Balsam Lake Mountain Overlook Tower - Catskills, NY
Posted by: 
sagefemme
N 42° 02.733 W 074° 35.684
18T E 533539 N 4654913
One of only five (5) remaining former fire towers in the Catskills managed by the Department of Energy and Conservation (DEC).
Waymark Code: WMM5WA
Location: New York, United States
Date Posted: 07/27/2014
Views: 5
As I found out on my visit, the Lookout Tower is locked much of the time, to protect it against the weather. Catskill Mountain hiking club volunteers often come in on weekends to open it for visitors, and I was able to enter the platform area after someone arrived to open it up.
There are three ways to the top of Balsam Lake Mountain, so I gave this a 3 difficulty based on the shortest path, from Middleburg Rd. The Alder Lake trail is probably a 4 or higher, as it is a 6.6 mile hike, and I don't know the difficulty of the Beaverkill trail approach.
The current structure was built in 1930 according to the DEC website.
Height of Look-Out Tower in feet: 47.00
Difficulty: 
Opening times and fees:
Free. Open whenever they have a volunteer available, generally weekends during the hiking season.
Parking Area: Not Listed
|
Visit Instructions:
Please log only if you have been up there and you must include a photo of the scenic view from the top.
Recent Visits/Logs:
| There are no logs for this waymark yet. |
|
|
|