The Mohonk Skytop Tower

I had the opportunity to stay at the https://www.mohonk.com/">
Mohonk Mountain House briefly this week for a work conference. Most of my time there, of course, was devoted to the conference. However, the first evening I had a brief time to myself before dinner, and I decided to take a stroll up to the Skytop Tower.
It's an uphill stroll, to be sure, gaining about 400 feet over .7 miles - plus 100 steps in the tower itself. There are plenty of places to stop along the way, all of which have views of Mohonk Lake and its surrounding cliffs. At this time of year, the laurel is beginning to blossom.

From the tower you can see the view above, the mountain house and lake, and the Catskills, depending which way you look.

In fact, the hike was so nice, I did it again the next morning, adding on a walk around the lake. The picture above is from the evening hike, when it was cloudy; the hike below is from the next morning, when the clouds had disappeared.

You can do the hike by paying a day fee to park, which adds on some length from the parking lot, or by adding on quite a bit of distance by coming from off the property altogether. One of the privileges of paying to stay at the (quite nice) hotel is having ready access to great views without the extra mileage!