Carson City & Indian Village: Abandoned Theme Park

A couple of weekends ago, I drove up to the Catskill, NY with my sister and her boyfriend to explore an abandoned zoo (Catskill Game Farm) and a separate, unrelated theme park, Carson City and Indian Village. Unfortunately, as mentioned in the previous post, exploring the Catskill Game Farm didn't work out as planned, which was a real bummer to me. I had seen some pretty sweet pics of the interior and was really excited to check it out. Carson City, to be honest, was kind of an afterthought. And yet it turned out to be pretty worth it. Funny how life and circumstance works out that way sometimes.

Credit: http://photos.aroundcarson.com/details/1436

Catskill Game Farm

Not much to say about this one. It once was zoo that charmed children and adults alike, but it shut down in 2006. It is now privately owned and the owners are trying to get it back up and running. I spoke to one of them (super friendly dude with a super cute dog) and intend on getting a tour through the abandoned zoo sometime this spring, so you'll have to wait for that. In the mean time, here are two pictures of the entrance.

Two Years and Halsey Pond

I'm proud to say that this little blog has made two years old. There has been a bit of a lull in activity, but lately inspiration has struck. I found myself on two adventures very recently. This first one is my brief stroll around Halsey Pond. The second was a two-part adventure up to the Catskills. More on that one to follow. Unfortunately, I didn't have my real camera on me for this first adventure, just my phone.

Watkins Glen

I wanted to say that this post is a milestone as far as previous entries go. I wanted to say that this was the farthest destination I've documented. But if I claimed that, I'd be lying. After all, I did briefly post some photos of New Orleans, which is significantly farther from me than Watkins Glen. (That post was rather lack-luster I will admit.)

What I can say though, is that this park was truly a destination. It was profound. I had never experienced a landscape like that before and I was totally blown away. First off, I don't doubt that walking through the trail astounds everyone, but I had the pleasure of taking the long way which made all the difference.

Split Rock Reservoir

If you happen to visit this place, just a warning -- the gravel road that leads to the parking area that I happened to park in is a bit treacherous. And the trails don't seem to be maintained at all. And the GPS coordinates from the NY-NJ TC website don't actually lead you to the parking lot. But the reservoir was pretty and so was the fall foliage.

Palisades Interstate Park

It was a Sunday in August and I was feeling ambitious, but not ambitious enough to travel far. So I found a place about 15 minutes away from me and didn't expect too much. I followed a series of trails laid out in "Hike of the Week" (mentioned in my previous post). Essentially it was the Giant Stairs/Long Path Loop from the State Line Lookout. The book claimed that the hike would be 4.5 miles and strenuous. Honestly, I think it may be my favorite trail in the area. There was a variety of gorgeous scenic views, a lot of climbing, and a really sweet (small) waterfall.

View to up the north of the Hudson River

Ramapo Mountains

Excuse me while I play catch-up. It's been a hectic few months, but if anything has remained the same, it's my love of the outdoors and the solace I can find there. It almost seems unreal that the last time I updated it was 5 months ago. That's like...half a year practically. I've certainly been on a few adventures since then, not all with camera in hand. Some adventures had been solo, or with Tyger, or with some people I had never even been hiking with before. All in all, every time has been beautiful in some way or another and I'm grateful for that.

Enough sappiness. Let's get down to business. A couple of months ago, I felt like I was running out of new places to go. It seemed impossible to find anywhere of quality that I had never been before. And then I decided to invest in a book about hiking in the NY-NJ area. It's been wonderful. I've already dog-eared the hell out of it and can't wait to try every trail in it. Some are quite a bit further away than others, but at least I've got options. For the curious, the book is called "Hike of the Week" by Daniel Chazin. Anyone familiar with the NJ-NY Trail Conference website may recognize the name. He has contributed significantly to the website, writing up info/experiences on various trails in the area. The book is organized by season and has a lot of good info in it like difficulty, length, history, a map, etc.

One of the little ponds I passed