The Second Annual Lark in the Park will feature more than 100 outdoor adventures and indoor cultural events throughout the Catskill Park from October 1-10, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Acting Commissioner has announced. The 10-day celebration. is intended to showcase the natural landscapes and wealth of recreational and cultural activities to be found throughout the Park with a roster of events that honor the Park’s multihued history by paying homage to everything from fly fishing to cauliflower. The roster includes free guided hikes, walks, paddles, biking tours, fly fishing events, festivals, concerts, and arts and crafts exhibits.

The Lark in the Park is sponsored by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), the Catskill Center for Conservation and Development and the Catskill Mountain Foundation the New York City Department of Environmental Protection.. Numerous environmental, trails, historical and cultural organizations are participating in the Lark by offering events. They include the Catskill Mountain Club, the Adirondack Mountain Club Mid-Hudson Chapter and the Catskill 3500 Club.

The roster of walks and hikes has something to fit everyone’s feet from stroller to hardy strider. Easy to moderate walks include a sunset walk around Onteora Lake in the Blue Mountain Wild Forest just outside Kingston, a hike to Huggins Lake in Delaware County and walk through the former Lundy Estate, now state land, in Warwarsing. Hikes of several of the 98 Catskill high peaks over 3,000 feet include West Kill Mountain, Hunter Mountain, Indian Head and Slide, the highest Catskill’s highest peak at 4,180 feet. “Catskill Fire Tower Day” on Sunday, October 9 will feature hikes to all five of the recently restored historic fire towers in the Catskill Park on the summits of Overlook, Tremper, Hunter, Red Hill and Balsam Lake Mountain.

The Catskill Park was created by an act of the New York State Legislature and signed into law by Governor Benjamin Odell on April 4, 1904. Unique among New York’s state parks, its 700,500 acres is an amalgam of both public and private lands in Delaware, Greene, Sullivan and Ulster Counties. The Catskill Forest Preserve comprises 41% of the Catskill Park, containing more than 300,000 acres of pristine land protected as “forever wild” by New York State.

Within the Park’s boundaries are the scenic landscapes that inspired the rise of the first exclusively American art movement, the Hudson River School, and the waterways that gave birth to fly fishing in America. Five hikes, ranging from easy to moderately challenging, will go to favorite Hudson River School artists’ sites along the Escarpment Trail, in the Kaaterskill Clove, at North-South Lakes and at the Kaaterskill Falls. Fittingly, the studio of Thomas Cole, the “founding father” of the Hudson River School, will be dedicated on Sunday, October 3 at Cedar Grove, his Catskill, N.Y. home, now a National Historic Site.

Honoring the Catskills as the birthplace of fly fishing in America, The Catskill Center for Conservation and Development (CCCD) is offering a lesson in fly fishing at Pine Hill Lake and the DEC is sponsoring tours of its Catskill Fish Hatchery at Mongaup Pond in Sullivan County.

Several “Larks” offer opportunities to discover lesser known nooks and crannies in the Park such as the DEC Vernooy Kill State Forest, a former estate of nearly 5,000 acres, and Cathedral Gorge on the Esopus Creek near Ashokan. Carved out by the creek’s waters, the dramatic rock formation offers a fascinating study in Catskills’ geology. The New York City Department of Environmental Protection NYCDEP) is offering three walks on Catskill watershed lands not normally accessible to the public. In addition, a NYCDEP-led “stream tracking” hike along the West Kill will illustrate the roll streams play in the evolution and ecology of the Catskill landscape.

Three biking events include a 10-mile ride through the web of undulating trails in the DEC Bluestone Wild Forest led by “Fats in the Cats,” and a 20-mile scenic pedal around the paved perimeter of the Pepacton Reservoir led by Beth Waterman of “Celebrating Catskill Women.” The Catskill Park’s version of the Tour de France, the 100-mile, 10-hour Centennial Century Ride, led by DEC Region 3 Natural Resources Supervisor Bill Rudge, will pedal some of the Park’s most mountainous terrain.

Several events illustrate pages from the Park’s rich social and cultural history. Bluestone quarrying, once a major industry in the region, will be the topic of a “walk and talk” in the DEC Bluestone Wild Forest. An illustrated talk on the legacy of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in the Catskills will be given by author Diane Galusha at the Fairview Library in Margaretville, with a short walk through a Norway spruce plantation planted by the CCC following. The historic and still-active Byrdcliffe Arts and Crafts Colony is offering a tour of the cottages and unique Arts and Crafts home of its founder Ralph Whitehead. The Second Annual Cauliflower Festival in Margaretville on Saturday, October 2, celebrates the days when that vegetable was the reigning cash crop in the region.

The “Catskill Park Photo Scavenger Hunt” provides an impetus to explore every corner of the Catskill Park in search of “photo ops” as well as prizes. Persons interested in participating should send an e-mail to catskillmountainclub@yahoo.com before September 24.

For a free program guide with a listing of all events, call 1-877-426-0323, e-mail CatskillLark@aol.com, or view at www.catskillpark100.org “A Lark in the Park” is part of the yearlong Catskill Park Centennial Celebration