Deep Notch
Encyclopedia
Deep Notch, sometimes West Kill Notch, or Echo Notch, is a mountain pass
in Lexington
, New York, United States. It divides two Catskill
peaks, both subpeaks of high peaks
of the range. The narrow groove between the steep, high slopes on either side is traversed by state highway
NY 42
and the Shandaken Tunnel
, part of the New York City water supply system. It has been called "striking" and "a marvel of grandeur and beauty".
The rocky slopes have required extra fencing at the base to prevent slides
from blocking the road, the only paved road from northwestern Ulster County
to neighboring towns in Greene County
. Their steepness has also made them attractive to ice climbers
, a recreational opportunity not widely available elsewhere in the Catskills.
on the west and 3540 feet (1,079 m) Mount Sherrill
, both High Peaks
of the range, to the east. The actual notch is the roughly 1.5 miles (2.4 km) section north of the upper tributary of the creek to West Kill. On the west is an unnamed 3408 feet (1,038.8 m) peak known as Northeast Halcott or Sleeping Lion; to the west is a 3280 feet (999.7 m) false summit of Balsam Mountain, itself a subpeak of Sherrill.
The two generally level summits
are separated by roughly one mile (1.6 km). Between them, the road crests at 1900 feet (579.1 m) in the notch. On the west, that leaves a slope that rises 1400 feet (426.7 m) to where it levels off below the summit of Northeast Halcott in 2,000 horizontal feet (610 m), complemented by a 1300 feet (396.2 m) rise over a similar distance on the east. The grades are 70 percent and 65 percent respectively.
Both slopes are property of the state of New York, managed by the Department of Environmental Conservation
as part of the Catskill Park Forest Preserve
. The western land is in the Halcott Mountain Wild Forest and the eastern property in the West Kill Wilderness Area. As part of the Forest Preserve they remain forever wild, in accordance with the state constitution. There is little development in the area save some houses along the road to the south.
South of the notch the land rises gently but steadily into it, gaining about 450 feet (137.2 m) over two miles (3 km) from Bushnellsville. To the north it descends more rapidly to the hamlet of West Kill. The highway drops 525 feet (160 m) in a half-mile (1 km) to the junction with Greene County Route 6.
Route 42 is one of only three paved roads crossing gaps in a long chain of ranges that extends from Plattekill Mountain in the east to Utsayantha Mountain, near Stamford
, in the west. It allows residents of the areas of Ulster and Delaware counties to the south and southwest (such as Pine Hill
, Fleischmanns
and Margaretville
, to get to places like Prattsville
and Windham to the north without having to go a long distance out of their way. In addition, it is the most common route to the rest of Greene County for residents of the Town of Halcott
to the west, isolated from the rest of the county by mountains along its eastern and northern border.
All of Deep Notch is within the Hudson River
watershed
. Bushnellsville Creek drains into Esopus Creek
to the south, and the north side feeds the West Kill, a Schoharie Creek
tributary. The Schoharie's waters ultimately reach the Hudson via a circuitous route ending with the Mohawk River
.
period, 250–350 million years ago, when the former delta
of a river that drained the Taconic
and Acadian
mountain ranges to the northeast lifted up as one. Erosion dissected
the resulting plateau into mountains. The sandstone
s and shale
s left from the river deposits make up the notch's rock outcrops and deposits.
Like Stony Clove Notch
to the east, Deep Notch was formed more recently, at the end of the last Ice Age
. Waters from the glacial lake
of meltwater that covered the Schoharie headlands eventually spilled over the gap between the peaks, opening up the valley to the south. Eventually, it carved out the notch and then the water drained away.
Due to its steep slopes, the notch largely avoided any of the exploitation that characterized Catskill forests prior to the establishment of the Forest Preserve in 1885. In the late 1820s the Greene and Delaware Turnpike was built through the notch, connecting the large tannery at Hunter
with Middletown
in Delaware County
. In addition to the entire northern segment of Route 42 from Shandaken
to Lexington, this route is today followed by corresponding portions of routes 23A
and 28
at the north and south respectively.
Catskill forest historian Michael Kudish
has found evidence of some disturbance on the east slope. That side is mostly second-growth forest to about 2950 –. Above that first-growth resumes. Within that lower area he reported that charcoal
was abundant in the soil and northern red oak
in the forest, suggesting a past fire there. He believes it occurred around 1894.
