NYC Day Trips - Saugerties Lighthouse New York

Located in Ulster County between the Catskill Mountains and the Hudson River is this quaint little town. Should you be travelling along through upstate New York then this may very well serve as a great pitstop. We'd trekked quite a ways northward and once we were within the borders of Saugerties there were plenty of signs guiding us through the streets to local attractions.

This page though will deal mostly with the Lighthouse located along Lighthouse Drive.

Visiting:

One arrives at the Lighthouse by venturing through a nature trail, the entrance of which is accompanied by a small parking area. The trail itself is approximately 1/2 a mile and although most would be advised to proceed with caution, it's quite the escape from city life of any sort. It is known as the Ruth Reynolds Glunt Nature Preserve Lighthouse Trail. This little route is very much the sight. Along our way we'd come across a number of small bridges, plenty of birds, fallen trees, limbs, beach and plantlife. It's a real treat to go through this trail and find what lies at the end. The Lighthouse of course! It's here within that peace abounds. With a museum inside, a tour provided on weekends and holidays from Memorial Day through Labor Day as well as the opportunity to actually partake in its Bed & Breafast offerings which is available year round.

We took advantage of the tour after paying their small fee and found it very interesting and enlightening. That is, to learn of how folks lived way back when and such. To get a new perspective of the surrounding areas and to at last venture to the very top of the Lighthouse itself. Yet yours truly couldn't perform this last task being slightly disabled and all. 'But our associate was more than happy to take on the task and bring back photos as seen below on this page.

History:

Note: portions of this section were taken directly from the visitor's pamphlet provided at this landmark. The present Lighthouse which exists there was sanctioned in 1867 and sits atop a massive circular stone base 60 feet in diameter and 12 feet deep. This stone base itself sits on three rows of 56 pilings topped with three layer of 6 inch planking. At one time in history the river Saugerties was a major port, with daily boats to Manhattan and frequent ferries to Tivoli which can be found just slightly southwest across the Hudson River. Apparently, the Coast Guard which has a unit located within the area were the original owners of the lighthouse. It was in 1985 that they gave up jurisdiction and the Saugerties Lighthouse Conservancy was formed as a non-profit corporation for the sake of preserving this structure.

Getting there:

• Travel time from midtown Manhattan would be an approximate 2+ hours depending of course on traffic and whether you take the most local or most express routes.
• As with most other locales there are a number of different ways one can go about to getting to this particular location.
  • Route 9w: New Yorkled truly loves travelling along local routes (in this case 9w), but for such a long trek it isn't always the best ideal. But remember that travelling along these local roads will most definitely add a great deal of time to your travel time. Route 9w is accessible from such Hudson River crossings as:
    • Newburgh Beacon Bridge (Interstate 84) for those who might be travelling way up on the Eastern Side of the Hudson.
    • Bear Mountain Bridge which is another big favorite of ours.
    • Tappan Zee Bridge (I287, I87) also known as the New York State Throughway.
• Interstate 87 (Governor Thomas E. Dewey Throughway): Definitely the fastest way of getting there and also the most boring. Regardless, you can take a look at any map online or on paper to see best how to get onto I87. From NYC there are plenty that'll get you onto that Interstate. It's simply a matter of how much time you'd prefer to spend on the road as opposed to cruising through town after town.

Click on any one of these photos for larger versions