Fall Colors Adventure

Fall 041, a photo by JuneNY on Flickr.

Every fall, I try to arrange a day trip to see the fall colors with my friend Judy. Today we headed out towards Tannersville. The day started out very overcast, but gradually many of the clouds gave way to blue sky.....
Judy was particularly interested when we drove through Prattsville, a small village which was severely damaged in last years flooding of the Schoharie Creek.

I think the first place we stopped was at a pullover just beyond Haines Falls on Route 23a.  The sign said Kaaterskill Clove, and it appeared to be a parking area for a trailhead.  Then we headed back to Tannersville, where we chose to have lunch at the Tannersville General Store.   After ordering, I stepped outside onto Main Street and I took several pictures of the colorful buildings.  Here are a couple:  We both had sandwiches.  Then we headed back the way we came and we found that the Mountain Top Historical Society (which we had passed before) was open.  We stopped and went inside.  One of the volunteers showed us some pictures and told us about the huge old hotels that are now gone.  She also told us how to get to the old restored railroad depot.  From there we went to find the abandoned and rotting Cold Springs Hotel, the other side of Tannersville, and after that to ALL SOULS CHURCH, where I found a geocache.  The church is magnificent.  Then we drove west through Hunter and turned onto 296 to go up to East Windham to try to find the FIVE STATE LOOKOUT.  Along the way, Judy spotted the MOUNTAIN DRIVE IN, which she recalled going to during the summer she worked at The Sugar Maples Resort in Maplecrest.
     We found the Five State Lookout, but it was not what we expected.  It was a small area on the grounds of a fancy hotel restaurant, no signs or anything to point out the five states.  But, I did get a few good pictures including this one.  And then we started for home.  We agreed that if we saw a place to get ice cream we would stop.  We found one the other side of Grand Gorge, and I went up and purchased dishes of ice cream which we ate in the car.  I had butterscotch flavorburst!  We arrived back at Judy's place and I helped her with a few household chores and then headed for home.  What a long day.  I was in bed around nine p.m. and fell right asleep.