Minnewaska State Park Preserve
The Minnewaska State Park Preserve is a 22,275-acre (90.14 km2) preserve located on the Shawangunk Ridge in Ulster County, New York on US 44/NY 55, five miles (8.0 km) west of New York State Route 299. The park, which features scenic overlooks of the nearby Catskill Mountains, is primarily used for picnicking, hiking, mountain biking, snowshoeing and swimming. The park is managed by the Palisades Interstate Park Commission and the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.
There are three sky lakes within the preserve: Lake Minnewaska, Lake Awosting, and Mud Pond. Lake Minnewaska is approximately one mile (1.6 km) long by one-quarter mile (0.4 km) wide at its widest point. Lake Awosting is roughly twice as large.
Originally part of Albert and Alfred Smiley's Mohonk Mountain House property, the Minnewaska Mountain House, or Cliff House, was built in 1879 overlooking Lake Minnewaska; it could accommodate 225 guests. After managing and developing Mohonk's early growth for ten years, twin Alfred H. Smiley purchased and developed Minnewaska separate from Mohonk, but the brothers exchanged courtesies to each other's guests. A second hotel, Wildmere, accommodated 350 guests. In 1955, Kenneth B. Phillips, Sr., the Minnewaska general manager, bought the property from the Smiley family. Cliff House was abandoned in 1972 due to maintenance costs; it burned to the ground in 1978. Wildmere closed in 1979 and burned to the ground in 1986.
After years of wrangling over commercial development proposals and lawsuits to block development, New York State bought the property in 1987 and opened the Minnewaska State Park Preserve in 1993. A significant expansion of 5,400 acres (22 km2) occurred in 1996 when the Open Space Institute transferred acreage to the park preserve from the old Ellenville watershed lands, now called Sam's Point Preserve. The preserve was managed by the Nature Conservancy and by the Open Space Institute until April 2015, at which time management was transferred to the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation and the Palisades Interstate Park Commission.
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