Every year a certain number of Thanksgiving visitors drive up from the city, lace their boots on Friday morning, and discover that the parking area at the trailhead is full of pickup trucks and the people in the woods are wearing orange. Nobody told them. Consider this the telling.

The Southern Zone regular firearms season for deer and bear opens Saturday, November 21, 2026, and runs through Sunday, December 13. The Catskills sit inside the Southern Zone. Thanksgiving, November 26, falls in the first week of the season, and hunters take holiday time off like everyone else.

This is not a reason to skip the mountains over the holiday. It is a reason to hike them differently.

What the season covers

Hunting is permitted on Forest Preserve land, which is most of the public land in the Catskill Park, as well as on conservation easement lands. That includes the trails people use most: the peaks, the fire-tower routes and the long ridges. Bowhunting has been underway since October 1. The rifle season adds firearms, and with it far more people in the woods on weekends and over the holiday.

Legal hunting hours run from 30 minutes before sunrise to 30 minutes after sunset. That window covers essentially every hour a hiker would be on the trail in late November.

After the regular season closes, a late muzzleloader season in the Southern Zone typically follows in the second half of December. So the woods stay active, at a lower volume, into the new year.

The orange rule

The single most useful thing a hiker can do is be visible. DEC's standing advice to anyone outdoors during hunting season is to wear bright clothing, specifically blaze orange or blaze pink. A hat and a vest is the minimum. A jacket in either color is better. Earth tones, browns, grays and anything with a white flash, like a light-colored hat or gloves that could read as a deer's tail, are the wrong choices for the next three weeks.

Dogs need the same treatment. DEC asks hikers to keep pets leashed and in a brightly colored collar, vest or other covering. A dog crashing through brush off-leash in rifle season is a risk to the dog first.

None of this is a reason for alarm. DEC's safety statistics put hunting-related shooting incidents involving non-hunters among the rarest events in the woods, and recent seasons have been among the safest on record. Orange is how it stays that way.

Timing the day

The busiest hunting hours are the first and last hours of daylight, when deer move. Hikers who start mid-morning and finish by mid-afternoon spend the least time overlapping with that activity, and they also stay well clear of the November dark, which arrives before 5 PM.

Opening weekend and the holiday weekend are the obvious days for hunters with time off. If there is a choice between hiking the Saturday after Thanksgiving and a Tuesday in early December, the Tuesday is quieter on every measure.

Some more of DEC's tips, adapted for the season:

• Tell someone where you are going and when you expect to be back. If plans change, tell them that too.
• Stay on marked trails. Hunters expect people on trails. They do not expect people bushwhacking through a stand of hemlock.
• Make some noise. Conversation on the trail is a feature, not a bug.
• Pack the essentials, especially a headlamp, a map and a first-aid kit. The short day leaves no margin.
• Dress for elevation. Summit temperatures run well below the valley floor in late November, and early snow on the high peaks is common.

Lower-traffic alternatives

Some visitors would rather sit the season out of the Forest Preserve entirely. A few places make that easy.

Mountain Top Arboretum in Tannersville is a private arboretum at 4 Maude Adams Road, open dawn to dusk every day of the year with a $5 suggested donation for non-members. Its trails and boardwalks wind through gardens, meadows, wetlands and forest on the mountaintop, and it is snowshoe terrain once the snow arrives. It is the most relaxed walk in Greene County during rifle season.

The Ashokan Rail Trail runs 11.5 miles along the Ashokan Reservoir between the Boiceville Bridge, Ashokan Station and Woodstock Dike trailheads, open sunrise to sunset year-round. The trail itself is flat, wide and built for walkers and cyclists. The surrounding New York City watershed land is open to permit-holding hunters, so wear the orange here too, but a crushed-stone path with long reservoir views and steady foot traffic is a different experience from a ridge in the deep woods.

Village walking is the third option. Phoenicia, Woodstock and Hunter all reward an unhurried afternoon on Main Street between morning and dinner.

If you are going to the peaks anyway

Go with a partner. Go mid-morning. Wear orange from head to waist, and put a bandana or vest on the dog. Pick a well-used trail over an obscure one, and sign the trail register at the trailhead, which is how rangers know who is out there. Turn around early enough to be down well before dark. That is the whole protocol, and with it the Catskills over Thanksgiving week are quieter, clearer and emptier of other hikers than at almost any time of year.

For adults 21+

Licensed shop hours across the Catskills shift around the holiday, so check before driving over, and verify licensed status via the OCM QR code at cannabis.ny.gov. Current options are on the dispensary map.