Schunnemunk Mountain State Park

Amazing place! Where do I start? First - location. Schunemunk is the most prominent hill in the area - means the views are countless: Central Valley, Hudson, Moodna Viaduct, surrounding hills. All you need is a good weather. Being in a good shape doesn't hurt as well - climb to Schunemunk is pretty strenuous (and descent is not much easier, especially via Long Path). There are so many hiking opportunities - it may take a couple days to cover everything.

Great hike, but the trails need work between the two ridges. Hiking solo, you will need to know the trail routes pretty well to avoid getting lost, there are many unmarked paths, and the valley between the ridges is quite steep and rocky following the orange and white trails, along with the Long Path. It's easy to get off trail here, given the distance between blazes and the often unclear path. Using a map reader, such as Avenza couldn't be more helpful here. All in all, I enjoyed my hike, despite the difficulty i found navigating the trails.

Really strenuous hike, but great views from several lookouts! Sweet clover trail thru field needs help, not well marked. I ended up going Jessup trail (yellow) up, then took Sweet clover trail (white) down. Walked thru the tall grass, no ticks, but a huge praying mantis crawled up my shirt...is that good luck?

Its a pretty steep killer hike. Bring plenty of water if you're hiking in mid August. Some rattlesnakes but they wont bother you. Awesome place to hike.