Location	Trip Time	Travel Type
New York	1.5 hour

Sample Stories

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Arkville & Margaretville

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Jeff Senterman: So right now we are at the Erpf Center, which is the home to the Catskill Center. And we're in beautiful downtown Arkville, and right across from the railroad. I'm Jeff Senterman. I'm the executive director of the Catskill Center. I have lived and worked in the Catskills for a number of years. The Catskill Center has been around since 1969, and our mission has always been to preserve and enrich the economic, environmental, and cultural well-being of the Catskills. Something that is unique about the Erpf Center here in Arkville is that not only is it the home to The Catskill Center, and other non-profits, it also has the Erpf gallery, the Catskill Mountain Quilters Hall of Fame, and public resources like a visitor information and a little bookstore, so folks can stop in, enjoy the works of art that art that are up in the gallery, explore the Quilters Hall of Fame, pick up a guide book or a map, and then be on their way to explore the rest of the Catskills. The most unique part of Arkville is that we are home to the Delaware and Ulster rail ride, and it takes you on a ride through multiple villages here, right through the heart of the central Catskills, and kind of gives you a feeling for what visitors back in the late 1800s experienced as they were coming into this area. You can be eating lunch or breakfast at our little caboose here in town, and you can hear the train whistle, and you can watch the train go by. Arkville is also home to a couple different restaurants. We have a new distillery in town that's producing local Catskill spirits, and then just down the street in Margaretville, we have a number of Main Street businesses in a vibrant Main Street area that welcomes visitors and residents alike. Margaretville is home to a number of interesting places to shop, a couple of great restaurants to choose from, there's information that's provided by the Central Catskills Chamber of Commerce, with a little visitor center, so folks can get information. And there's a river walk. There's actually a trail that starts right in Margaretville and starts to climb a mountain, right from Main Street. Another really interesting thing about Arkville and Margaretville is that we're home to the Catskill Recreation Center, which is a state-of-the-art recreation facility here in the central Catskills. It has a full Olympic-size swimming pool, it has a weight room, exercise equipment. And it was a wholly-driven non-profit exercise, developed to help the communities here, but it also had become an amazing resource for everybody surrounding this area, and for people that are visiting and that want to be able to work out while they're here. The Erpf Center, along with the Catskill Center, and the Erpf gallery, and the Quilters Hall of Fame, and the visitors' shop, are all open to the public, Monday through Friday, from 9 to 5; and on Saturdays from 10 to 2.

Woodland Valley Hiking

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Paul Misko: Oh, hi! Okay, my name is Paul Misko. My family bought a place in Woodland Valley back in 1960, and since that time I've been coming up here with them. So I've been enjoying the upper part of Woodland Valley especially, hiking the mountains around here: Wittenberg, Slide, Cornell, Giant Ledge of course, many times slept out on Giant Ledge. I started one of the many hiking groups in the Catskills, the Catskill 4000 Club. There's a great group, the 3500 Club, and they do a lot of great work and such, but I don't have time for 35 mountains, so I just picked the two tallest, Slide and Hunter, and started the 4000 Club, and it's just a small group, but we do service projects. If you go to Hunter Mountain and use the outhouse, we put a new toilet seat there. Paul Misko's dry wit, nature knowledge, and history, makes him an all-around excellent hiking guide. He led us up an all bark road as we approached the north side of Slide Mountain. Paul Misko: Now you can go on Route 47. There is the official state DEC Slide Mountain trailhead, and from there you can climb Slide, I've done it in an hour and 15 minutes. It's a relatively short hike for climbing the highest mountain in the Catskills. And you want to always go prepared. We always are amazed at people that climb these big mountains with nothing but a water bottle and a camera. You've got to bring some emergency gear, because, especially on Slide, the weather can get bad all of a sudden, and I've seen that happen many times. Bring a jacket, you know, a fleece, a rain jacket. At least one flashlight. You're saying, "Well, we'll be back in the afternoon." You don't know that. Bring a fire starter, a lighter, a book of matches, a map so you know where you're going. Make sure you check out the map before you start the hike. Bring enough to drink, extra food. All the emergency things you need can fit in a 4-pound fanny pack. So it's not a lot of gear, but it could make all the difference when you're lost in the woods. And it's almost comical to see people up there on the summit, whip out their phone, they want to call a friend, and they're like, "Hey, I don't get any service." There's a sign-in box at the beginning of most of the main trails. You know, you're not back for dinner, and you're supposed to be, the ranger can go to that box and see if you signed out. If you didn't sign out, then you're probably still on the mountain somewhere hurt, and they know to send a rescue party. If you did sign out, they know you might be at a bar having way too many drinks or something, but at least they know, they have an idea whether to start a search on the mountain or not. So don't just blow by the sign-in box. I sign in every time; such a simple thing to do can save so much agony.

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About This Tour

The Catskill Mountains Scenic Byway tour follows the historic and beautiful New York Route 28 Scenic Byway. As drivers take in sweeping mountain views and charming small towns, the tour serenades them with stories of the Catskill region's history, landscape, and culture, told by the people who call it home.

The Catskill Park, which stretches over 700,000 acres of public and private land, is home to 300 miles of hiking trails, world-class trout streams, and four major ski centers. In addition, there are towns and villages full of artisan shops, farm-to-table restaurants, historical sites, and cultural attractions.

The tour invites visitors to interact with the region more profoundly and get off the beaten track with audio guides that know the area inside and out.

Listeners are introduced to Big Indian Mountain and the Legend of Winnisook: Big Indian's namesake, as told by MaryLou Stapleton, whose family has deep roots in the Big Indian Oliverea Valley. The history of farming in the Catskills is told by Burr Hubbell, including a stop at Hubbell Farm, where the Hubbells have worked the land since the American Revolution.

At one of the stops on the tour, our Catskill Interpretive Center in Mount Tremper, NY, you'll find local maps, visitor information, and friendly staff and volunteers ready to answer your questions or help you plan your next Catskills adventure.

Other sites on the tour include Askokan Reservoir, Empire State Railway Museum, and areas in the Big Indian Wilderness.

The stories of the citizens and settlers of the Catskills illustrate the uniqueness of the region.

The tour demonstrates how visitors and locals alike can enjoy the Catskills. It tells listeners of good places to fish, hike, and even paddle.

This audio tour allows listeners to hear the stories of the Catskills as they travel at the pace of their own curiosity. Depending on how many stops you take, the tour should be about one hour driving on the corridor of State Route 28, known as the Catskill Mountains Scenic Byway.

Tour Sponsors
This tour is presented by the Catskill Center, a nonprofit organization committed to preserving and enriching the economic, environmental, and cultural well-being of the Catskills. Since 1969, the Catskill Center has led the effort to protect more than 700,000 acres of the Catskill Park and Catskill Forest Preserve. Its mission is to protect and foster the environmental, cultural, and economic well-being of the Catskill region.

Find More Tours Near You
If you are interested in more audio tours in the region, check out Gateway to the Catskills. To find more tours throughout New York State or wherever your travels may take you visit TravelStorys.com. Every place has a story.

TRAVELSTORYSGPS

TRAVELSTORYSGPS

Catskill Mountains Scenic Byway

``I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order.`` — John Burroughs

Sample Stories

Arkville & Margaretville

Woodland Valley Hiking

About This Tour