any of the 238 private balconies or any of the many public porches you must sit in one of the countless rocking chairs to have a true Mohonk experience. Sit rocking gently and people watch, enjoy the sun and the brisk clean breezes caressing you and fall into a nap only to be surprised at how relaxed you feel when you awaken.

Mohonk is that kind of place, it invites you to relax into a totally different aesthetic, to experience life in a simpler and more gracious time. Walk the trails up to the Observation Tower atop the ridge for an extraordinary view of the Shawangunks and Hudson River Valley. Scramble about in the boulders or stroll the easy carriage paths, take a paddle boat out onto the lake or join in a group ride on horses down at the barn. Take a carriage ride out to the lookout points for a leisurely journey into the landscape or wander on your own, Mohonk is about the incomparable landscape and being outdoors in regenerative nature. It encourages you to suspend your hectic life for a little while and enjoy yourself and your companions. You are lulled past your disbelief in your ability to relax and recline into a slower pace. The formal gardens lure you to sit and look and the rustic crafted "buena vista" huts out on the trails trick you into stopping and gazing out at the world. By the end of your stay the unique castle, the extraordinary grounds and the spectacular setting will win you over.

Not the least expensive place to stay and not a place you can just drive up to for a room, Mohonk Mountain House is more than worth the little effort and dent in your credit card to experience. It is the final remnant of a time and philosophy of hospitality that has all but died in our frenetic world. It's a throwback to a belief that a sense of place and differentiation are important. Mohonk is the last grand and glorious New York mountain resort that attracted Presidents and the top of society. Mohonk offers classic music concerts and afternoon teas, walks in nature and the pleasures of polite social interactions. Mohonk is the last unspoiled resort shunning commercialism rooted in its belief of stewardship and preservation. Go to Mohonk for an afternoons hiking or a weekend stay, you'll be transformed.

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Stretching 50 miles from the New Jersey border at Port Jervis northeast past Rosendale in a series of rolling ridges and escarpments, the Shawangunks, or "Gunks", form a unique environment and ecosystem. World famous for their hiking and cliff climbing, the Gunks are also recognized for the uniqueness of their habitat and the rarity of the many species of plants and animals that life on them.

The Northern Shawangunks are protected by a network of public and private parks and preserves containing a magnificent 26,000 acres of protected lands. Minnewaska State Park, the Mohonk Preserve and the Nature Conservancy are the main players in this complex patchwork of preservation and public access. The reasons for the heavy visitation to the Gunks range from an incomparable trail system, world class cliff climbing, the rare and protected micro ecosystems, extraordinary landscape and mountain vistas and the sheer beauty of the place. Primary among all of this is the location of the Gunks, within a two hour drive of New York City.

The reasons for your going to the Gunks can be any of the above, just make sure you go. The experiences you can have in the Gunks are unlike anywhere else in the world. The unique geology of the Gunks makes experiencing them one of the things you absolutely must do in the Hudson Valley. Gently rising from broad valleys in the northwest, the Gunks suddenly split along their eastern face into a series of cliffs and escarpments exposing the white limestone glistening in the sun. The escarpments parade along the length of the Gunks making them visible from great distances as you travel the Valley.

From atop these cliffs you are provided some of the most spectacular views in the world. To the east lies the mighty Hudson River and its broad valley, to the west and north rise the majestic Catskill Mountains with all the lore and legends filling their quiet valleys and dells. Before you and behind you the white cliffs of the Gunks themselves march away cradled in a verdant cloak of green. From atop or below the cliffs surrounding Route 44/55 you can watch the dozens of courageous and slightly crazy people into the sport of cliff climbing. They dangle from ropes and tiny little metal anchors swaying in the breeze calling out to each other.

On the north side of the ridge are miles and miles of trails of all challenge levels. Broad level carriage paths compete with boulder scrambling to attract people. You can stroll for days along the many trails out into the varied environments, from dense hardwood forests on the lower levels up to the windswept distorted pitch pine stands seemingly growing up out of the very surface of the stone. Spectacular "sky lakes" dot the ridge providing extraordinary swimming in cold mountain water and dozens of cascading streams carve out falls and ravines as they fall down the ridge side. Dense hemlock forests give way to the dappled sunlight of arching maples that give way to meadows and pastures from old farms. Different access areas on the Gunks lead you to dramatically different environments.

Take your mountain bikes out on the trails, put on your cross country skis or snowshoes and trek the way along the roads and trails. Spend a quiet afternoon observing the wildlife or watching the hundreds of species of birds that make the Gunks their temporary or permanent homes. Many species of small mammals as well as bears make the Gunks their home giving the Gunks a rich and varied population. The Gunks are about day tripping into nature, spending a glorious day in the great outdoors. Go to the Gunks for an experience and a landscape and some of the most incredible views to be had in the Hudson Valley.

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The combination of its collections, its setup, its location and its staff makes the Hudson River Maritime Heritage Museum one of the must go locations in the Hudson Valley. The museum is about the ships and boats of the river, the uses of the river, the life of the river and the history of the river, all rolled up and presented in an open, interesting and kid friendly way.

