Inspiration Point Loop, North South Lake

January 12, 2013
Distance: 4.9 miles
Time: 3 hours 30 minutes
Map: Catskill Trails Map Set

Parking: Scutt Road. Room for around 10 cars. The road doesn't have a sign. It is past Laurel House Road, and immediately before the gatehouse.

Restrooms: None
Post hike dinner: None

Directions:
From parking lot, cross street. Follow blue blazed ES trail. Cross woods road (site of previous railroad). Cross bridge. Turn right onto blue blazed Escarpment Trail. At Layman Monument, trail turns sharply left. Walk along ridge. Pass yellow blazed trail on left. Pass Sunset Rock and Inspiration Point (both have signs). Pass yellow blazed trail on left, then red blazed Harding Road trail on right. At major intersection (detour to see South Mountain/Kaaterskill Hotel site possible - we skipped as we were running out of daylight), turn left on red blazed Schutt Road trail. Turns into Blue blazed ES trail.

Notes: Foggy day which provided awesome views from Sunset Rock & Inspiration Point. Warm day, so we had a lot of slushy snow for snowshoeing. We only saw 4 people hiking today.

Year to date miles: 10.6

Sign at trailhead parking lot.

Parking lot

Parts of this hike are also used by riders.

Passing the railroad grade.

Bridge

We explored this abandoned house just off the trail past the bridge.

Heading towards Layman's Monument.

Approaching Layman's Monument.

Wait, where did the snow go? Now we are snowshoeing on water.

Walking along the ridge.

Fog over the mountain tops

Passing the yellow trail. We approach fog in the valley.

Heading towards Inspiration Point

Back to Scutt Road.

The detour to the hotel site is around here. We'll visit another time.

We saw large prints at the beginning/end of the trail. Much larger than my dog foot prints.
We were curious. Bear? Really big dog?