Labyrinth Guide
Lara Preece
Background you can feel free to skip: The hike across the Mohonk Mountain House grounds to the Labyrinth rock scramble and up through the Lemon Squeeze crevice is one of the most memorable outdoor experiences in the Hudson Valley, or anywhere else.
15. It took us about 40 minutes to navigate the Labyrinth. What an awesome place. When you emerge, the trail opens up, the red trail markers direct you towards the crevice and you can finally stand up straight for a little while.
25. Follow Sky Top Path all way back down to the Mountain House, passing several nice gazebos and an ice skating pavilion on the way. It took us less than fifteen minutes to get back down. A little quicker than the way up, right?
31. When the unnamed path beside the Picnic Lodge dead-ends into North Lookout Road, turn right. North Lookout Road wraps around a small picturesque cliff, giving you your last up-close look at a Mohonk rock face for the day. Feel free to give it a hug.
Tips are interesting. I enjoyed it last year. Parked very close to the hotel. Completed Labyrinth and lemon squeeze in a couple hours. Lots of sun water snacks and sweat later, my body was turned over and more toned, though tired. Totally worth it. Stayed for the outdoor buffet too.
Amazing hike!!
The path from the lot to the mountain house is clearly labeled. The labyrinth path is labeled nicely with the red path marks and arrows. You do need to be cautious with the gaps and edges but overall a fun challenging day!! Love this site!
Thank you for another fantastic trail guide. My husband and I had a fantastic time getting squeezed today! Just wanted to let you know that it is now $29 a hiker and you have to visit before the hike to purchase hiking passes for the day and reserve a time that you will be arriving. They also take your temperature before you are allowed to hike. There are a limited number of passes for the day and the weekends seem to be sold out early. We truly appreciated how seriously they are taking precautions for hikers. Be safe everyone!
Thank you Mike. What a fabulous experience! I finally got to do this last week. I followed your recommended route (with one exception). A couple of comments. First, the day hiker price has gone up to $29 (same, weekday or weekend). Still definitely worth this one of a kind hike. I thought of it like admission to an amusement park. The shortcut trail to the left of the Picnic Lodge was a bit hard to find. I actually passed it twice. Lastly, I never saw the Whitney shortcut. I may have been distracted, but did not notice any sign (perhaps knocked over?), so I ended up doing the North Lookout Road all the way around. No issue, really. It was mainly flat anyway. Your described loop was otherwise terrific. I completed it in a little over 4 hours, including several breaks and climbing the tower, and took tons of photos. This was a major accomplishment for me, being over 60, with not the best knees, and a chronic rotator cuff tear (which was supposed to be fixed back in April, now postponed to October). Thanks again!
Hi Richie! The rates listed on the Mohonk site still show $26 per hiker on weekends, $21 per hiker on weekdays. If someone can confirm that the rates have changed, please let me know so that I can update the Cheapskate Alert above. Thanks!
Mike, still $26 per hiker as of 9/16/18. Well worth it for all you get to see in just a few hours. Well-marked and well-maintained trails, gardens, gazebos galore, ginormous one-of-a-kind hotel with a gorgeous lake, rock scrambling, crevice exploration, killer panoramic views, and a unique stone tower! Mohonk is a must-see destination for everyone.
I went to college at SUNY New Paltz from 1991 to 1995 and this was a weekly hike. Back then the lemon squeeze has a simple long piece of wood with short piece for steps not really ladder. you had go wedge yourself up really. the labrynth or as we called it rock scrambling was fun as we have races across it. do people still walk to to the top of the light house?
Thanks for this wonderfully detailed article! I will probably be going this weekend with a few friends. I am so excited for it! Ahh! I am feeling the rush just thinking about it, or maybe its from the coffee I just drank, but I am feeling something!
Hello! I just went on this hike yesterday and it was amazing! My friends and I want to go canoeing and swimming here as well as the hike but do you know if this is included in the hiking fee? I know it costs money to rent canoes but just wanted to know if hikers were allowed to swim and stuff
But we needed that extra dollar to play Powerball so we could afford to keep hiking here! Ha, no, still worth it, but this is definitely a sometimes treat. Thanks for the update, Jen. I just updated the trail guide accordingly.
