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C O U R T E S Y O F T H E C H AT WA L LO D G E /J O E T H O M A S ; D R I F T W O O D R A N C H R E S O R T/ M I K E B LO O M The new Treehouse cottages at The Chatwal Lodge offer woodsy privacy. Below, the Driftwood Ranch Resort is home to longhorn cattle. Treehouses, wooden cottages suspended 15 feet from the ground amid the mature maples and oaks on the property. Nearby Ulster County is where Auberge Resorts Collection opted to open its rival, Wildflower Farms: this is much larger, with more than 60 freestanding cabins dotted around its 140-acre site. Of course, there's a farm, but it's interactive: sign up for cooking classes at the education center, or venture out on foraging trips. Make sure, too, to book a tour at Tuthilltown Spirits distillery next door, which has been making impressive New York state bourbons since it opened more than 20 years ago, as well as Catskill Provisions Distillery, where Madrid-born Claire Marin uses raw wildflower honey collected from a network of hundreds of local hives as the playful basis for many of her liquors. Don't forget Lew Beach, either: Laurance Rockefeller has poured a chunk of fortune into investing in the area since the '80s—as a result, fly fishing–loving friends like Dan Rather have become fixtures. If you'd like to immerse yourself in the landscape, book a night at the quirkiest option here, the Hemmelig Rom, a hand-hewn single cabin made from salvaged red oak and nestled in the woods. It was built by British-Norwegian artist Jason Koxvold—the name is Norwegian for secret room, a nod to the way it hink of upstate New York's layout like an open hardcover: the spine is the wide, fast-flowing Hudson River, a waterway that so transfixed a clutch of 19th-century painters they took their collective name from it. The left leaf of that book to the west is the Catskills: craggy and mountainous, this region has a kitschy sheen deeded from a co-starring role in Dirty Dancing, and the many camps that populated the area in the 1950s and '60s. The right-hand page, on the river's eastern flanks, is flatter, more rolling hills and farmland. Wealthy families from the city once built grand estates here—the erstwhile Vanderbilt Mansion in Hyde Park is now a museum, for example. The appeal of the entire region, though, is consistent, at least according to interior designer Marco Scarani, who with his partner Jamie Creel owns a store here, Creel and Gow. Think of this slice of countryside as a breath of fresh air compared with the East End, he says, in every sense. "Thirty years ago, the Hamptons was a paradise, but it's been overdeveloped," says Scarani. "Here, there's still a sense of community and everyone can connect. That's what the city and the Hamptons don't have any more." For 30 years, rodeo champ–turned–real estate mogul Steve Dubrovsky has called hundreds of acres in Sullivan County his home base. It's where he'd retreat to his own ranch-like estate to ride, hike, and immerse himself in the rugged outdoors. It's an experience he hopes others will be able to enjoy when he opens a new hotel this fall not far from his home in the Catskills: the Driftwood Ranch Resort, with barely a dozen rooms, overlooking longhorn cattle and horses grazing in the surrounding greenery. "So many people have a fantasy like this, especially after Yellowstone. I want people to come who want to learn to ride, or enjoy hiking, or if someone is writing a book they can do it here," he says, "I want it to be a magical place." Dubrovsky's new project isn't his first here: indeed, he was the developer behind The Chapin Estate, an upscale, 2,500-acre gated community, which is also home to the two-year-old The Chatwal Lodge. A sister site to the namesake hotel in Manhattan's Midtown, it's open year-round, with an all-inclusive approach that bundles outdoorsy adventures into the overnight rate—everything from ice skating to archery, horseback riding, or watersports on the reservoir nearby. It just debuted a trio of new T BALHAR B O U RSH O P S .CO M

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