Waiting for the crisis to pass, our thoughts go out to friends and loved-ones who also shelter in place. Old friends pass away, people we loved and admired. Immobilized for the time being, we can revisit destinations, near and far. join me in celebrating the joys of Quaranteam travel, the hope that these diversions might inspire us to value things we had taken for granted, to draw strength, wisdom and compassion from deeper engagements with nature.
. (Image and text were featured in the exhibition James McElhinney. Discover the Hudson Anew, curated by Laura Vookles. Hudson River Museum. Yonkers, New York. September 13, 2019 to February 16, 2020. Published also as a limited-edition in Hudson Highlands. North River Suite Volume One. Needlewatcher Editions. New York. 2018)
Mohonk from Minnewaska. Monday. July 7, 2011.
Highway 44/55 passes between New Paltz and Kerhonkson through a notch in the Shawangunk Ridge. From this point northward, the wooded tabular formation of Silurian limestone falls under the administrative control of Mohonk Preserve. Miles of nineteenth-century carriage-roads, and hiking-trails circumvallate the long mountain stretching south from Mohonk Mountain House, to beyond to Bonticou Crag, a rocky promontory at the far northern end of the ridge.
Mohonk Mountain House. New Paltz, New York (Reproduced under Fair Use, etc.)
Established as a wilderness camp by Albert and Alfred Smiley in 1869, the hotel, spa and resort expanded to its present state by 1910, with subsequent improvements over las century. Belonging to the Society of Friends the Smile brothers set elegant Victorian resort within a wild setting, not just as an exotic getaway for privileged urban swells, but as an educational environment for the study of nature. The late nineteenth-century was an age of water-cures, colonic purges, dietary reforms and physical fitness training. In his film adaptation of Thomas Coraghessen Boyle’s novel The Road to Wellville, cineaste Alan Parker cast Mohonk Mountain House in the role of Dr. John Harvey Kellogg’s Battle Creek Sanitarium. Sir Anthony Hopkins’s performance was profoundly moving, in a cologastrointestinal sense.
Sir Anthony Hopins as health-guru Dr.John Harvey Kellogg
in Alan Parker’s 1994 film The Road to Wellville
Mohonk Preserve is accessible to hotel guests, and also to visitors who may obtain day-passes or purchase memberships.From level ground behind the former site of Minnewaska Cliff House, the view to northeast presents a number of landmarks. To the right is the rocky notch of Highway 44/55.
USGS Topographical map of Lake Mohonk, Skytop and the grounds of Mohonk Mountain House
To the left is a promontory known as Skytop. Crowned by an observation tower, it is a popular destination for hikers. The wooded ridge-crest below it is rimmed with vertiginous heights that attract legions of free-style rock-climbers. Hikers carrying coils of rope and rolled crash-mats are common sights. The Mohonk Preserve visitor center is less focused on breakneck sports than on interpreting the geology, botany and wildlife found in the sixty-four thousand acres under its control. 150 years after its establishment, Mohonk still reflects the Smileys’ vision.
Mohonk Reserve from Minnewaska.
April Dispatches are all now online. Thirty-one episodes,
presented in a user-friendly calendar view interface. Enjoy!
(A preview of SKETCHBOOK TRAVELER by James L. McElhinney (c) 2020. Schiffer Publishing).
Copyright James Lancel McElhinney (c) 2020 Texts and images may be reproduced (with proper citation) by permission of the author. To enquire, send a request to editions@needlewatcher.com