Ice caves just a part of Cragsmoor preserve

By Rebecca Rothbaum
Poughkeepsie Journal

But chances are, these are not the ice caves you remember.

Once owned by the nearby Village of Ellenville, the ice caves were for years operated by the commercial enterprise Ice Caves Mountain, a popular tourist attraction of the snow-globe and T-shirt-selling variety and a rite of passage for local school children who came by the yellow busload.

All that ended four years ago when the New York City-based Open Space Institute bought the ice caves and surrounding land and created the 4,600-acre Sam's Point Dwarf Pine Ridge Preserve, part of an ongoing effort to preserve the Shawangunk Ridge, which stretches from Pennsylvania to New York.

''Mohonk is in place, Minnewaska is in place and now this has been preserved and can no longer be developed,'' said Heidi Wagner of the Nature Conservancy, which manages the preserve for OSI. ''This should be more of a wilderness experience for people.''

The caves have been stripped of their colored lighting and await solar-powered fixtures. Meanwhile, conservancy interns have been building rustic-looking railings and ladders. And visitors must now park at the visitor center, about a mile from the caves. In the past, visitors were permitted to park at the cave entrance.

Marvels of geology

''We have this image to somehow overcome,'' Wagner said. ''We still get women in high heels coming after Sunday dinner.''

That may take a while.

While on a preview tour of the caves, I ran into longtime ice cave fans who showed no signs of knowing the caves ever closed.

Larry Linkov, 81, was making his 20th -- and likely his last -- trip to the caves. The Livingston, N.J. man, who came accompanied by friends Maria and Jose Robles, said injuries he suffered as a World War II pilot combined with old age made the trek to the caves too painful. But he said the caves still fascinated him.

''Where do you find anything like this?'' Linkov asked, ranking the caves alongside the famous Carlsbad and Howe caverns.

And yes, the Robles assured me as we stood dripping in the afternoon heat, the caves were cold.

They were right. However, there was no ice. Nevertheless, the longstanding appeal of the caves was readily apparent.

The caves are marvels of geology, deep crevices between massive slabs of

Shawangunk conglomerate. A narrow footpath connects them and each cave cooler than the next. In some places, the cave walls were moist and the sound of falling and rushing water escaped though fissures in the rock walls. Cold mists snaked through the chambers and sunlight seeped in between the rocks, illuminating the way.

Dan Davis, a geologist who works for the state and is preparing information on the caves for a kiosk there, said the caves operate as a ''cold sink,'' trapping cold air and snow that get in through openings above. Spring is the best time to see ice and snow in the caves.

Most visitors to Sam's Point are drawn by the ice caves. But the Nature Conservancy is hoping that they will also discover its other charms. The preserve is home to one of the few remaining dwarf pines barrens in the world, as well as nearly 40 other rare plants and animals. There are a number of trails for walkers and hikers and even a waterfall.

The preserve -- which is named for the more than 300-year-old legend of Sam Gonzalez, a local man who is said to have jumped off a cliff to escape pursuing Native Americans and survived -- is also covered with blueberry and huckleberry bushes, which in summer once drew families who lived and worked on the ridge picking berries. The ruins of their homes can still be seen there.

Berries attracted the McGuire family and their friend Elena Horning from nearby Montgomery, Orange County. They hoped to make blueberry pancakes and pie.

''It's definitely worth blueberry picking here,'' said Gretchen McGuire, as she displayed the results of efforts, about a quart of the berries.