Castle Mountain is located just outside the picturesque village of Stamford, in the town of Jefferson, New York, about two and a half hours from New York City. Stamford, known as the Queen of the Catskills since the beginning of the nineteenth century, is one of the Catskills’ best-kept secrets but is well known by the illuminated. This location is perfectly situated for the metropolitan weekender or the world traveler—and is a great place to put a Castle in the Sky.

Castle Mountain embodies the quintessential spirit of the true Catskill Mountain experience. The high altitudes (two to three thousand feet above sea level), creating the purity, crispness and low humidity of its fresh air, not only aids in making life what it should be, another beautiful day in paradise, but may add years to your life as well. The serene beauty of the countryside and lack of crowds make living here a complete epiphany of contentment and happiness. Castle Mountain is a showcase of natural Earth beauty, and is enhanced by owner Kevin Misevis’ creations, a series of beautiful megalithic native stone waterfalls, six 20-foot-deep spring-fed trout ponds and a stone-moated entrance to the Mountain. He placed the entrance across from two tranquil lakes and Scotch Valley Ski Mountain. The famous Delaware River has headwaters of its west branch originating on Castle Mountain and the river is totally crystal clear and serene.

Within minutes of Castle Mountain is a panoply of nonintrusive and uncrowded amenities that make country living a full, fun and healthy experience. Boating, swimming and fishing in the Delaware River and the lakes adjacent to Castle Mountain are truly wonderful experiences, as is playing one of the oldest 18-hole golf courses in the United States, the Stamford Golf Course, which is almost next door. For fast-laners, hang-gliding and paragliding are available at Mount Utsayantha, the mountain next door. Tennis and racquetball are right across the small road at Deer Run Village as well as at the nearby municipal tennis courts, which have night lighting, swimming pool, hoop and kiddy playgrounds at the Stamford Recreation Center down the road a piece. Did I forget to mention the Utsayantha trail network of 50 kilometers of groomed trails just outside your doorstep? Ski the Catskills? All major ski centers are within 30 minutes of Castle Mountain.

About Castle Mountain itself: 400 acres of prime resort and residential development land situated on State Highway Route 10 directly across from Scotch Valley Ski Mountain and Deer Run Village, a four-star condominium resort. Five miles of roads were constructed throughout the property in the 1980s, specially designed by Kevin Misevis to accentuate the beauty of the landscape and achieve gentle grades all the way to the top. The summit is completely spectacular and has eye-stretching 100-mile panoramic views of the Catskill and Adirondack Mountains. The sunrises and sunsets are outstanding.

One can see five ski mountains—Hunter, Windham, Plattekill, Belleayre and Scotch Valley—and the village of Stamford in the near field. Lift your head a little higher and now you glance outward over the 100-mile panoramic view during the day and the ultimate universe experience at night, the Milky Way, which is astounding from the top of Castle Mountain.

Doctor Jang Chang Yi, a well-known acupuncturist and herbalist from Korea, did a spiritual survey of the mountain before purchasing a beautiful 60-acre tract to build a meditation center, and found that the flow of Ch’i of Castle Mountain enhances meditation with many spots of strong vortex energies.

The creative energies of Castle Mountain are evident in the music being composed at Castle Mountain Studios. This studio is a state-of-the-art digital audio and video recording facility that has recorded artist like George McCrae, whom you may remember from his number one hit, “Rock Your Baby,” in 1974, and owner Kevin Misevis, who is the composer and producer of the Ch’i Gung music healing anthology of Soul Traveler. Misevis has three CD’s and two DVD’s available that can be heard, viewed and downloaded at www.soultravelermusic.com. The Soul Traveler anthology are all spontaneously composed, performed and recorded at Castle Mountain in the wee hours of the morning. Many of them are video recorded with five Ch’i Gung masters from Beijing who perform Ch’i Gung forms (like exercises) and channel healing energy into the music as it is composed.

Misevis was at one time free-lance photojournalist, reporting on five-star spas and music festivals around the world. He has probably had every treatment you could think of and many of the spas he visited were on top of mountains or by oceans or lakes a couple of hours from large cities. He has owned Castle Mountain for over 30 years and his spa trips crystallized plans to build a six-star international spa resort on the summit of Castle Mountain with every treatment available in the world at one spot. Imagine enjoying a Thai massage, an Indonesian spice massage, a chakra water treatment or a shamanic healing treatment in a world-class feng shui setting and you don’t have to get onto a plane to get there. Besides the spa concept, Misevis is looking for partners to build a healing arts center for alternative healing, complementary and integrative medicine and spiritual healing, as well as a Performance Arts Center, and to anchor it all with a hotel and conference center. Imagine looking out at the backdrop of an orchestra and seeing the Milky Way or a sunset during a performance on top of the mountain. How cosmic is that? For more info check out www.castlemtn.com or www.soultravelermusic.com.