Rock Rift Fire Observation Tower

Hike 3.7 miles round trip near Walton and climb 97 oak steps up a 1934 fire tower above the Cannonsville Reservoir.

Tower Mountain, Town of Tompkins, Delaware County, NY · Walton, NY

About Rock Rift Fire Observation Tower

The Civilian Conservation Corps put up this 72-foot steel fire tower in 1934 on Tower Mountain, at 2,376 feet, above the Cannonsville Reservoir in the western Catskills. Lookouts staffed it until 1988. The reservoir drowned the hamlet of Rock Rift in the 1960s, and old roads, foundations and front steps still show along the shore. The Town of Tompkins took over the tower in 2017 and volunteers replaced its 97 stair treads with white oak in 2025, so you can climb to just below the cab. The trail, kept up by the Finger Lakes Trail Conference, is a 3.7-mile out-and-back from near Walton across New York City watershed land and private land.

#fire tower
#hiking
#catskills
#reservoir views
#civilian conservation corps

What's around here?

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