Welcome to the Catskill Mountains of New York which boasts more than 6000 square miles of pristine, untouched nature. The unusually steep-sided valleys and massive rounded uplands comprise a natural wilderness within easy reach of New York City. Heavily mantled with mixed broad-leaved and coniferous forests, the area’s scenery is made more spectacular by deeply scored cloves (rocky glens).

Well obviously the main setting for our novel is important to our story. Bitter Mountain is a heavily-wooded mountain that rises above the valley town of Delhi, New York, located among the Catskill Mountains. Bitter Mountain is where the Gribley family can trace its roots to a mountainside farm and residence. Bitter Mountain is where Sam heads to live on his family’s old property, and where he spends nearly the entire novel. Bitter Mountain is not only the location of Sam’s old family property, but is also where the meadow exists, in which Sam builds his tree house from a massive Hemlock.

The formation of the Catskills mountains is an interesting one, as it has gone full cycle! When the sediments of the Acadian Mountains were rising and eroding, they eroded and formed the rocks that make up the Catskills. The mountain is therefore made of eroded sentiments, deposition, and back to erosion.

The Catskill Mountains are mostly made of sandstone, but they also contain minerals such as copper, lead, iron, and zinc. The sandstone formed millions of years ago when this area was a small sea. Rocks of the Catskills and closest foothills consist of siliciclastic rocks (sandstones, mudrocks, conglomerates) with minimal, locally dispersed carbonate rocks. The former are dominated by quartz, metamorphic and sedimentary rock fragments, and clay minerals.

These seem like way too many peaks for one mountain, but they give the mountain such great views. Out of these, 35 of them are over 3,500 feet high, with the highest one Slide Mountain being 4,180 feet! If you have climbed all of them, then there is a club called The 35 Club that you are eligible for after conquering the 35th one. Therefore if you love hiking, this can be such a good challenge, also seeing as they are all in one area! Be careful, there are over 2,000 black bears in the mountains!!

The Catskills began existence as a river delta 350 million years ago. Streams flowing off the then-mighty Acadian Mountains deposited sediment where the river met a sea (now the Allegheny Plateau). Eventually the Taconics eroded to their present size and the waters dried up, leaving a mostly flat plain.

The Catskills are home to black bears, cougars, bobcats, coyotes, porcupines and a variety of poisonous and non-poisonous snakes. Black bears can be found on nearly every mountain in the Catskills region, which has the highest black bear population in New York State. Cougars and bobcats have been spotted much less frequently.

Located at Hunter Mountain, New York Zipline has the largest zip line canopy tour in North America. Their zip lines reach up to 650 feet long and 60 feet above the forest floor, and visitors can even enjoy a night zipping under the stars with their moonlight tours.

The brainchild of '60s psychedelic artist Isaac Abrams and his son Raphael, a digital artist, the 60-foot-tall Kaatskill Kaleidoscope is the world’s largest, walk-through kaleidoscope. More than 20 people can fit inside the kaleidoscope—a former grain silo—for an energetic show of colors, music, and trippy images. As it goes with roadside stops, there are plenty of mini kaleidoscope souvenirs on your way out.

There are more than a dozen covered bridges in the Catskills. Most of them are within pretty close proximity of each other and you can make a day trip of finding them all. A slow drive through the one-lane bridges is a drive through history. Many were built in the 19th century and despite their age, several still support vehicle traffic.

It is popularly believed that the purpose of the rooves was to keep snow off the road and to provide shelter for travelers during storms. In fact, the covers were designed to protect the bridge itself. Constant exposure to sun, snow, and rain left wooden bridges with a useful life of about a decade.