Pine Swamp Mine

Pine Swamp Mine, Harriman State Park (12/24/2010)

Christmas is a time to be with friends and family ... but only after a hike! Today we explored one of Harriman's most awesome mines, the Pine Swamp Mine at least 500 feet above the Dunning Trail, on a section we had never hiked before today. We parked in the Lake Skannatati lot, took the Long Path (LP) west to the Dunning Trail and turned right on that trail, a blazed woods road. When we saw the Pine Swamp on our right we knew to look for a hill littered with mine tailings on our left. We found a trace of a trail heading up to the top and were awestruck when we came upon the main opening up on the hill. It's a huge cut into the mountain that climbs into the hill for well over 100 feet. I managed to climb only about a third of the way but the footing was a bit tricky with smatterings of ice all along the upward sloping corridor. Perhaps we'll return in the spring for further exploring.

We found other openings at the top of the hill heading north before descending back to the Dunning trail, which we took north to its end. There, at its intersection with the Arden-Surebridge trail, we turned right and immediately encountered another impressive opening of the same mine complex (this one we had seen at least twice before), and a few other openings as well. We continued east on the A-SB, climbing for a stretch, before descending steeply back to the car, but not before taking in the wonderful view of Lakes Skannatati, Askoti, Kanawauke and Little Long Pond.

Total distance hiked today was 3.5 miles, in 2.5 hours, a good part of this exploring the mines.

(Click on the thumbnail to bring up a bigger image in a pop-up window)