Hiking - Acra Point (Catskills)

Holly and I both had other things to do this morning, and wanted to get out for a short hike this afternoon. It was a beautiful sunny fall day in the 50s, not to be wasted. We decided to climb Acra Point, in the northeastern Catskills, only about 90 minutes from home, near Maplecrest, NY.



It was an easy one-mile climb up to the ridge between Acra Point and its neighbor, Burnt Knob, and only another half mile to a wide open view of the Blackhead Range. These mountains and this profile are visible from Albany on a moderately clear day, and it was nice to see them up close.

There are two interesting things in this picture. (1) is the sharp cutoff between hardwoods and balsam fir around 3900 feet or so. These mountains are all between 3900 and 4000 feet. (2) is the fact that snow is on the ground of these north-facing slopes just below the balsam line. Fall foliage is totally gone, except at lower elevations on south-facing slopes, having been blown down by recent strong north winds.