Sam's Point
Ellenville, NY - June 19, 2010
Vi and I went hiking at Sam’s Point. It’s about a 40-minute drive in the village of Ellenville. Off the main road is a narrow road flanked by trees and private homes on either side until after about three miles of driving we approach the visitor center at Sam’s Point.

From there, over 10 miles of trails loop around Sam’s Point.

Sam’s Point's geological formation is characterized by its ridges -- massive bedrocks protruding along the top’s sides of the Shawangunk Mountains. The ridges were formed 270 million years ago when 470-million year-old sedimentary rocks submerged deep in the ocean were uplifted through geological events. The rocks are made of white quartz pebbles and sandstone fused together and hardened by silica for millions of years.

There are several attractions on top of the Shawangunk Mountains. On the plateau there is big lake (Lake Mataranza), a waterfall taller than Niagara Falls (Verkeerder Falls stands at 180 feet while Niagara Falls is 173 feet), and “the largest open fault in the United States with corresponding ice caves”. Because of the cool climate inside the caves, ice is present all year round.

Rising as high as 2,289 feet, with easy-to-reach rocky cliffs all along its perimeter, Sam’s Point offers a spectacular view of the valley around it below. And even if one ventured only within its perimeter to explore the many attractions inside Sam’s Point -- its lakes, caves, and waterfalls -- 10 miles may seem daunting when looking at the map but the continuous array of visual treats along the way will make the hike hardly felt at all.

Sam’s Point got its name from the story about a man called Sam being chased by Indians who jumped off a ridge and survived.

(source: wikipedia.org)

 Click on a picture to enlarge.
Visitor center.
The visitor center is also a gift shop.
House near the visitor center. This may be the park ranger's quarters, though we're not sure.
Nature Conservancy truck parked beside the house. The Nature Conservancy protects and preserves the ecology at Sam's Point which is
Right at the start, we are given a choice of two trails.
We pick the one heading to the ice caves.
White ox-eye daisies line the trail.
We seem to be nearing some summit.
We see a ridge in the distance.
The ridge runs parallel to the trail.
We encounter a rock wall along the trail...
...with its ridge high above.
We reach a clearing.
There are no powerlines, cell towers, church steeples, and virtually no signs of human habitation for miles around.
We savor the view.
Seldom do we encounter views like this in the trails we've trekked. And the map tells us there are plenty more at Sam's Point -- several miles long at that -- farther up ahead.
We continue along the trail.
Once we reach the clearing, we find ourselves on top of a plateau exposed to the sun with no available shade to get some respite. We may as well be hiking in the desert. The landscape is mostly shrubberies and globally-rare dwarf pine trees like the ones in this photo.
We reach the start of the trail to the Ice Caves.
We continue hiking...
...and go down we go into the caves.
The caves go down deep. The terrain very rough with plenty of opportunities to slip and fall.
There’s a big rock perched atop the two slabs that form the passageway at the entrance. Actually, most of the path is made up of passageways between slabs, so you constantly see a sliver of sky above.
If not the caves, then the dense woods prevent us from seeing afar.
You might wonder how we got past these boulders but we did.
Some caves form compartments that could serve as shelters when it rains.
The same
The ice caves trail according to the map is over a mile long. Here we snack on peanuts before continuing.
We continue along the side of a rock wall. It's good to have a rock wall as you can steady yourself with one hand against it while you hike on the uneven terrain. Many of the paths round rock walls.
This one passageway is so narrow an obese person would not be able to go through. He or she will have to go back the way he or she came.
Stairs of rock.
Looking back at the trail we just passed.
Wooden bridge leads to the ice caves.
We reach the door to the ice caves. I thought the sign at the start of the trail about
Some caves have motion-activated lamps.
Crevice. Some crevices are completely dark and inaccessible (unless you want to risk serious injury). Here I set my camera for a 30-second exposure and light-painted the crevice with my flashlight. Keep in mind that without a flashlight you'll see absolutely nothing but black in this part of the cave.
I do more light painting, this time a bit more even.
Wooden planks ease the hike and reduce the risk of injury hiking on the craggy bottom in very dark caves.
It’s called “Ice Caves” because even in the 80+ degrees summer weather we went in, there’s ice at the bottom of the caves.
We exit the caves.
We are rewarded with a dramatic view.
Again, we savor the view. You might notice in this pictures that my lens is ringed with moist. Moist formed as soon as we left the cool confines of the ice caves and back into humit sunshine.
Vi takes pictures.
It's summer so the sun sets around 8:30 pm.
We head back the way we came. If not for the lateness, we'd have gone back by continuing around the loop -- a total of about 10 miles.
I tried to bring home a souvenir but on account of the hike being nearly three miles back, I decided against it.
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