The Bear Mountain Trail Project is the biggest volunteer project in Trail Conference history. Join us as we celebrate the opening of the rebuilt Appalachian Trail up the mountain on Saturday, June 5, National Trails Day (learn more).

The Hudson Highlands and their extension southwesterly into the Ramapo Mountains along the New York-New Jersey border constitute a major topographic feature of this region.  These mountains, once more than 10,000 feet high, are now eroded to a still-rugged maximum height of about 1400. 

Among the striking evidences of glaciation in Harriman-Bear Mountain State Parks are the abundant bedrock surfaces that were scratched, polished, or grooved by rock debris carried by Ice Age glaciers.  Erratic boulders - some of immense size - were carried south from the Catskills and elsewhere. Left behind when the glaciers melted, they are widely distributed throughout the park.

The 52,000 acres making up Harriman-Bear Mountain State Parks in the Hudson Highlands contain more than 235 miles of hiking trails, including an 18-mile segment of the Appalachian Trail.  The parks are administered jointly by the Palisades Interstate Park Commission.

Click on either of the first two links below to go to a page with more detailed descriptions of the parks and trails and for additional relevant links. (The pages cover the same ground and are essentially identical.)

For a history of the park and a complete guide to marked and unmarked trails, see Harriman Trails-A Guide and History, by William Myles [New York-New Jersey Trail Conference, 2d ed. 1999].

Parks in the Region

• Harriman-Bear Mountain State Parks 
  
• Bear Mountain-Harriman State Parks 
• Dater Mountain Nature Park 
• Kakiat County Park