In the evening on Saturday, September 4th find a place with a view of your favorite fire tower on the horizon for the 8th Annual Lighting of the Catskills Fire Towers event! Rain date is Sunday, September 5th.
Meant to showcase the history of the five Catskills fire towers, find an area in your neighborhood where you have a view of one of the fire towers, and watch as the cabs light up from 9:00pm to 9:30pm. *Note this is not a hiking event!* Catskill Center doesn't encourage people interested in seeing the towers to hike at night. Read on for viewing locations!
This year all five historic Catskills fire towers will be lit (Mount Tremper, Hunter, Balsam Lake, Overlook, and Red Hill).
The men and women who worked in the top cabs of the fire towers protected the Catskills from forest fires by providing fire fighters with an early detection and reporting system that was amazingly accurate. For years, these towers watched faithfully like beacons over the Catskills. If you were lucky, your area may have been covered by more than one tower!
For additional information about possible viewing areas near you, check out our list below!
Viewing Locations for Lighting of the Catskills Fire Towers
Balsam Lake Mountain Fire Tower
1) Scenic Overlook at the top of Palmer Hill along State Route 28 between Margaretville and Andes
2) At the top of Todd Mt Road (Ulster County Route 49A) near the intersection with Kelly Road
3) Dingle Hill Andes - Drive along Ridge Road, stopping when possible to see the light. Some of the sites where people have had luck in the past seeing the light are 1212 Dingle Hill road, 629 Ridge Road and further down Ridge Road for a mile. (All are Andes addresses off of Rt 30 around the Pepacton Reservoir)
Hunter Mountain Fire Tower
Gordon Realty on Route 23A in Hunter has granted permission for viewers to use their parking lot for the "Lighting of the Towers" event Saturday, September 5th.
Gordon Realty, Inc.
6528 Route 23A
Hunter, NY 12442
518-589-9000
Copy http://www.gordonrealty.com/directions/ and paste in your browser's address bar for directions.
Overlook Mountain Fire Tower
1) Thorn Preserve off Zena Road
2) Zena Corn Field
3) Zena School
Red Hill Fire Tower
-The pull off on top of the Rondout Reservoir - Merriman dam on Rt. 55 about 7 or 8 miles west of Ellenville.
- The Claryville/Denning Rd. near the YMCA East Valley Farm.
- Red Hill Knolls Rd.
- Rudolph Rd.
- Blue Hill Rd. west of Claryville
- East side of Bridge over the Rondout Creek on Rt. 55A
- Balsam Lake Mt. Fire Tower
- Summits of the following high peaks; Peekamoose, Table, Lone, Friday, Cornell, Slide, Fir, Big Indian, Doubletop, and Graham Mts.
- Most of the Rt. 52 pulloffs east of Ellenville on the way to Pine Bush.
- Mohonk Mt. House and Skytop Tower
Mount Tremper Fire Tower
State Route 28 near the intersection of State Route 28A (be careful pulling off on the road to see the lights)