96° in the City. 76° in the Catskills. This Is Why We Escape to Belleayre in August.
There's a moment every August when you leave New York City and think: I need some air. Not air conditioning. Actual air. The kind that smells like pine trees, damp earth, and a little wood smoke.
The other day we left the city at 96°F. Hot pavement, heavy air, every building hoarding its own little slice of summer heat like it earned it. A couple hours later we pulled up to Alpine Four Season Lodge at Belleayre Mountain 76°F. Twenty degrees cooler, and it felt like cheating.
The forest around us was deep green and stubbornly lush, the kind of green that looks a little smug about how well it's handling summer compared to the sidewalk we just left. We opened the doors, stepped onto the porch, and suddenly nobody was in much of a hurry about anything.
That's mid-August in the Catskills.
Trade the City Heat for Mountain Green
August gets treated like summer's already packing its bags. Up here, it might be the best part of the whole season. The woods are full and green, the evenings are genuinely comfortable, and there's still plenty of summer left for swimming, hiking, grilling, and sitting outside for far longer than you originally planned.
That evening we made a fire, grilled vegetables over the open flame, and opened a bottle of rosé. Then came the stories. Old stories that somehow get better every single time someone tells them, a little laughter, a little exaggeration, a little more rosé, and absolutely nowhere we needed to be. Sometimes a great getaway doesn't need to be more complicated than that.
Spend the Hot Part of the Day at Belleayre Beach
When the afternoon really heats up, head down to Belleayre Beach at Pine Hill Lake. Swim, find shade, bring a book you have zero intention of finishing, rent a kayak, stretch out on the grass and do productively nothing for a while. Belleayre Beach runs through September 6, with swimming, boating, kayaking, paddleboarding, and enough room to actually enjoy summer without waging quiet war over towel real estate.
Then Head Up the Mountain
As the day cools off, change elevation. Hike Belleayre Mountain and disappear into the green for a while, trails range from relaxed to genuinely humbling, and it's free, which is more than your gym membership can say. Or take the route that requires zero personal fitness whatsoever. Step onto the Catskill Thunder Gondola and float toward the summit, no hiking boots, no cardio, no regrets, just the Catskill Forest Preserve opening up beneath you while you sit there accomplishing nothing and looking great doing it. The gondola runs through October 11, weather permitting. Bring a camera, or don't. Sometimes it's nicer to just look, and let the view do all the bragging for you later.
This Week at Belleayre: Music, Mountains and Summer Evenings
This Friday, August 14, Music on the Belle returns to Discovery Lodge with Rivals NY, free, all ages, 6 to 9 PM, with evening gondola rides running alongside it, which makes it genuinely hard to design a better Catskills Friday night.
Then on Sunday, August 16, Belleayre hosts Climb It For Climate, a trail race through some of the toughest terrain in the Catskills, 8K or 25K, with proceeds supporting the Catskill Center. You don't have to run it to enjoy the mountain that day, but it's a good excuse to be outside either way. Check the full Belleayre Events Calendar for what else is on.
Your Mid-August Catskills Plan
Leave the city. Watch the buildings shrink and the mountains get suspiciously large. Swim during the worst of the afternoon heat. Ride the gondola like the effort-averse royalty you deserve to be for one weekend. Take a hike, if you're feeling ambitious. Listen to live music. Come home, light a fire, grill something good, pour a glass of rosé, then sit outside under the Catskills sky and wonder, sincerely, why you don't do this more often.
The city isn't going anywhere. Mid-August in the mountains, on the other hand, absolutely does not last forever, and it will not wait around for you to finish one more email.
Ready for Your Catskills Escape?
Make Alpine Four Season Lodge your home base for Belleayre Mountain, summer adventures, and those wonderfully slow Catskills evenings. Skip the city heat. Come up to where the air is cooler, the forest is greener, and summer actually moves at a reasonable pace.
Book directly at www.AlpineFourSeasonLodge.com
We look forward to welcoming you to the mountains.
Daniel & The Creew
Alpine Four Season Lodge, 32 Galli Curci Road, Highmount, NY 12441
