The Mohonk Mountain House

Ahhh…the hidden wonder in the woods. It’s amazing how many people live in this area or go to school close by and have never been to the Mohonk Mountain House. This interesting resort, perched on a mountaintop, truly is a destination.

The very first time Laura and I went to the Mountain House we were kind of…ho hum about the whole thing. People tell us all the time about how we just HAVE to visit here or HAVE to visit there. This time we took whoever told us about it on their word.

We arrived at the front gate and were kind of taken back at the fact that they wanted $20 per person to go up the hotel. We negotiated at a lower fee (I think $8 per person) for a one hour visit. What in the world were these people charging us to visit a hotel for? We drove through the gate and continued on for a two mile drive through the woods. Hmmm…this place was pretty nice. It was a very well taken care of path through the woods. We saw hikers on both sides of us enjoying the wilderness. The trees canopied over the road making things very shady and cool, just the way I like it.

When we arrived at the base of the hotel, we saw a few fenced in areas with horses. Pretty cool. Then…we parked the car and walked up the hill to see…

…the front of the hotel. Wow, what an interesting place. I think I was expecting something else. We walked up to the front and saw valet parking and about one hundred rocking chairs on the front porch facing the Catskills. I was beginning to like this place more and more. I really could get into sipping some red wine and rocking my life away.

We continued through the hotel to find that the inside was strikingly similar to the Shining…long halls, lots of wood and a good number of staircases. I can just imagine how many fireplaces this hotel had. There were people walking through quickly on their way someplace important and those who were just wandering aimlessly looking at the paintings. We were right in the middle because we had no idea where we were going. We heard some sort of activity towards the back of the hotel and began heading towards it. Hmmm…tea time. I can do this. We weren’t sure if this was meant for the guests or for everybody. Since I paid $16 for the both of us to visit today, I considered us guests. We proceeded to enjoy tea and cookies with the rest of the “guests.” It was so funny…Laura just kept looking at me and laughing inside, I’m sure.

Now that our appetites were a slightly satisfied, we wandered off the back porch towards the lake. Let me just tell you…well, take a look.

Have you ever seen anything like it? Remember, this place is on top of a mountain. Behind the hotel is a huge mountain (down). This is where everyone hangs out and goes boating, swimming and hiking. People were making their ways up to the tower on top of the hill and some were arriving though the end of the eight mile trail that begins way down towards another part of the ridge. There were also places to sit and ponder.

If you exit the back of the hotel and make a left, you can visit the gardens.

This is a great area to get married. Apparently many people do. Being the botanists we are, we loved looking through the large variety of flowers and plants.

There are so many things to do at the Mountain House, but since we only had an hour, we had to hustle back to the car. I kept thinking there was going to be some sort of a check at the gate. Hint, hint: there was none. We will have to keep that in mind for next time.