Catskills Experience Book the walk Free guided hikes
Ecology, at kid height.
A naturalist's walk rather than a fitness hike. Free, always, for school-aged groups.
How the walk actually goes.
Slowly, and not in a straight line. We stop constantly — at tracks in the mud, at scat that tells you what has been eating what, at a hemlock going grey with woolly adelgid, at whatever is fruiting or flowering that week. The route is short. The stopping is the point.
Kids turn out to be much better spotters than adults, mostly because they are closer to the ground and less certain they already know what they are looking at. So we let them find things and explain what they have found, and we fill in the names and the reasons afterwards.
Nothing is collected, nothing is disturbed, and no one is asked to be quiet for very long.
What gets covered
- Reading a forest — why these trees, on this slope, at this elevation.
- Signs of animals — tracks, browse lines, scat, cavities, and rubs.
- Water — how the kill shapes everything within earshot of it.
- Trouble — invasives, adelgid, and what stewardship of a trail actually involves.
Practical details
- Ages
- School-aged, roughly 5 and up
- Length
- 60 to 90 minutes
- Terrain
- Forest trail, uneven footing, gentle grade
- Cost
- Free
- Bring
- Closed shoes, water, a layer more than you think
- Guide
- The trail's official NY DEC forest steward
For schools & groups
Bring your class.
Most of what we run is arranged directly with a teacher, a scout leader, or a homeschool group — you tell us roughly when, and we find a date that suits the weather and the season. Groups of up to about twenty work best. Everything is led by the trail's official NY DEC forest steward.
Tell us the age range and rough group size and we'll come back with what we can do and what to bring.
- Who it's for
- School groups, homeschool co-ops, scouts, and families
- Group size
- Up to about 20
- Cost
- Tours and hikes are free. Workshops are free or low cost.
- Where
- Kerhonkson, NY · Ulster County