Finding Witch’s Hole in Ellenville NY

Yesterday, we hiked in Ellenville NY looking for the Witche’s Hole. Most days, besides the Long Path, we get in the car and ask one another “Where do you want to hike?” I’ll end up saying what about here or there and he’ll end up saying either “Okay, that sounds good” or “I have this new spot we can check out”. When we were going to Vernooy Kill state forest he mentioned there was a Witche’s Hole in the mountains to the right, according to Google Map. This is when we realized that we haven’t been to the mountains to the right, or so we thought. And it also made me want to check out this Witch’s Hole state park and see what it is. We were initially going to go to Vernooy again to look for the waterfall but I ended up saying let’s go here instead.

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Smiley Carriage Road

If you’re using Google Maps it might tell you that the address for Witch’s Hole is by the gun range. It’s not. I went in and asked the men inside and one was nice enough to tell me where to go. So, we turned around and went back to the Berme Road park. We parked our car by the pavilion and started walking towards the trail. If you want to see the waterfall, you’d take the first left that’s on the trail. We walked passed it and took the next left staying on the old Smiley Carriage Road.

Once on the road, we felt like we were in our ‘Gunks. The carriage road felt like the old mountain road and Old Route 52. It should because you can take the old 52, walk a little on the streets or cross the road and walk the forest and connect to the Smiley Carriage Road. Amazing! We can’t wait to do some crazy connections, go to Sam’s point for free and hopefully not see a single snake. Spring is here and we can all smell it but so can the snakes.

Back to the trail; it was beautiful, the sun was shining and the snow was melting. In some sections towards Slide Hill the water was gushing down the path. There are also two old cars rusting away on the side of the road through the trail. Past the Witch’s Hole the trail was covered in more snow and less traveled on. The trail goes to High Point intersection, where we’ve hiked before. You can connect to other Sam’s Point trails here as well. Overall, the hike was short but beautiful and so, very much, needed!