The Catskills' biggest natural lake

This is Cooper Lake in the town of Woodstock, New York, often called the most famous town in the world. It’s the Catskills’ biggest natural lake at some 150 acres. It serves as the reservoir for the city of Kingston on the Hudson River, and the Kingston suburb, Town of Ulster, which is habitually considered part of Kingston, although it is in fact the northern suburb that drained the city of much of its commerce. This view of Cooper Lake, taken from its eastern shoreline, closest to the village of Woodstock, looks out toward the hamlets of Lake Hill and Willow, all terrain I often biked as a boy. On balloon tires, something now unimaginable to my tired old self. The lake is fed by Mink Hollow stream and is teeming with such fish as pike, but no swimming, fishing or boating is allowed, in order to assure water quality which is famously good. I walked the east side of the lake yesterday with a friend and happened on this exquisite scene of the lake mirroring perfect cumulus clouds. The water level was low, revealing much of the stony beach. At the south end riprap reenforces the bank of the lake and over on the west side similar riprap is being laid.