Fourth of July: Discovering Peekamoose Blue Hole in the Catskills

On Fourth of July a group of friends and I decided to rent a car and drive upstate for the day. A daytrip outside of the city is always nice and we underestimated how deserted the streets would be on this specific holiday. Which was certainly a great surprise. While driving further and further north, past Bear Mountain and other great hiking spots, the roads become windier and the scenery more stunning. To get to our final destination in the Catskills we had to drive on backroad country streets through the heart of the mountain range.

After finding a parking spot (which might have been hard to find on a regular weekend day, as there were only a few select ones) and making our way down a footpath, we were there: Staring at the Peekamoose Blue Hole and its wondrous colors!

Crystal clear water the color of pure emerald blue was staring right back at us when we turned a corner. It served as a great reminder of how beautiful upstate New York can be – especially during the warmer months. Two of my friends were brave and jumped in right away. The rest hesitated as the water looked freezing cold. After a little while though one guy convinced us to give it a go and jump in full-on. So me and my one friend did – and were filmed while doing so by another friend. It was certainly as cold as it felt when dipping in the feet. But after a few strokes we got used to it –for a good 10 minutes. The water was so clear, you could see the bottom of the pond.

After climbing the rocks and swimming through some small passages we had enough and got out again. I wandered around and found this stack of rocks some children had made.

We then continued on to the woods and hiked for about an hour. We wanted to make it to the top of the hill and aimed for a scenic view, but for some reason we never made it up that far.

At one point we met another group who confirmed our suspicion that the road was endless and never lead directly to the top. We then turned around and made our way back to the city, as we wanted to see the fireworks and end the day.