Located at the Rondout in Kingston, the atmosphere of the area is fun and jovial, almost a fair every day of the year. The Rondout is the old port of Kingston now with its streets lined with excellent restaurants and gift and curiosity shops. The main marina for Kingston is down in the Rondout making sure that at all times of the year there will be boats of every description tied up at the docks and slips. Historic trolleys run up and down Broadway in season past the museum and next door the cruise boat Rip Van Winkle takes on and disembarks its passengers. Just up the road the Kingston Visitor Center gives out information and shows exhibitions on the history of the Rondout.

The area is alive with activity, people are always walking about and just being in the Rondout is fun. Walking into the Maritime Museum just builds pleasure on top of pleasure. They have a collection of prints and paintings of historic boats that have plied the waters of the Hudson. Deeper inside the museum is a vast room filled to near overflowing with artifacts from some of the great steamships of the Hudson River. Small boats are tucked between giant propellers, ephemera is stacked between life jackets. It's a fun and friendly exploration into the world of the river and its history.

At the museum you can buy an inexpensive ticket and board a launch that will take you out to the Rondout Lighthouse in the river where the Rondout Creek joins the mighty Hudson. It's a pleasurable short ride out past the remnants of commercial life on the river. Out at the lighthouse informed guides take you into the lighthouse past evolving restorations and up to the top of the tower itself. From this vantage point you can gaze out across the harbor, the river and the Rondout marching up the hill to Kingston.

While visiting the museum and lighthouse remember that the harbor at the Rondout was one of the most important trade harbors in the country. The D&H Canal met the Hudson River at the Rondout making this harbor the transit point of the Pennsylvania coal that powered New York City, the transit point of the cement industry that built New York City and the transit point of goods and produce from the interior of the country that fed and sustained New York City. In its day the Rondout was one of the busiest ports in America providing the backbone of the colossus of New York.

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In our 21st century mind the history of a place is almost always experienced through the homes and artifacts of the rich and famous. We walk through the magnificent homes and wander the spectacular recreated gardens restored from an earlier age. To a great extent this results from economy, the rich stayed and maintained their ancestral homes, their structures survived because by their nature they were expensive and worth keeping.

Daily life is a harder thing to approach. The homes and places of ordinary people are almost always either torn down or transformed beyond recognition as historic places. We build and rebuild and then rebuild again as time passes and neighborhoods transform from village centers to commercial streets. The early history of a place becomes obliterated by time and the march of progress.

However, every so often a confluence of people and events accidentally happens preserving an area. And even more rarely somehow a series of events, people and economics converge to accidentally preserve the actual original structures and homes of a centuries old place. Huguenot Street in New Paltz is one of those extremely rare and very precious places where the confluence of time and events conspired to pass by and leave the historic and founding heart of a place nearly intact, waiting for you to explore what life was really like.

Huguenot Street, now a National Historic Landmark, is the oldest continuously inhabited street in America with its original houses, a wonderful collection of early Dutch vernacular homes. Built by the original Patentee holders between about 1692 and 1720, Huguenot Street is one of the very few places left in America where you can actually go back in time 300 years and touch the original emigrants to America. Founded in 1677, New Paltz represents one of the earliest periods of exploration and settlement in our history. In these very structures the original settlers of New Paltz gathered together for protection, lived their lives as farmers and shop keepers and gathered together to maintain their unique Huguenot identity and religion.

In the spring of 1678 eleven Huguenot families arrived on the promontory overlooking the Wallkill River and established the settlement of New Paltz. Within 20 years they were building their permanent stone homes, erecting their stone church and expanding their farms and families. It is these very same stone houses that still remain on Huguenot Street waiting for you.

Touring the houses of Huguenot Street is an extraordinary experience. You are guided by well informed locals enthusiastic in their interests and knowledge and wanting to bring you into the experience of Huguenot Street. Amazingly, Huguenot Street is operated by a small typically under-funded historic society constantly struggling to keep up with the necessary preservation as well as struggling to upgrade the reconstruction, restoration and furnishings of this unique collection of houses. Each of the houses is "sponsored" by one of the original family associations that keep alive the pride and history of their family, resulting in a slightly erratic collection of furnishings. Over the centuries, as these houses were lived in changes were made, additions were erected and in one case an entire Victorian structure was superimposed burying the original stone structure.

Despite all of this, or possibly as a result of all of this, Huguenot Street displays the full history of New Paltz. Some interiors and structures are virtually intact back to the 17th century while some show more recent activity. Huguenot Street proudly represents this vital timeline of history and family pride like no other place in the country. You are taken right back to some of the original settlers, their lives and their artifacts. And you are brought forward in time into the middle 20th century with some families, displaying the vast richness of artifacts and collections brought together and made possible only because of the passage of centuries and a dedication to heritage.

Experience Huguenot Street, wander the street beneath the shady trees. Stroll and explore the cemetery where the passage of time is displayed in the stones. Tour the houses and discover the museum, listen to your guide and ask the questions you want answered. You'll discover this most unique location and the richness of American History as it passed through and between this unparalleled collection of historic homes. You'll find nothing like it anywhere else, no matter where you roam.

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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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