Although there is no official public access, the abandoned Skytop Quarry is a popular spot for outdoor recreationalists, particularly mountain bikers and hikers. There is a warren-like maze of single track trails through the rocky woods fringing the quarry, and old roads going though the quarry proper. There are some cliffs and steep spots that are apparently dangerous to the careless, and people occasionally do manage to get themselves hurt here, causing the owners to periodically crack down and issue trespassing tickets. We have been going here for more than two decades and have never had problems. However, one group of friends was ticketed a number of years ago. I tend to avoid the main entrance from Skytop Road for that reason.
My mother, Mary, is always drawn to abandoned places and ruins of all sorts, and has long been a fan of the quarry. It is one of the places she likes to go when visiting. She also has doctor's orders to walk every day, which can be a helpful motivator getting out the door in the rain. Frankie has a new pair of rain boots, and was initially disappointed to be getting in the car rather than just taking a walk around the neighborhood; he'd been looking forward to splashing in puddles. We promised him there would be puddles in the quarry, and although we didn't find them right away, once reached, they did not disappoint.
We parked at the church on Old Stonehouse Road. A short way from the trailhead, there is a sign posted encouraging users to take a plastic bag and pick up garbage, returning bags to this spot for removal. I took that as an encouraging sign that perhaps public access is currently being tolerated. We quickly turned off the main trunk trail onto one of the twisting trails, which made Frankie's game of "walnut sports" a bit more challenging. [This basically involves kicking walnuts down the trail soccer ball style as far as possible, until they get lost in the vegetation or lose their big green husks.] We skirted the radio tower to hop on the rocky trail that runs along the ridge above the lower area adjacent to the highway. This section has amazingly high bike jumps and narrow bumpy bridges that are fun to marvel over; none in our party have the skills to contemplate such a ride.
We followed this ridge trail all the way to the spot where the cinder block building used to be, at the base of the abandoned communications tower, backtracking once to avoid a steep muddy slope that was impassible for Mary with her freshly tweaked knee. The old building has decayed further since my last visit, and the tower toppled entirely. Little more than a drift of rubble remains. From here, we followed the old access road down into the quarry proper, and turned back east, walking through the bottom of the quarry. This was where Frankie got his puddle action. Then we climbed back up a ramp at the far side, and took the main trunk trail back to where we started.
The loop was 2.0 miles roundtrip, and even on this soggy day, we saw three other hikers.
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