fbpx
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Print Edition
    • Get Home Delivery
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
    • Advertise
    • Customer Support
    • Submit A News Tip
    • Where’s My Paper?
  • Subscribe to Our Newsletters
    • Hey Kingston
    • New Paltz Times
    • Woodstock Times
    • Week in Review
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Free HV1 Trial
Hudson Valley One
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Featured Events
      • Art
      • Books
      • Kids
      • Lifestyle & Wellness
      • Food & Drink
      • Music
      • Nature
      • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Help Wanted
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Featured Events
      • Art
      • Books
      • Kids
      • Lifestyle & Wellness
      • Food & Drink
      • Music
      • Nature
      • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Help Wanted
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Log In
No Result
View All Result
Hudson Valley One
No Result
View All Result

Guyot Hill

by Rich Parisio
April 14, 2016
in Columns, Explore
0
Spring pool. (photos by Rich Parisio)
Spring pool. (photos by Rich Parisio)

To climb a crag like Bonticou is an exciting outdoor experience, but to view the same crag from a nearby hill offers its own, quieter rewards. I discovered the latter on my recent ascent of Guyot Hill. Jack Fagan says of Guyot Hill, in his superb Scenes and Walks in the Northern Shawangunks, that it “seems unloved and is seldom visited today.” That sounded perfect to me, in the mood as I was for a quiet, solitary ramble on a mild, early spring day.

Guyot Hill’s namesake was Arnold Guyot (1807-84), the first Professor of Geography and Geology at Princeton University, who loved Mohonk and stayed often at Mohonk Mountain House. Guyot’s map and study of what are now called the “high peaks” of the Catskills, including Slide Mountain, was published in 1879-80 and radically altered understanding of the area. Until Guyot’s work, the “Catskills” was popularly seen as the environs of the famous Catskill Mountain House, where North/South Lake State Campground is today. Yet it is this unassuming hill in Shawangunks, and none of the Catskill peaks, which bears Guyot’s name.

Guyot’s Hill is a place of quiet surprises. It is in fact, at 1,270 feet above sea level, the highest point in the Shawangunks north of Mohonk Mountain House area, and the highest in the whole region whose bedrock is shale. Here the much harder, more resistant quartzite conglomerate that forms the dramatic cliffs and bare rock ledges elsewhere on the ridge has been removed by erosion, the last of it perhaps during the Wisconsin glaciation 15,000 years ago or so. The layers of shale that are exposed along Guyot Hill Road are thin and flaky like phyllo pastry. It’s the same rock that underlies the Wallkill Valley below, which can be glimpsed from the top of Guyot’s Hill through the still-leafless trees. Soft, dark and yielding to erosion — these qualities of this Ordovician age shale molded the modest contours of Guyot Hill.

Page 1 of 3
123Next
Tags: explore hudson valleyGuyot HillOff the beaten pathoutdoorsShawangunks
Join the family! Grab a free month of HV1 from the folks who have brought you substantive local news since 1972. We made it 50 years thanks to support from readers like you. Help us keep real journalism alive.
- Geddy Sveikauskas, Publisher
Previous Post

The hedonism (and healthiness) of hiking

Next Post

Superintendent addresses high-stakes testing

Rich Parisio

Related Posts

Shedding light on the deepest mysteries?
Columns

Shedding light on the deepest mysteries?

September 28, 2023
Opening bell
Columns

The first day of school

September 15, 2023
Sturgeon Pond Hydro-Electric Dam, Bartlett pears, the steamship Minnewaska and more from the headlines 100 years ago
Columns

Sturgeon Pond Hydro-Electric Dam, Bartlett pears, the steamship Minnewaska and more from the headlines 100 years ago

September 14, 2023
Secrets of the upcoming eclipses
Columns

Secrets of the upcoming eclipses

September 12, 2023
Abandoning statistics
Columns

Abandoning statistics

September 10, 2023
Sanford Gifford’s scenic landscapes on view at Cedar Grove
Columns

Summer gives way to the “Golden Season”

September 7, 2023
Next Post

Superintendent addresses high-stakes testing

Trending News

  • Miller Middle School approves deployment of resource officer for 2023-24 school year 1k views
  • Library for sale: desirable central Woodstock location available 757 views
  • Report exonerates McKenna, but doubts remain 634 views
  • Gilberto Nunez, Kingston dentist acquitted of murder but convicted on other charges, set loose 511 views
  • One billboard in Lake Katrine 405 views
  • A successful Hudson Valley food co-op tells its story 404 views

Weather

Kingston
◉
55°
Clear
6:55 am6:35 pm EDT
Feels like: 55°F
Wind: 1mph W
Humidity: 91%
Pressure: 30.18"Hg
UV index: 0
WedThuFri
82/55°F
75/59°F
70/63°F
Weather forecast Kingston, New York ▸

Subscribe

Independent. Local. Substantive. Subscribe now.

  • Subscribe & Support
  • Print Edition
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
  • Subscribe to Our Newsletters
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Free HV1 Trial

© 2022 Ulster Publishing

No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Featured Events
      • Art
      • Books
      • Kids
      • Lifestyle & Wellness
      • Food & Drink
      • Music
      • Nature
      • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Help Wanted
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Contact Us
    • Customer Support
    • Advertise
    • Submit A News Tip
  • Print Edition
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
    • Where’s My Paper
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Log In
  • Free HV1 Trial
  • Subscribe to Our Newsletters
    • Hey Kingston
    • New Paltz Times
    • Woodstock Times
    • Week in Review

© 2022 Ulster Publishing