A little a bit of snow didn’t stop me this weekend. The blue skies and sunshine were encouraging on Saturday, so I headed down the thruway to tackle Slide Mountain, the tallest peak in the Catskills. The drive was beautiful, many roads and trees were speckled with snow. Haines Falls was bursting with water, much more so than when I last visited Kaaterskill Falls, so we stopped for a moment to gawk.
Then back on the road, because there wasn’t much daylight to waste. The parking lot was already quite busy by noontime, and we settling amongst the cars and geared up with earmuffs, gloves, scarves, and layers. The hike wasn’t as brutal as our last Catskill adventure, West Kill Mountain. There was quite a bit of uphill as to be expected, but much more reprieve to catch your breath with on this trail.
It was snowy the whole way up, not slippery though. It is 2.7 to the summit, and an out and back trail. As we neared the summit the sun began to peak gloriously through the evergreens. We began to see traces of a gorgeous vista through the trees.
The first overlook was stunning. The bare layering of mountains all in different hues of blue was breathtaking, and not just because I hiked up the mountain. It was truly a different scene from spring, summer, and fall…I had never seen a summit in the form before.
Walking a few steps past this view you reach the true summit marked by a stone.
As you head just past that there is an open field and then another gorgeous viewing area.
From here you can choose to continue on to Cornell Mt., or take the 2.7 hike back down to the parking area. We truly enjoyed this hike on this brisk and sunny afternoon, couldn’t have asked for anything more.