Marvellous fall colours in the Catskills

Driving through The Catskills in New York State at the beginning of October was like driving through a Thomas Cole painting - the rich and vibrant colours of the sun-filled autumn landscape filled me with an overwhelming sense of awe at the beautiful scenery around us. Or maybe it was the fact that we had climbed 2,000 feet during our relatively short drive and I was suffering from altitude sickness? Nevertheless, I was impressed.

With the speed limit at 35-40mph along the winding, 2-lane highway, it was a relaxing, and definitely beautiful drive, and even D had a chance to enjoy the autumn scenery in all its splendour.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when people said they were vacationing in the Catskills, this is where they were going. Thousands of visitors would travel to the area every summer to vacation and breath in the fresh, clean mountain air. The Ulster and Delaware Railroad, who owned the Kaaterskill Railway, was known as “The Only All-Rail Route To The Catskill Mountains”. At one time, there were holiday cottages, boarding houses, and even a grand 1,200 room hotel along the Kaaterskill route, though today only the foundations of some of the buildings are left, and even those are difficult to make out in the dense overgrowth. Fortunately, the 1913 Ulster & Delaware Train Station at Haines Falls is still standing, and has been fully restored, though not open the day we were there.

The original 1913 U&D train station at Haines Falls

We stopped for a break in Haines Falls and walked several scenic miles along the old Kaaterskill Rail Trail to Kaaterskill Falls, the highest waterfall in New York. Sadly, the falls were merely a trickle as there hadn't been much precipitation over the summer, but still quite pretty.

The railway ties are all that's left of the old railway

Kaaterskill Falls was just a trickle when we visited

Interesting to note: the name Kaaterskill is Dutch for Wildcat Creek, and is thought to be the origin of the name of the Catskill Mountains. the name may have come from a store named for the bobcats that lived in the area.