In the late 1910s the notch area was slightly disturbed when New York City
began building the Shandaken Tunnel
, allowing water from Schoharie Reservoir
to flow 18 miles (29 km) underground to the Esopus near Shandaken, where it would eventually reach Ashokan Reservoir
. It followed the road through the notch, and its air vents and a cleared right-of-way can be seen where it crosses Route 42 north of the notch. Under the slopes of Balsam Mountain just east of Deep Notch, it reaches its greatest depth below the surface, 2215 feet (675.1 m).
, who have mapped out several ice routes along the seeps of wintertime. They are generally rated as WI2–3 on the ice grading system, which puts them among the easier ice climbs. It is one of the few climbing areas in the Catskills, a range whose sedimentary bedrock makes its cliffs generally unsuitable for rock climbing, and one of the only ice climbing areas within a reasonable day's drive of New York City
.
Mountain pass
A mountain pass is a route through a mountain range or over a ridge. If following the lowest possible route, a pass is locally the highest point on that route...
in Lexington
Lexington, New York
Lexington is a town in Greene County, New York, United States. The population was 805 at the 2010 census.The Town of Lexington is in the southwest part of Greene County.- History :The town was first settled around 1788....
, New York, United States. It divides two Catskill
Catskill Mountains
The Catskill Mountains, an area in New York State northwest of New York City and southwest of Albany, are a mature dissected plateau, an uplifted region that was subsequently eroded into sharp relief. They are an eastward continuation, and the highest representation, of the Allegheny Plateau...
peaks, both subpeaks of high peaks
Catskill High Peaks
The Catskill High Peaks are all of the mountains in New York's Catskill Mountains above 3,500 ft in elevation whose summits are separated either by one-half mile or a vertical drop of at least 250 ft between it and the next nearest separate summit...
of the range. The narrow groove between the steep, high slopes on either side is traversed by state highway
State highway
State highway, state road or state route can refer to one of three related concepts, two of them related to a state or provincial government in a country that is divided into states or provinces :#A...
NY 42
New York State Route 42
New York State Route 42 is a north–south, discontinuous state highway in the Catskill Mountains region of New York in the United States. The southernmost of the highway's two segments begins at an intersection with U.S. Route 6 and US 209 in Port Jervis and ends at a junction with...
and the Shandaken Tunnel
Shandaken Tunnel
The Shandaken Tunnel is a tunnel in Eastern New York State, part of the New York City water supply system. It was constructed between 1916 and 1924. The aqueduct starts in Gilboa, New York at the Schoharie Reservoir, which is in the counties of Schoharie, Delaware, and Greene. The water flows south...
, part of the New York City water supply system. It has been called "striking" and "a marvel of grandeur and beauty".
The rocky slopes have required extra fencing at the base to prevent slides
Rockslide
A rockslide is a type of landslide caused by rock failure in which part of the plane of failure passes through intact rock and where material collapses en masse and not in individual blocks.The mode of failure is different from that of a rock-fall....
from blocking the road, the only paved road from northwestern Ulster County
Ulster County, New York
Ulster County is a county located in the state of New York, USA. It sits in the state's Mid-Hudson Region of the Hudson Valley. As of the 2010 census, the population was 182,493. Recent population estimates completed by the United States Census Bureau for the 12-month period ending July 1 are at...
to neighboring towns in Greene County
Greene County, New York
Greene County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. Its name is in honor of the American Revolutionary War general Nathanael Greene. Its county seat is Catskill...
. Their steepness has also made them attractive to ice climbers
Ice climbing
Ice climbing, as the term indicates, is the activity of ascending inclined ice formations. Usually, ice climbing refers to roped and protected climbing of features such as icefalls, frozen waterfalls, and cliffs and rock slabs covered with ice refrozen from flows of water. For the purposes of...
, a recreational opportunity not widely available elsewhere in the Catskills.
Geography
"Deep Notch" is sometimes used to refer to the entire section of Route 42 from Bushnellsville at the county line to West Kill, where the road runs through the narrow valley of Bushnellsville Creek between 3520 feet (1,072.9 m) Halcott MountainHalcott Mountain
Halcott Mountain is one of the Catskill Mountains of the U.S. state of New York. It is mostly located in Greene County, with some of its lower slopes in Delaware and Ulster counties. Its exact summit elevation has not been officially determined, but the highest contour line on the mountain is...
on the west and 3540 feet (1,079 m) Mount Sherrill
Mount Sherrill
Mount Sherrill is a mountain located in Greene County, New York and is part of the Catskill Mountains.Mount Sherrill is flanked to the east by North Dome, and to the west by Balsam Mountain....
