light house southern caskills

I was going norht on route 209 towards kingston and saw a rockface with what looks like a lighthouse on top. What was that and is there a trail to it?

The lighthouses in the Catskills area are the following:

The Esopus Meadows lighthouse north of Poughkeepsie and south of Kingston. It's in the middle of the hudson, no trail access.

Saugerties Lighthouse which is in Saugerties does have a rocky trail to it that you can hike or bike to.

the Hudson/Athen's lighthouse which is further north and closer to the east Hudson, I think has no trail access to it...

I've paddled to all of them but have not hiked to any of them... so pardon me if my info is incorrect though I'm sure of the Esopus Meadows and the Saugerties lighthouse..

Jay

Was it Sky Top at Mohonk? http://www.mohonk.com/recreation/rock_climbing.cfm

There are hiking trails to get to the top but you need to pay a day use fee for all access points that I am aware of.

mtnbound said:

Was it Sky Top at Mohonk? http://www.mohonk.com/recreation/rock_climbing.cfm

There are hiking trails to get to the top but you need to pay a day use fee for all access points that I am aware of.

Click to expand...

If you were North of Ellenville, and South of Stone Ridge, and it was off to your right (east), then I'd agree, Mohonk Tower.

Adk_dib said:

I was going norht on route 209 towards kingston and saw a rockface with what looks like a lighthouse on top. What was that and is there a trail to it?

Click to expand...

I also suspect you saw the Skytop Tower at the Mohonk Resort. There are several excellent views of the tower along US-209 between Kerhonkson and Accord. I do not have any digital photos from that perspective, but the view is very similar to some images at the resort link that mtnbound posted.

I quickly uploaded a few images of Skytop taken from Eagle Cliff, just across the lake from Skytop. The perspective is similar to the view from US-209, just closer. These were taken several years ago with a old, borrowed point and shoot camera. So the quality is not very good:

Click on the image to enter a photo gallery where there are a few more images. Or use this link. The last 5 images in this album are from the Labyrinth and Crevice scramble path up to Skytop. That is the most interesting way of climbing up to Skytop which employs some wooden ladders in the crevice / lemon squeeze. However, there are also many other easy trails and carriage roads up to Skytop.

Here is a more recent dSLR photo directly at the base of the tower:

Click on the image to enter the photo gallery with some additional photos, or use this link.

With a pair of binocs you can see that tower from the Redhill fire tower.

You can see Smiley's tower from numerous places in the catskills, pretty much anything with a view south towards the 'Gunks. I am always looking for Smileys on a southern viewpoint to get a bearing set..

Jay