Access
The most frequent route to the summit follows the Dry Brook Ridge Trail from the Mill Brook Road crossing, the highest trailhead in the Catskills at 2,580 feet (790 m). Hikers follow the blue-blazed trail, the old jeep road to the Balsam Lake Mountain fire tower, 1.8 miles (2.9 km) to where the unblazed Old Tappan Road, a relocated stretch of the Turner Hollow Road, forks off to the left at an elevation of 3,340 feet (1,020 m).
At this point hikers leave the trail and its public easement. Permission is required from the Furlow Lodge caretaker to climb from there to the summit of Graham since it is private property. The Old Tappan Road curves around the side of Turner Hollow, descending 100 feet (30 m) before ascending again after a fork where an older portion of the Turner Hollow Road descends on the left to Drury Hollow. The road ahead continues the gentle ascent until 3,400 feet (1,000 m), where it climbs more sharply up a series of switchbacks, passing some of the balsam firs on the slope at higher elevations.
The summit is marked by a U.S. Geological Survey benchmark with the 3,868-foot (1,179 m) elevation set in a rock at the west edge of the ridge where the road ends. The old relay station, a one-story cinderblock structure with no remaining roof and the three steel supports that can be seen from various viewpoints in the area near the mountain, is at the center of a large clearing. An informal poll of 3500 Club members has found Graham ranks with nearby Eagle as their least favorite summit among the Catskill High Peaks.
There are open views west to Balsam Lake Mountain. Rough use paths lead along the ridge through the pygmy forest to views over the Dry Brook valley and Big Indian, Eagle and Fir mountains to the northwest, and Doubletop and the Beaver Kill's headlands to the southeast.
Other access routes include a bushwhack approach from the Seager-Big Indian Trail along Dry Brook; this usually is combined with an ascent of Doubletop. It also is hiked in combination with Balsam Lake, for which the hike sometimes begins from the south, at the end of Beaverkill Road north of Quaker Clearing.
Read more about this topic: Graham Mountain (New York)
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