, both High Peaks
Catskill High Peaks
The Catskill High Peaks are all of the mountains in New York's Catskill Mountains above 3,500 ft in elevation whose summits are separated either by one-half mile or a vertical drop of at least 250 ft between it and the next nearest separate summit...
of the range, to the east. The actual notch is the roughly 1.5 miles (2.4 km) section north of the upper tributary of the creek to West Kill. On the west is an unnamed 3408 feet (1,038.8 m) peak known as Northeast Halcott or Sleeping Lion; to the west is a 3280 feet (999.7 m) false summit of Balsam Mountain, itself a subpeak of Sherrill.
The two generally level summits
Summit (topography)
In topography, a summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. Mathematically, a summit is a local maximum in elevation...
are separated by roughly one mile (1.6 km). Between them, the road crests at 1900 feet (579.1 m) in the notch. On the west, that leaves a slope that rises 1400 feet (426.7 m) to where it levels off below the summit of Northeast Halcott in 2,000 horizontal feet (610 m), complemented by a 1300 feet (396.2 m) rise over a similar distance on the east. The grades are 70 percent and 65 percent respectively.
Both slopes are property of the state of New York, managed by the Department of Environmental Conservation
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation is responsible for the conservation, improvement, and protection of natural resources within the U.S. state of New York. It was founded in 1970, replacing the previous Conservation Department...
as part of the Catskill Park Forest Preserve
Forest Preserve (New York)
New York's Forest Preserve is all the land owned by the state within the Adirondack and Catskill parks, managed by its Department of Environmental Conservation. These properties are required to be kept "forever wild" by Article 14 of the state constitution, and thus enjoy the highest degree of...
. The western land is in the Halcott Mountain Wild Forest and the eastern property in the West Kill Wilderness Area. As part of the Forest Preserve they remain forever wild, in accordance with the state constitution. There is little development in the area save some houses along the road to the south.
South of the notch the land rises gently but steadily into it, gaining about 450 feet (137.2 m) over two miles (3 km) from Bushnellsville. To the north it descends more rapidly to the hamlet of West Kill. The highway drops 525 feet (160 m) in a half-mile (1 km) to the junction with Greene County Route 6.
Route 42 is one of only three paved roads crossing gaps in a long chain of ranges that extends from Plattekill Mountain in the east to Utsayantha Mountain, near Stamford
Stamford (village), New York
Stamford is a village in Delaware County, New York, United States. The population was 1,265 at the 2000 census.The Village of Stamford is located partly in the Town of Stamford and partly in the Town of Harpersfield. The village is on routes 23 and 10...
, in the west. It allows residents of the areas of Ulster and Delaware counties to the south and southwest (such as Pine Hill
Pine Hill, New York
Pine Hill is a hamlet in the western part of the town of Shandaken in Ulster County, New York, United States. As of the 2000 census, the CDP had a total population of 308.- History :...
, Fleischmanns
Fleischmanns, New York
Fleischmanns is a village in Delaware County, New York, United States. The population was 351 at the 2000 census. Fleischmanns is in the town of Middletown.- History :Early settlers of this area came from Germany, England, Holland and Ireland...
and Margaretville
Margaretville, New York
Margaretville is a village in Delaware County, New York, United States. The population was 643 at the 2000 census.The Village of Margaretville is in the Town of Middletown. The village is on the border of the Catskill Park...
, to get to places like Prattsville
Prattsville, New York
Prattsville is a town in Greene County, New York, United States. The Town of Prattsville is in the northwest part of the county. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 700.- History :...
and Windham to the north without having to go a long distance out of their way. In addition, it is the most common route to the rest of Greene County for residents of the Town of Halcott
Halcott, New York
Halcott is a town in Greene County, New York, United States. The population was 258 at the 2010 census.The Town of Halcott is located in the southwestern corner of the county.- History :...
to the west, isolated from the rest of the county by mountains along its eastern and northern border.
