tourism

Photo from the Halls Mills Covered Bridge blog. Reproduced by permission.

The Halls Mills Bridge in Neversink was luckier than the Old Blenheim Bridge over the Schoharie Creek -- it survived Irene's ravages mostly intact.

But the stone pier that supports the bridge took heavy damage in last year's floods, and since then, the bridge has been closed to the walkers and horseback riders that have been using it to cross the Neversink River since it was built in 1912.

It will take hundreds of thousands of dollars to repair the bridge, and FEMA rules state that New York State and Sullivan County must come up with a quarter of the cost. But if it's not done soon, the bridge could collapse entirely, never to be rebuilt.  Read more

Levon Helm may be a national treasure, but here in the Catskills, we think of him as our own. The four-time Grammy-winning musician has called Woodstock home since the 1960s, and his famous "Midnight Ramble" sessions draw musicians and rock acolytes to the region from far and wide.

So when he says he loves Ulster County -- even for a promotional tourism video -- we believe him. In the latest video from Ulster County Tourism, Helm talks about why he loves these mountains.

"The people that you meet, when you come to Ulster County -- you can't beat 'em," Helm says, in a gravelly drawl. "And we've got some of the best swimming holes, natural swimming holes that were cut back into the side of the mountain, and the most beautiful little waterfalls right there, coming right down."

"There's something about Woodstock and about the Catskill Mountains right here. It's just -- it's such a good place for music to happen."

Photo of Cannonsville Reservoir by Flickr user kmitschke. Published under Creative Commons license.

The New York City Department of Environmental Protection plans to announce publicly that the recreational boating program that has been running on the Cannonsville Reservoir since 2009 will be opened up this year to three more reservoirs: the Pepacton, Neversink and Schoharie.

The announcement will be made at 1pm tomorrow, February 10, at the Catskill Watershed Corporation's headquarters at 905 Main Street in Margaretville.

From a DEP press release issued this afternoon:  Read more

Photo of Delaware County street signs by Mark Zilberman. Posted to the Watershed Post's Flickr group.

When is a tourist not a tourist?

Answer: When the only touring they're doing is from their hotel room to the spa to the gift shop in the lobby.

The tourism industry would say that people who travel on vacations are tourists, but if they have no interest in making a tour of the place they're visiting, shouldn’t we call them something else? Actual tourists tour. The concept is so basic it that we seldom give it a thought. But we should.

Real tourists take satisfaction in deliberate, but not always scripted, travel through places. They explore social, cultural and physical environments; they discover things. The pace might be fast and exhilarating, or relaxing and slow. Either way, tourists like learning about new places, or scratching below the surface of places they want to know more about.  Read more