Hiking: Catskills Fire Tower Five Challenge In A Day | July 14, 2019

Today in the Catskill Park, five mountain peaks are home to a fire tower. While these towers were used in the past to search for and pinpoint fire locations, today they are hiking destinations that offer amazing 360 degree vistas of the surrounding Catskill Mountains.

Recently, the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation announced a new challenge for hikers to explore the fire towers of the Catskills and have some fun along the way. Those who visit all five of the towers, take their selfies and submit their info to the DEC are able to get several rewards (more info).

When the new fire tower challenge was announced, it got us to thinking that maybe we could make it a bit more challenging by visiting all five of the fire towers in a single day. Looking at the logistics, there’s no way to hike between all the towers, so we organized the day to try to reduce the driving between locations as much as possible. Given that we’re based out of the northeastern Catskills, we choose to start at Red Hill in the south, so we were working our way closer and closer to home throughout the day.

We stocked up a couple of coolers in the car with sandwiches, snacks, sports drinks and several Mountain Dews (don’t ask, but they are great pick ups when you’ve been hiking – our Appalachian Trail thru hiker Moe says that AT thru hikers would covet cold Mountain Dew). We had several changes of socks, multiple hiking and running shoes depending on what we felt like for a mountain and a few changes of clothes if we needed them for the weather.

Red Hill Fire Tower
We started off on the adventure the morning of Sunday, July 14th at 6am. We arrived at the Red Hill Trailhead on Dinch Road around 7:30am and started off. This was the only fire tower that none of us had been to yet and it didn’t disappoint. The trail climbs steadily, but easily up Red Hill, where you are rewarded with a wonderful view of the Catskills to the north, the Gunks to the southeast and the hills and valleys of NJ and PA to the southwest. The Volunteer Steward from the Catskill Fire Tower Project was there to greet us and we enjoyed spending some time up in the Fire Tower with him as he talked about the history of the Tower and the work that the volunteers do. It was a bit hazy, but even so, the view was great. There’s only one trail on Red Hill, so it was back the way we came to the trailhead.

• 2.5 miles on the Red Hill Trail
• 794 feet of elevation gain

Balsam Lake Mountain Fire Tower
Then it was north and west to the Mill Brook Road trailhead where we took the Dry Brook Ridge Trail south to the Balsam Lake Mountain Trail and then up to the fire tower. This is a relatively gentle climb, except for a few steep sections on the Balsam Lake Mountain Trail as you make the final series of ascents to the top. By the time we got to Balsam Lake Mountain Fire Tower, the haze had been reduced a bit, so we got even better views from the tower than we had at Red Hill. There are a couple of trails to choose from on Balsam Lake Mountain, but in the interest of time and keeping mileage low, we headed back the way we came to the trailhead on Mill Brook Road.

• 6 miles on the Dry Brook Ridge and Balsam Lake Mountain Trails
• 1198 feet of elevation gain 

Tremper Mountain Fire Tower
From Balsam Lake Mountain, we headed east towards Mount Tremper. This trail, while it does follow an old road for the most part, is steep and rocky and even on a good day can be a challenging hike unto itself. For us, it was hike #3 of the day and we definitely felt it! The Fire Tower Steward was just coming down the tower when we arrived, so we chatted and let them head home before we enjoyed our second or third lunch and plenty of snacks. The day definitely was warming up. On Red Hill, it almost felt cool in the early morning. Balsam Lake is mostly shaded on the trails and wasn’t too bad, but the heat definitely turned up as we made our way up to the Fire Tower on Tremper. From the tower, we headed back down, cursing those loose rocks before making our way back to the car.

• 5.5 miles on the Phoenicia Trail
• 1965 feet of elevation gain 

Overlook Mountain Fire Tower
Further east we went to Woodstock and then up Meads Mountain Road to the Overlook Trailhead. This is a busy trailhead and even at 5pm on a Sunday, there were only a few parking spots left. We parked and made good time walking what was the smoothest trail of the five peaks. The Overlook Spur Trail follows a well-maintained dirt road. That allowed us to make some good time. Enjoyed the view of the Devil’s Path, got our selfies and then headed back to the car at the Meads Mountain Road trailhead for the final fire tower.

• 4.5 miles on the Overlook Spur Trail
• 1375 feet of elevation gain

Hunter Mountain Fire Tower
We saved Hunter for last since it was closest to home and picked the Becker Hollow Trail since it is the quickest way up and down the mountain. That said, perhaps we should have done it earlier in the quest and perhaps we should have picked the Spruceton Trail to ascend and descend since when we hit the Becker Hollow Trailhead around 8pm, all three of us were feeling good, we stretched a bit and then we started the grinder that is the Becker Hollow Trail. Darkness fell quickly so we were hiking with headlamps so we couldn’t see all that we had to ascend, but it was difficult nevertheless, especially after a full day of hiking. We did make it though and then took our time making our way back down the very steep and rocky trail.

• 4.6 miles on the Becker Hollow Trail
• 2238 feet of elevation gain

At the end we began walking at 7:30am and ended at 10:30pm. There was about 4 1/2 hours of driving and a lot of hiking! If we did it again, we’d probably move Hunter into a different position. The Becker Hollow should never be the last trail you do after a day full of hiking. The driving made the trek challenging too. It broke up the hikes so you got breaks, but it also let your muscles tighten up as you drove between trailheads.

That said, an amazingly epic day in the Catskills!

Having visited most of these fire towers multiple times over the years, we didn’t feel too bad about not being able to enjoy each hike to the fire towers. That’s because he fire tower and each mountain they sit on, makes for a very enjoyable individual hike. To string them all together, you lose the ability to really experience and enjoy the little things along the trails that make each mountain and each tower unique. We had our heads down, our pace was fast and we just knocked them out.

If you haven’t visited the fire towers, we’d recommend that you take a day for each, experience them, experience the trail and the trip to them and enjoy all that is wonderful about the Catskills. If you’re a fire tower regular, then maybe a single day climb of all fire towers is something for you!

In the end we did 23 miles of hiking and just over 7,500 feet of elevation gain (and loss).

Have you finished the Catskills Fire Tower Five Challenge? Get yourself a cool patch that supports the Catskill Fire Tower Project!

Catskill Park Resources and Information: New York’s Catskill Park is more than 700,000 acres in size with over 300,000 acres of publicly accessible, state owned Forest Preserve lands. The Park offers more than 400 miles of trails. Want to know where to get started, check out our Guide to Hiking in the Catskills.

The Catskill Park’s official visitor center is the Congressman Maurice D. Hinchey Catskills Visitor Center (formerly the Catskill Interpretive Center), located at 5096 Route 28 in Mount Tremper, NY. The Visitor Center is staffed and open daily. They can be emailed at [email protected] or called at 845-688-3369.

Looking for a map? We suggest the Trail Conference’s Catskills Trails 6-Map Set. A hiking guidebook? We suggest the Appalachian Mountain Club’s Catskill Mountain Guide. Trails Illustrated offers a Catskill Park Map and the Catskills Visitor Center offers a regional map. The Adirondack Mountain Club publishes the Catskill Trails guidebook.

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