All of Deep Notch is within the Hudson River
Hudson River
The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
watershed
Drainage basin
A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...
. Bushnellsville Creek drains into Esopus Creek
Esopus Creek
Esopus Creek is a tributary of the Hudson River that drains the east-central Catskill Mountains of the U.S. state of New York. From its source at Winnisook Lake on the slopes of Slide Mountain, the Catskills' highest peak, it flows across Ulster County to the Hudson at Saugerties. Many tributaries...
to the south, and the north side feeds the West Kill, a Schoharie Creek
Schoharie Creek
Schoharie Creek in New York, USA flows north from the foot of Indian Head Mountain in the Catskill Mountains through the Schoharie Valley to the Mohawk River. It is twice impounded north of Prattsville to create New York City's Schoharie Reservoir and the Blenheim-Gilboa Power Project.Two notable...
tributary. The Schoharie's waters ultimately reach the Hudson via a circuitous route ending with the Mohawk River
Mohawk River
The Mohawk River is a river in the U.S. state of New York. It is the largest tributary of the Hudson River. The Mohawk flows into the Hudson in the Capital District, a few miles north of the city of Albany. The river is named for the Mohawk Nation of the Iroquois Confederacy...
.
History
The Catskills as a whole were formed during the DevonianDevonian
The Devonian is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic Era spanning from the end of the Silurian Period, about 416.0 ± 2.8 Mya , to the beginning of the Carboniferous Period, about 359.2 ± 2.5 Mya...
period, 250–350 million years ago, when the former delta
River delta
A delta is a landform that is formed at the mouth of a river where that river flows into an ocean, sea, estuary, lake, reservoir, flat arid area, or another river. Deltas are formed from the deposition of the sediment carried by the river as the flow leaves the mouth of the river...
of a river that drained the Taconic
Taconic Mountains
The Taconic Mountains or Taconic Range are a physiographic section of the larger New England province and part of the Appalachian Mountains, running along the eastern border of New York State and adjacent New England from northwest Connecticut to western Massachusetts, north to central western...
and Acadian
Acadian orogeny
The Taconic, Acadian and Alleghenian orogenies are the three tectonic phases responsible for the formation of the present Appalachian Mountains. The Acadian orogeny is a middle Paleozoic mountain building episode dating back 325-400 million years which should not be regarded as a single event but...
mountain ranges to the northeast lifted up as one. Erosion dissected
Dissected plateau
A dissected plateau is a plateau area that has been severely eroded so that the relief is sharp. Such an area may be referred to as mountainous, but dissected plateaus are distinguishable from orogenic mountain belts by the lack of folding, metamorphism, extensive faulting, or magmatic activity...
the resulting plateau into mountains. The sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
s and shale
Shale
Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock composed of mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals and tiny fragments of other minerals, especially quartz and calcite. The ratio of clay to other minerals is variable. Shale is characterized by breaks along thin laminae or parallel layering...
s left from the river deposits make up the notch's rock outcrops and deposits.
Like Stony Clove Notch
Stony Clove Notch
Stony Clove Notch is a narrow pass, roughly 2,220 feet in elevation located in the Town of Hunter in Greene County, New York, deep in the Catskill Mountains. It is traversed by New York State Route 214, although in the past the Ulster and Delaware Railroad went through it as well.The notch divides...
to the east, Deep Notch was formed more recently, at the end of the last Ice Age
Wisconsin glaciation
The last glacial period was the most recent glacial period within the current ice age occurring during the last years of the Pleistocene, from approximately 110,000 to 10,000 years ago....
. Waters from the glacial lake
Glacial lake
A glacial lake is a lake with origins in a melted glacier. Near the end of the last glacial period, roughly 10,000 years ago, glaciers began to retreat. A retreating glacier often left behind large deposits of ice in hollows between drumlins or hills. As the ice age ended, these melted to create...
of meltwater that covered the Schoharie headlands eventually spilled over the gap between the peaks, opening up the valley to the south. Eventually, it carved out the notch and then the water drained away.
