Mohonk Preserve, New Paltz, NY

4 of us made it to the Mohonk gate house around 10am. We strapped on the snowshoes and made our way up the trail amongst many Nordic skiers. Trails were about one foot of packed powder, about 2-3 feet of wet powder in the woods. Made it onto the hotel property in about 45 minutes and took a quick rest at the picnic area. Another 10 minutes of hiking took us to the hotel grounds and the ice rink. We stopped at the hotel for lunch (Expensive, but we had our wives with us.) After lunch we started our way to the sky top tower. The hike to the tower took about one hour up and 45 down, All in all a great day

Some pics.

Cool pictures..I've spent alot of time in the New Paltz area..serious Snowshoe stoke..Holla

Nice!

you can almost kinda sorta see my house in the third picture. if you panned a little left and zoomed in. makes me miss the gunks

Wow! I've only ever seen that from a distance .. very cool. Those look like beautiful xc trails - were you on much of them or did you get off into the woods a lot?

The cycling in the valley between the 'Gunks and New Paltz is phenomenal. Open roads, vineyards and horse farms all with views of the ledges. There's also a very good brew pub, the Gilded Otter, right at the bottom of the hill in New Paltz. Yummy wings and an excellent porter.

MichaelJ said:

Wow! I've only ever seen that from a distance .. very cool. Those look like beautiful xc trails - were you on much of them or did you get off into the woods a lot?

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We got off the XC trails as much as possible, sometimes even breaking trail ourselves. We had fun with a couple of XC skiiers trying to get to Sky top. They were obviously faster than us, we would take shortcuts through the woods at times. They would pass us again: repeat. We met some great people on those trails.

More pics

I'm surprised they let you in for lunch. Last time I was there, you had to be on a reservation list to get in the door. I took my daughter there once & we got in on the premise that we wanted to look into a wedding there... that sure got some good treatment! Its certainly an awesome sight... never forget my first time seeing the Mtn House, coming over a rise on skis and seeing that castle below.

amf

The only time we did Mohonk was in the summer, hiked up through Lemon Squeeze which was pretty cool. Have considered doing it in the winter but waiting for my wife's ankle to heal. Looks nice.

Amf,when I read you're post I lauged my butt off. I have a cheap friend that pulled a similiar deal. He called up the hotel to tell them that he is interested in checking the place out for a wedding. They arranged free parking for him and all he did was go up, park, hike the reservation, and then went home. He just did it to save the price of admission!

amf said:

I'm surprised they let you in for lunch. Last time I was there, you had to be on a reservation list to get in the door. I took my daughter there once & we got in on the premise that we wanted to look into a wedding there... that sure got some good treatment! Its certainly an awesome sight... never forget my first time seeing the Mtn House, coming over a rise on skis and seeing that castle below.

amf

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We were surprised too! I guess they weren't booked. I had a few protein bars packed to hold us over, just in case. An awesome sight is correct. The old grandeur of the mountain house is unbelievable. The pictures do it no justice. The inside reminded me a bit of the shining. (Kubrick version, not the crappy one with the guy from "wings.") I wouldn't mind staying there as all meals are inclusive, but I won't be "walking in" for a 55 buck buffet any time soon.