Also FYI, the breakfast is $45 all inclusive (tax and tip) and you pay up front, at the time of reservation. Still very worthwhile to shave a few miles off the hike and have an all-you-can-eat buffet.
Peace Awareness Labyrinth & Gardens (PAL&G) is a spiritual center located in Los Angeles. We are open to the public. The public is invited to visit our labyrinth and spectacular meditation garden, tour the historic villa, or take a workshop or class. We are dedicated to experiencing and explore peace and practical spirituality. PAL&G is non-profit 501(C3). Our sanctuary is free to visit with donations welcome.
A: Labyrinths are geometrical patterns used for walking or tracing, as a tool to assist the consciousness. They have been in existence for thousands of years. No one knows for certain when or where they first originated. They have been used by different cultures and mystical and religious traditions worldwide.
A labyrinth differs from a maze in that there is only one way in and one way out. They have one continuous path that twists and turns, eventually leading to the center. There are no dead ends. There is nothing to figure out as you walk or trace a labyrinth. You simply follow the path to the center and then retrace the same path back out.
Labyrinths are made from a variety of materials. Some are stone, some have the paths marked with grass, or gravel. There are large carpets made with labyrinth designs that get rolled out in gyms or parks. There are also small wooden, metal, cloth and paper labyrinths made to trace with your finger or a tracing tool. (Click here to print and trace a Paper Labyrinth.)
Our peace labyrinth is an outdoor labyrinth with the same pattern design as the one at the Chartres Cathedral in France that was built around 1214. It is made of travertine marble that was hand-cut and hand-laid. It is a almost 40 feet across and the path you follow in and out stretches about one third of a mile.
(Originally the labyrinth at Chartres was referred to as "The Road to Jerusalem," and the name Jerusalem actually means "city of peace." In some traditions, the labyrinth was used to represent finding the Holy Grail, or finding Mecca.)
A: You enter the labyrinth and follow the path as it winds its way toward the center. You pause in the center as you like, then turn and exit the labyrinth on the same path you came in, just going the opposite direction.
A: It is fine to walk it alone and fine to walk with others. People walk at different paces. If you encounter someone going the opposite direction, one will simply step off the path momentarily to allow the other to pass.
Do you walk it fast? Or slow? Do you lose your focus or your way? Does your mind race or can you hold your mind steady and stay present? Do you wonder when you will reach center? Do you wonder if you're doing it right? If you encounter another person on your path, are you impatient? Are you the one who steps off the path to accommodate the other person? Or do you hold your direction and find that other people step off to let you go your way?
St. Aidan's Episcopal Church in Alexandria, VA, has both a large outdoor labyrinth and a small indoor labyrinth painted on the floor at the back of the sanctuary. The 40-foot outdoor labyrinth paths are rubber mulch (like playgrounds use) over ground cloth, with white stones outlining the path. As I walked, I felt the energy of many hands and much care that went into building it. The Worldwide Labyrinth Locator says it was completed September 2012.
The natural site is echoed inside the sanctuary where the walls are rough hewn wood. I almost missed the small labyrinth painted on the floor at the back, because it was covered with chairs. The St. Aidan's web site, though, has a wonderful photograph of a confirmation class meeting in the middle of this sacred space.
Walking two labyrinths of the same pattern, in similar settings near Washington, DC, provided a great opportunity to compare the little design details that give a labyrinth its individual character. Both the private Hallowood Retreat Center and the public Brookside Gardens sited their labyrinths next to small lakes. Both follow the Santa Rosa design by Dr. Lea Goode-Harris and use similar materials, rough gravel for the path and stone blocks to mark the path's boundaries. The two main points of difference are the sense of enclosure and the contrast between the path and its boundaries.
The Hallowood labyrinth slopes a little more than the Brookside site, toward the water, and is enclosed on the uphill side by a line of shrubs, trees, and large rocks. The waterside vista is toward the retreat center buildings on the other side of the lake. At a labyrinth event that I facilitated at Hallowood, one participant said she felt more enclosed than she expected, given how much of the site is open.
c80f0f1006