Due to its steep slopes, the notch largely avoided any of the exploitation that characterized Catskill forests prior to the establishment of the Forest Preserve in 1885. In the late 1820s the Greene and Delaware Turnpike was built through the notch, connecting the large tannery at Hunter
Hunter (village), New York
Hunter is a village in Greene County, New York, USA. The population was 502 at the 2010 census.The Village of Hunter is in the northwest part of the Town of Hunter on Route 23A.- History :...
with Middletown
Middletown, Delaware County, New York
Middletown is a town in Delaware County, New York, United States. The population was 4,051 at the 2000 census.The Town of Middletown is in the southeast part of the county.- History :...
in Delaware County
Delaware County, New York
Delaware County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of 2010 the population was 47,980. The county seat is Delhi. It is named after the Delaware River, which was named in honor of Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, appointed governor of Virginia in 1609.-History:When counties...
. In addition to the entire northern segment of Route 42 from Shandaken
Shandaken, New York
Shandaken is a town in Ulster County, New York, United States. United States. As of the 2000 census, the town had a total population of 3,235. The name is from a native phrase for "land of rapid waters."...
to Lexington, this route is today followed by corresponding portions of routes 23A
New York State Route 23A
New York State Route 23A is an east–west state highway in Greene County, New York, in the United States. It serves as a alternate route of NY 23 through the northern Catskill Mountains...
and 28
New York State Route 28
New York State Route 28 is a state highway extending for in the shape of a "C" between the Hudson Valley city of Kingston and southern Warren County in the U.S. state of New York. Along the way, it intersects several major routes, including Interstate 88 , U.S. Route 20 , and the...
at the north and south respectively.
Catskill forest historian Michael Kudish
Michael Kudish
Michael Kudish is an author, railroad historian, forester, and retired professor. He received his Ph.D. in 1971 from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry at Syracuse. His dissertation, on the history of Catskill forests, was the beginning of a lifelong...
has found evidence of some disturbance on the east slope. That side is mostly second-growth forest to about 2950 –. Above that first-growth resumes. Within that lower area he reported that charcoal
Charcoal
Charcoal is the dark grey residue consisting of carbon, and any remaining ash, obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from animal and vegetation substances. Charcoal is usually produced by slow pyrolysis, the heating of wood or other substances in the absence of oxygen...
was abundant in the soil and northern red oak
Northern Red Oak
Quercus rubra, commonly called northern red oak or champion oak, , is an oak in the red oak group . It is a native of North America, in the northeastern United States and southeast Canada...
in the forest, suggesting a past fire there. He believes it occurred around 1894.
In the late 1910s the notch area was slightly disturbed when New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
began building the Shandaken Tunnel
Shandaken Tunnel
The Shandaken Tunnel is a tunnel in Eastern New York State, part of the New York City water supply system. It was constructed between 1916 and 1924. The aqueduct starts in Gilboa, New York at the Schoharie Reservoir, which is in the counties of Schoharie, Delaware, and Greene. The water flows south...
, allowing water from Schoharie Reservoir
Schoharie Reservoir
The Schoharie Reservoir is a small reservoir in the Catskill Mountains of New York State that was created to be one of 19 reservoirs that supplies New York City with water. It was created by impounding Schoharie Creek...
to flow 18 miles (29 km) underground to the Esopus near Shandaken, where it would eventually reach Ashokan Reservoir
Ashokan Reservoir
The Ashokan Reservoir is a reservoir in Ulster County, New York, USA. The reservoir is in the eastern end of the Catskill Park, and is one of several reservoirs created to provide the City of New York with water. However, it is one of only two reservoirs in the Catskill Watershed. It is also New...
. It followed the road through the notch, and its air vents and a cleared right-of-way can be seen where it crosses Route 42 north of the notch. Under the slopes of Balsam Mountain just east of Deep Notch, it reaches its greatest depth below the surface, 2215 feet (675.1 m).
Recreation
The steep pitch of the slopes has made Deep Notch attractive to ice climbersIce climbing
Ice climbing, as the term indicates, is the activity of ascending inclined ice formations. Usually, ice climbing refers to roped and protected climbing of features such as icefalls, frozen waterfalls, and cliffs and rock slabs covered with ice refrozen from flows of water. For the purposes of...
, who have mapped out several ice routes along the seeps of wintertime. They are generally rated as WI2–3 on the ice grading system, which puts them among the easier ice climbs. It is one of the few climbing areas in the Catskills, a range whose sedimentary bedrock makes its cliffs generally unsuitable for rock climbing, and one of the only ice climbing areas within a reasonable day's drive of New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.