Saugerties Light Station: Lighthouse or Hotel? The Story Behind the Travel Photo
- Marcia Crayton
- Nov 9, 2025
- 6 min read
Updated: Mar 29
Saugerties Lighthouse:
Historic Light Station
Hotel
Tourist Attraction
Welcome to Saugerties, New York, located in the Catskills Region, Ulster County, New York.
As the NYC Traveler, I'm headed up this way on I-87 North from the New York City region. Like almost all of the 50 states of America, New York is divided into tourism regions. If I have time, I'll take the secondary roads that also go north, the ones that force you to drive slower, introducing you to the region, its towns, its landscape, detouring you away from shopping malls and outlets and its crowds.
I go past historic and iconic towns (some are actually cities) such as Peekskill (yes, there really is a place, it wasn't just fiction from the television show "The Facts of Life"), Newburgh, Hyde Park and Poughkeepsie. I wind along Route 9W, with the Hudson River as my guide. Then, I reach Kingston, which, along with these other towns, had significance in the American Revolutionary War. That's another journal entry and totally worth it.
Finally, right along the Hudson River, I reach the town of Saugerties, which has a village is also called Saugerties and a hamlet called Saugerties. I hoped I was in the right place, but since I was looking for a lighthouse, I was going to really have to rely on the GPS. It may be confusing to visitors but not to the good citizens of the town. They know where they are all the time.
Saugerties is interesting because part of the town, like a lot of Ulster County is in Catskills Park. People who visit Catskills Park (and Adirondack Park, for the matter) are often surprised when they see the "park". Some of the land is part of the state parks of New York but about half the "park" is actually privately owned! Can you imagine? Why is all of this important and what does it have to do with Saugerties? Because of the complicated system, the state actually pays property taxes on its own park land so that the small town doesn't have to. Sweet deal.
Alrighty, now that I'm here, it's time to find the lighthouse. Or is it a hotel? Or is it both? Hmmm. We shall soon see.
Making part of Saugerties as part of the Catskills park kind of preserves that small town look, making them quaint, charming and appealing to visit. I-87 gets you up to these areas fairly quickly from New York City and roads like NYS Route 32 and US Route 9W, which pass through the town, become meandering scenic routes that are lovely in spring and summer, a bit dangerous and treacherous in winter and absolutely gorgeous in autumn.
Like many small hamlets, villages and towns, Saugerties' access to the Hudson River adds to its charm. The river, in its heyday, was almost absolutely essential for towns to survive if they were not moving goods on land. You can stand there and imagine ships, boats and sloops sailing up and down the Hudson, taking goods here and there, serving almost as a floating mall. No wonder so many of these towns have waterfront areas. They grew from there.
Chatting with the locals, I learn about the original Woodstock music festival held in 1969. I already knew that the "show" was really on a farm in Bethel, NY, but I did not know it was Saugerties that hosted the 25th anniversary, Woodstock '94. That's quite a feather in the history cap.
So, the Saugerties Lighthouse is quite an interesting place to visit. The Hudson River used to have more lighthouses up and the waterway. Now, there are only seven left. One of them, Saugerties Lighthouse was originally built sometime between in 1830s.
Located on the Hudson River, in Saugerties, NY, the Saugerties Lighthouse is technically at the mouth of the Esopus Creek. There's lots of rocks there, so it makes sense that a lighthouse would be needed. And as I was to find out later, those rocks are still there.
As lovely as Saugerties Light Station is, like many other lighthouses, it was almost obsolete. In the 1960s and 1970s, there were plans to demolish it. Saugerties Light Station was not the only lighthouse in danger of no longer existing. Many lighthouses started becoming obsolete. Water traffic shifted from being a prime method of transportation to a more recreational use. The Hudson River was no exception. Factories closed, industries changed, horns were used instead of bells to warn water traffic and everything started to become operated by computer.
But, then by the 1970s, words like conservation, environmental and ecological became spelling words in elementary schools. Amidst the eternal quest for progress and a push for everything to become modern, historical societies and conservation groups were making sure that historical structures would survive. And one way for them to survive is to rebrand them.
The townspeople of Saugerties prevailed and the structure was saved. By 1979, it went from being almost demolished to being placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Ironically, the Coast Guard actually recommissioned it in 1990. And the lighthouse is on the US Coastguard's list of Historic Lighthouses in New York.
Meanwhile, changes in the shoreline made it interesting to actually get to the lighthouse. It was moved while it was originally operating. And man and nature changed the shoreline around the lighthouse. But, the water can become very shallow (hence the need for the lighthouse in the first place). And shallow the water is.
So, we realized that we could visit the lighthouse, well, sort of. If we wanted to, and really planned it carefully, we could have even stayed overnight. It has become a two room bed and breakfast. And, uniquely, the tourist attraction lighthouse is only accessible by boat or on foot.
We parked at the Ruth Reynolds Nature Preserve parking lot. It's not a very long walk, barely a quarter mile. But, lucky for us, the waters were not too high. Otherwise, we would have had to see it another time because we did not have a boat to see it from the Hudson River. Even if the trail is open, wear clothing that can get wet, dirty or muddy, just in case.
So we hiked. OK, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration. We walked. We got out of the car, and saw the information in the box. I looked at my phone, got more information, and got ready to walk.
We did not stay at the bed and breakfast. Theoretically, if you cannot drive directly to the front door, and if you do not arrive by personal boat, you will have to carry your bag the quarter mile along the wooden trail, not very easy to do with a roller bag.
The walkway was wooden, like a boardwalk. And some of the area was damp, there were even small puddles. I would recommend only a one or two night stay for the experience, especially if you have to walk to the hotel/lighthouse.
And once you are there, you're there for the evening. Unless you have your own boat, you're there for the night until you can walk back in the morning. I guess maybe you can use a flashlight to get around, but it is a bed and breakfast, so you won't need to go out to eat. Make sure you have everything you need. It's kind of like isolation, but there's a staff member there. It's probably a unique interesting experience. And the point is to be isolated from the world for a night or two.
Unfortunately, we couldn't go inside the lighthouse.You can only tour the inside if you are a guest staying at the lighthouse.
But even if you don't sleep there, visit. It will be worth it.
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