Catskillmountaineer.com Forum

So I needed to get to Thomas cole, and decided to head over Blackdome since I liked the views from there, and especially enjoy the Batavia Kill. I brought my brother-in-law up for his first hike in the Catskills. He's only hiked in NJ. So it was a bit of a shocker for him, but I think he had fun.

It was 70 and sunny. It was really buggy and there was a constant hum at the tops of the mountains from all the flies. The views were great, and we even saw a black bear on our drive in.


Driving in from the south. The Blackhead range.


one of two bridges.


The water was cold and refreshing, I dunked my hat and was good to go.


Spring


Blackhead from the switchbacks.


Where we're headed. Time to climb!


The trail now heads almost vertical. This is my favorite part.


Frank has never seen anything like it. Blackhead behind us we head up.


Some fun rocks


Spectacular view


First Catskill viewpoint.


Head back up the trail, a little bit more to go.


Here we are on the summit


Second viewpoint in the Catskills. We had lunch here, and were swarmed with several thousand flies and bees and flies that looked like bees.


on the way to Thomas Cole I spotted a lot of these.


Descending Blackdome, I said "boy thomas cole sure looks a lot further away in real life than on the map." Frank just stopped and stared LOL.


I dunno if this rock is the summit, but after this spot in the wood the trail just started to go down. So we decided this was the highest point, and headed back.


KHP and some DP from Black Dome


I love these trees.




Batavia Kill again


There were hundreds of painted trillium.

Nice pictures. I like this hike. I have done it from both ways. You guys picked a great day to do the hike. The views were great and it was so clear. Glad to see you guys had a good time.

Great pictures Jon! Looks like you guys had a great time. Good time of year to do it too.