If Stanley Kubrick had had a better location manager, The Shining would’ve been filmed not in the Rockies but in the Catskills.

Some 90 miles north of New York City and a few miles west of the Hudson River a grand dowager of 19^th century hostelry sits on a mountain top. (You have to understand, what are called mountains in these parts are in fact only very large hills.)

No matter. Perched atop one of these prominences, the Mohonk Mountain House, a 210-room whose mixed late-19^th century architecture is as ungainly as its name, has entered the 21^st century in pristine, archaic condition. Lovingly maintained by the same family that built it in the 1870s, the hotel abjures modernity. No TV in the rooms (only in the lounges), but with the view, who needs TV? Every room has a balcony, with rocking chairs. To the east is the Hudson Valley, and to the west, immediately in back of the building is Lake Mohonk, filled with paddle-boats and spoiled, fat trout. No fishing allowed and visitors are encouraged to feed the lovely creatures lolling about in the ice-cold water.

Surrounding the hotel are its 7,000-odd acres of grounds with many miles of trails, most easy, some difficult, and some incorporating serious rock-climbing. Here and there one finds rustic gazebos and benches for rest or admiring the view.

To step inside the hotel is to enter a time machine. Victorian furnishings match the bewhiskered and behatted famous visitors (Chester A. Arthur, e.g.) whose fading photos line the halls. All is quiet and dimly lit.

The dining room is a wood-lined cavernous space whose ceiling must be 50 feet up. Breakfast and lunch are buffet, dinner is seated, and the entire menu is what can most kindly be called extremely retro classic American.

Rooms, which include all meals, are pricey. Day passes to the ground are available as are one-use dining passes.

We opted for the latter one lovely spring day. After gorging ourselves happily and unguiltily on carbohydrates (at these prices you better not feel guilty), we then spent some hours sloping about the grounds. "Sloping" is the verb. This is one of those places where, to the over-eater, everywhere you go is uphill.

No matter. It was a refreshing walk, even the somewhat demanding trek to the stone lookout tower several hundred feet above the hotel.

On a planet blessed with beautiful places, Mohonk Mountain House is one of the best, both for its natural site and what it brings to it.