Trails with Tales: History Hikes through the Capital Region, Saratoga, Berkshires, Catskills & Hudson Valley

by Russell Dunn

Thirty nature treks, selected for their natural, stand-alone beauty, are enhanced by tangible silhouettes of a fascinating past, from early Native Americans and Colonial settlers to the Industrial Revolution and Victorian-era grand hotels. Hike to waterfalls, mountains, escarpments, lakes, sculpted rocks, ponds, rivers, islands, caves, balanced rocks, geysers, and deep gorges while visiting the sites of famous battles of the Revolutionary War, ghostly industrial ruins, a Moorish-style castle, views and vistas made world-famous by Americafs greatest painters, vanished Shaker communities, great estates of the gGilded Age,h a working lighthouse, and gNew Yorkfs Mount Rushmore.h HIKES INCLUDE œ Starks Knob & Schuylerville Champlain Canal Towpath œ Saratoga National Historic Park œ Geyser Park œ Vischer Ferry Nature & Historic Preserve œ Peebles Island State Park œ Oakwood Cemetery œ Burden Pond Environmental Park œ Ann Lee Pond œ Indian Ladder œ Bennett Hill Preserve œ Clarksville Cave Preserve œ Edmund Niles Huyck Preserve œ Balanced Rocks œ Shaker Mountain œ No Bottom Pond œ Tyringham Cobble œ Ice Glen & Laurafs Tower œ Ashintully Estate & McLennan Preserve œ Vromanfs Nose œ Pratt Rock œ Lindenwald & Martin Van Buren Nature Trail œ Rogers Island œ Olana œ Montgomery Place œ Ravena Falls œ Hudson River School Art Trail œ Catskill Mountain House Escarpment œ Saugerties Lighthouse œ Overlook Mountain œ Sky Top & Mohonk Lake

Genres: Reference

304 pages, Paperback

First published April 15, 2006

Reviews

[Heather]

My sister and I borrowed this book from a local lending library. It was so much fun reading about the history behind popular trails - both ones we'd visited and ones that we had not seen. It gave us some places to add to our list of hikes to take later in the autumn and next spring and summer. I also learned some things about places I'd loved hiking in the past. I never knew, for example, that Albert and Alfred Smiley were twins! It makes me want to know more about the local trails.

[Heidi]

This was a wonderful book to explore the area we live in. All of the hikes were very well described and the historical and geologic information included was absolutely fascinating.