Kaaterskill High Peak (officially just High Peak) is one of the Catskill Mountains, located in the Town of Hunter in Greene County, New York, United States. It was once believed to be the highest peak in the entire range, but its summit, at in elevation, places it only 23rd among the Catskill High Peaks. It is, however, the fourth most prominent peak in the range. Due to its situation as the easternmost High Peak, its summit is just outside the watersheds of New York City's reservoirs in the region.
Along with Round Top to the west, its distinctive ridgeline is a visual signature of the Catskills. Even today, it dominates the view of the range from the Hudson Valley. In the early 19th century, it was a frequent subject of works by Thomas Cole and other artists of the Hudson River School. Their works helped establish the Catskill Mountain House and other hotels around North-South Lake as the fashionable summer vacation spot for wealthy Americans of the era.
Despite that popularity, the mountain was admired from afar more often than it was climbed. Although it boasts the earliest recorded ascent of any Catskill peak, today it seems somewhat neglected, lacking an official trail to its summit. However, a well-used path does exist, and perhaps because of the light use the mountain gets it is very popular with the area's serious hikers, due to the views available from Hurricane Ledge south of the summit, and several other points of interest in the vicinity of the mountain.
Name
Originally, High Peak and Round Top had each other's names, due to the clear difference in topography between their summits. However, since what was called Round Top is clearly the higher of the two, confusion developed over which of the two peaks was really "High Peak". In the late 19th century, the higher peak officially became High Peak and the lower one Round Top.Evers, Alf, The Catskills: From Wilderness to Woodstock, Overlook Mountain Press, Woodstock, New York, 1972, 268-69. The "Kaaterskill" is from the nearby creek and clove, in order to distinguish it from other "High Peaks" and "Round Tops" in the range.
In the latter years of the 18th century, the peak was known as Liberty Cap for its similarity to the Phrygian cap popular during the American and French revolutions.
Geography
High Peak stands slightly apart from other major peaks in the Catskills, squarely in the middle of the Catskill Escarpment, the sudden rise of the peaks from the Hudson Valley floor. From the valley, it is easy to understand how it came to be seen as the highest peak in the Catskills, since there are no higher peaks close to it. It is bracketed by the only two gaps in the Escarpment — Platte Clove to the south and Kaaterskill Clove to the north.
As a mountain High Peak is somewhat unusual. Its slopes are spread out and rise gently for some distance, then a bit more steeply, to the summit dome, which is surrounded by rock cliffs at about in elevation. Above them the ground again curves gently upward to the summit, roughly at the dome's center.
Drainage from the north flows into Kaaterskill Creek, from the south to Plattekill Creek, both of which reach the Hudson River shortly afterwards without any major impoundment.
While High Peak is not among the highest Catskill peaks, because of its distance from other major peaks it ranks fourth in topographic prominence, after Slide Mountain, Hunter Mountain and Black Dome. High Peak's summit rises from the lowest elevation contour line that encircles it.
Round Top
The former High Peak, now Round Top, is an approximately summit located roughly a mile (1.6 km) west of High Peak's summit. While its distance and vertical separation from the col between the two qualify it as a separate peak entirely, it remains strongly enough associated with High Peak that it is often treated as its lower summit.
History
The first recorded ascent of Kaaterskill High Peak took place on July 26, 1793, when Peter DeLaBigarre, a French "agent" and frequent visitor to the nearby Clermont estate of Chancellor Robert Livingston, who published him regularly in Transactions, the journal of the Society for the Promotion of Agriculture, Arts and Manufactures. One of DeLaBigarre's accounts in 1794 described his adventures in the Catskills the year before. Most of his narrative was given over to a springtime trip to Overlook Mountain and North-South Lake, but on the later day he records that he brought a "natural philosopher" friend along with a barometer and climbed "Round Top", which he believed to be the highest Catskill peak, renaming it Liberty Cap in honor of the political change in his homeland. The companion determined the mountain's summit to be above sea level, only about short of its accepted elevation today.Evers, op. cit., 263, 267. This is the earliest recorded climb of any Catskill High Peak.
His visit and account laid the groundwork for the early years of the next century, when a young Thomas Cole would visit the Catskill Mountain House and devote much of his groundbreaking Hudson River School paintings to depictions of the Catskill wilderness. High Peak, visible from the Mountain House as well as from the studio and home he built in Catskill, would frequently show up in the background. The popularity of his art in turn brought more guests to the Mountain House (and later, the Kaaterskill and Laurel hotels) to see it for themselves.
One of those visitors, Princeton geography professor Arnold Henry Guyot, spent much of his summers in the early 1870s striking out to other mountains in the region. He easily became convinced that High Peak was not, as the hoteliers claimed, the high peak of the Catskills. His candidates turned first to other popular local suspects such as Black Dome (known as "Black Top" at the time), then Hunter Mountain and finally to Slide Mountain, in an inland area to the southwest known at the time as the Shandaken Mountains and dismissed by the hotelkeepers as a different range entirely.Evers, op. cit., 492.
