This Hudson Valley park is only 50 miles from Manhattan and sees four states from the top

New York’s best escape is only 50 miles out

Fifty miles north of Manhattan, a 5,200-acre park sits on the west bank of the Hudson River where the mountains rise sharp from the water.

Bear Mountain State Park draws millions of visitors a year, and once you get there, it’s not hard to see why. The mountain got its name because its ridgeline looks like a bear lying down.

What happened on this land goes back centuries, and some of it changed the entire history of American hiking.

A prison was supposed to be built here

In 1908, New York State had plans to move Sing Sing Prison to this site. Mary Averell Harriman, widow of railroad executive E.H. Harriman, stepped in.

She donated roughly 10,000 acres and $1 million to stop it and create a public park instead. John D. Rockefeller and J. Pierpont Morgan added their own funding.

The Palisades Interstate Park Commission took over, and the park opened in June 1913. Within a year, crowds were already arriving by steamboat and railroad from the city.

The Appalachian Trail started right here

The first section of the Appalachian Trail ever completed was blazed right here, opening Oct. 7, 1923.

That stretch ran from Bear Mountain west through Harriman State Park to Arden, New York, and it became the blueprint for the rest of the 2,190-mile route from Georgia to Maine.

The trail’s lowest elevation point, just 124 feet above sea level, sits inside the park at the Trailside Zoo.

Between 2006 and 2018, crews installed more than 1,300 granite steps on the Bear Mountain section, the most ambitious restoration the trail has ever seen.

From the summit tower, you can see four states

The Perkins Memorial Tower stands at the 1,305-foot summit of Bear Mountain, built by the Civilian Conservation Corps between 1932 and 1934.

Named for George Wallbridge Perkins, the first president of the Palisades Interstate Park Commission, the stone structure lets you look out over New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania on a clear day.

On those same clear days, the Manhattan skyline appears about 40 miles to the south. You’re standing close enough to the city to see its outline and far enough away to forget it entirely.

Drive right to the top if you don’t want to hike

Not everyone wants to climb 1,300 feet to reach the summit, and you don’t have to.

Perkins Memorial Drive winds all the way to the top, blasted from the mountain by 1,500 workers and opened alongside the tower in 1934.

The road gives you changing views of the Hudson Valley and the Bear Mountain Bridge as it climbs. At the top, there are picnic tables, restrooms and trailhead connections waiting.

The drive stays open April through late November, weather permitting, so plan around the season.

Native wildlife lives at the trailside zoo

At the base of the mountain, the Trailside Museums and Zoo sits on the former site of Fort Clinton along the Appalachian Trail.

What started as a simple bear den in 1926 has grown into a home for native animals that are permanently injured and can’t survive on their own in the wild.

Black bears, bald eagles, eastern coyotes, porcupines and more live here now.

Four museums on site cover geology, reptiles and amphibians, natural history, and local history going back to Native American and colonial times.

Hessian Lake carries a darker history than it looks

The 30-acre lake at the base of the mountain looks calm on a summer afternoon, paddleboats drifting across the surface, picnic tables set back in the shade. But the lake has an older name.

The Lenape called it Lake Sinnipink. Later it earned the name Bloody Pond, after British and Hessian forces attacked nearby Fort Clinton in October 1777.

Local tradition holds that fallen soldiers were placed in its waters.

Today, a paved 1.5-mile loop trail circles the lake, and a playground sits along the edge for families.

The inn was built from the mountain itself

The Bear Mountain Inn opened in 1915, and the men who built it used stone pulled from old local walls and chestnut timber harvested and milled right on site.

When it opened, The American Architect called it one of the finest examples of rustic Adirondack architecture in the country. The inn closed in 2005 for a major renovation and reopened in 2011.

It sits on the National Register of Historic Places and holds membership in Historic Hotels of America through the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

42 hand-carved animals spin on this carousel

The merry-go-round at Bear Mountain isn’t the kind you find at a theme park.

Built in 2001, it holds 42 hand-carved seats shaped like native animals: black bears, wild turkeys, deer, raccoons, foxes, swans, bobcats and rabbits.

The inside panels carry hand-painted scenes of the park and the Palisades region.

It sits inside a stone pavilion built in the rustic national park style, and it’s one of the few modern carousels in the country made the old-fashioned way, with carved figures instead of molded ones.

Bald eagles winter on Iona Island

About a mile south of the Bear Mountain Bridge, a 556-acre island sits in the Hudson River.

Iona Island carries a National Natural Landmark designation from the National Park Service, given in 1974, and it’s part of the Hudson River National Estuarine Research Reserve.

Its habitats run from deciduous forest to freshwater and brackish tidal wetlands to mudflats. Bald eagles gather here in winter, using the island as a roosting site.

You can see the island and watch for wildlife from overlooks inside the park and along nearby Route 6.

More than 50 miles of trails cut through the park

The Major Welch Trail climbs steeply from Hessian Lake up the mountain, with views opening at several points along the way.

If you’re with kids or want something flat, the Hessian Lake Loop circles the water on a paved 1.5-mile path that works for strollers too.

History runs through the trails as well: the 1777 Trail follows the same route British forces used during their attack on Forts Clinton and Montgomery.

The Popolopen Gorge Trail and the Suffern-Bear Mountain Trail both connect into the larger Harriman State Park network.

Every season brings something different here

Summer means the outdoor pool, open from mid-June through Labor Day. Come November, an ice rink goes up with mountain views as the backdrop, running through March.

Fishing, biking, cross-country skiing and sledding all have their seasons here.

The park connects to Harriman State Park’s trail network, which gives you a combined system covering well over 50 miles. If you want to stretch your legs a different way, walk across the Bear Mountain Bridge.

It has wide pedestrian lanes on both sides and views of the river and highlands the whole way across.

Visit Bear Mountain State Park in New York

Bear Mountain State Park sits at 3006 Seven Lakes Drive in Bear Mountain, New York. The park opens every day at 8 a.m. and stays open until dusk, year-round.

You can reach it by car via the Palisades Interstate Parkway or Route 9W.

Perkins Memorial Drive and the summit tower are open April through late November, weather permitting.

Just north of the park, Fort Montgomery State Historic Site preserves a Revolutionary War fortification and is open to visitors. Check the official website before you go for seasonal updates and pool schedules.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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