Catskills in Fall

Devil's Tombstone, Catskills, NY

Only a five hour drive from Montreal lie the Catskills. No animals were harmed in the making of this name. Kill means stream in the Dutch language. We stumbled upon this view above on the way to Woodstock. Beavers had been hard at work and I wondered if there would be any trees to photograph next time, at this rate.

Naughty beavers.

We rode on the old passenger train which used to bring tourists up here from NYC at the turn of the 20th century. It is now employed to show visitors the Fall colours or colors as they say here. In its heyday the Catskills was a rural retreat for city folk with resort hotels nestling in the woods.

Fall colours train

The train took us along the Esopus Creek, a tributary of the mighty Hudson and our guide pointed out the damage from Hurricane Irene, which is still considerable. The river was in full flow and the colour of the orange dirt, a strange sight next to the rust coloured leaves.

The orange-coloured Esopus.

Later we braved the rain to stare out at Cooper Lake as the mist gathered. I love the old winding roads in this area and we checked some old haunts from our previous visits nine years ago - The Duchesse Anne Hotel, the Bear Cafe and an incongruous turquoise Mexican restaurant.

Cooper Lake near Woodstock

Next morning sunshine and frost in Woodstock Cemetery and a worker with an ear-ring offers to show us Rick Danko's grave. We pass, vowing to visit next time, and in his accent which we decided was American hippie, he responds to my Beautiful morning comment. "Yes but the leaves are falling, the frost is here, winter's coming" and it reminded us, appropriately enough, of a Band song, When You Awake.  "Snow is gonna fall, frost is gonna bite, my old car froze up last night. Ain't no reason to hang my head - I could wake up in the morning dead."

Woodstock Cemetery

More pictures from Woodstock and the Catskills on my Dear England, Love Canada Facebook page soon.