He brought his surveying equipment and assistants along, and wound up producing the first accurate map of the Catskill Mountains. Slide's put it well above High Peak, now consigned to 23rd on his list (he would also pioneer the switch in names between High Peak and Round Top, once he had established which was higherEvers, op. cit., 495.) The resort owners protested and tried to discredit his findings, but they were solid and by 1879 other surveyors had confirmed them.Evers, op. cit., 493. When New York established its Forest Preserve several years later, a delegation from the state forestry board commemorated the event by climbing Slide, not High Peak. A privately owned observation tower and neighboring two-story building were built on the summit in the late 19th century, but seem to have been removed sometime around state acquisition of the property two decades later.Kudish, Michael; The Catskill Forest: A History, Purple Mountain Press, Fleischmanns, New York, 2000, , 131.
Attention paid to the mountain dwindled, and even today it has no officially maintained trail over its summit, though the "unofficial" Twilight Trail remains well-used and is blazed along most its length. In 1921 both High Peak and Round Top were added to the Forest Preserve.Kudish op. cit., 130.
The south slope of the mountain has seen some development and habitation over the years. A former New York City Police Department camp near the top of Platte Clove was proposed as a site for a prison when it was abandoned in the 1970s, but the plan was dropped after local opposition. Today it is one of the Bruderhof Communities. There are still some private landholdings in the area.
A half-mile (1 km) horse-drawn railroad was once constructed on the south slopes below the col, following the brook by Byrne Road, to haul logs out of the area. Remnants of its steel-topped wooden rails can still be found.
On the north slope, at the precarious head of Kaaterskill Clove, is the community of Twilight Park.
Two small airplanes crashed on the mountain in the later years of the 20th century. One of them, on June 13, 1967, resulted in two fatalities when a twin engine Piper PA-23-250 Aztec flew into a ledge just below summit in adverse weather conditions. on 1967 crash The remains can still be found to the east of the summit. The second crash occurred on June 25, 1987 when a Piper Pa-32R-300 flew into trees on east side of the mountain at about . The remains can be found along the snowmobile trail loop. on 1987 crash
The small Cortina Valley ski area, started in 1975 tried to make a go of it under several different ownerships on the northwestern slope of Round Top, but went out of business for good around 2000. The three trails still remain.
At some point, the state built a snowmobile loop around both peaks, starting at the top of Platte Clove and leveling out at . However, it sees little snowmobiler use even in the most severe winters. Recent proposed changes to the Catskill State Land Master Plan could result in the end of this designation.
More of the mountain has been added to the Forest Preserve over the years. It is managed by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation as part of the Kaaterskill Wild Forest management unit in Catskill Park.
Natural environment
Typically for the Catskills, High Peak and much of the state land around it are covered with a northern-hardwood slope forest in which beech, birch and maple predominate. The summit dome of both High Peak and Round Top are likewise home to a boreal forest of balsam fir and red spruce, with paper birch as a deciduous associate species. Despite the heavy development of the mountain, much of the forest above is first-growth.
Spruce, fir and pines also predominate in an area called Pine Plains, roughly due east and east-northeast of the summit, just below near high ground along the Escarpment. Poor drainage here gives these species opportunities they would not otherwise have at that point. It remains wet and muddy even through dry weather, and in late spring it is often one of the best places to see some of the wildflower species of the Catskills, such as trillium and clintonia.
Approaches
Two approaches to the mountain are used for almost all trips, both making use of sections of the Long Path long-distance hiking trail. The southern route is still overwhelmingly preferred due to its gentle, almost level climb for much of its distance, allowing hikers to build up a good pace for a determined take on the summit. The northern route passes several scenic waterfalls and overlooks and requires almost of elevation gain, the most possible on any route up a major Catskill peak.
A shorter third route from the south is possible if permission to cross private land is obtained first. All depend to some extent on the snowmobile trail. The unofficial Twilight Park Trail (named for a private residential community at the head of Kaaterskill Clove, at its northern end) is used in all cases to gain the summit.
Southern route
Starting from the trailhead parking lot at the top of Platte Clove, recently expanded by NYSDEC, hikers follow the old Steenburg Road, now the snowmobile trail, blazed both with large orange plastic discs for snowmobiles (rarely seen) and smaller blue ones for foot users (A color given on all DEC lands to sections of the Long Path not part of other designated trails). The cascades of a nearby tributary of Platte Creek beckon through hemlock stands, but are on private land. Vehicle tracks can still be seen as there are several forks leading to private homes in the area, usually chained off. Elevation gain is noticeable, but comes at a slight though steady pace.