Hi friends, welcome back! I’ve got two great things to share today – first, it’s the last week of my busy season! Secondly, Jon and I recently went hiking in the Hudson Valley and had the best day! This was our first outing with our car and it went so smoothly. We woke up earlyish for a Saturday, picked up some Blue Bottle Coffee, hopped in the car, and were on our way!
The drive took a little over an hour and the trailhead parking was literally right off the highway. There was a line of a few cars waiting for a spot, so we knew we had to find another place to park. Luckily, we found a pull-off a mile away on the other side of the highway and were able to safely run across. Trailhead parking is not our strong suit, so we were happy to get relatively close parking!
The trail is rated as moderate and we both thought the trail was the perfect level of difficulty. We still felt like we were working, but it wasn’t so difficult we couldn’t enjoy the views along the way.
The trail is a loop and we hiked clockwise following the instructions (see here) of starting with the orange trail markers.
There was a bit of rock scrambling, but nothing too difficult. Most of the scrambling and climbing looked a lot harder than it actually was. Compared to Breakneck Ridge, this was about half as difficult and a lot less scrambling.
The first viewpoint overlooks the Hudson River and the Catskills further out. The little island below is called Pollepel Island and is home to the abandoned Bannerman Castle. This castle was constructed in the early 1900s by Francis Bannerman as surplus warehouse for his military arsenal business. Nowadays the castle and island is owned by New York State Parks, but is still in ruins.
Jon and I stopped for a little rest before a giant spider started getting a little too close for comfort!
I spy a large bird!
Jon and I had the BEST day hiking Storm King Mountain! If you are looking for a moderate hike you can enjoy while also getting a solid workout, this is it! It’s the perfect length, has some nice viewpoints, and wasn’t too crowded. We ended the night with a giant pepperoni pizza!
Thanks for reading!
That looks and sounds like a really good day out! Is that a ruin at the base of those stone pillars? You deserved that pizza after all that hiking! 😉
It was the perfect day! Those are ruins although I’m not sure what exactly it was 😅 I think it was the most steps I had in 2021 – although not saying much ha!
That is exactly what I thought! It struck me as a lot of effort to build right up there, so, either it was built for a purpose or some hardworker just didn’t like other people haha
I am glad that you both had a good time! Stay well! 🙂
Haha maybe a little of both! Would’ve been a good spot to quarantine 😂 Stat well too 😀
🙂
The views look beautiful!
The Hudson Valley is a good place for excursions, I especially visited the mansions along the river.
I’ll have to check out the mansions!
Those views are amazing – and thank you for yet again making me so sad at the state of pizza here in the UK. I wish I could come to NYC and just binge on pizza for a week haha! 🙂
Haha NYC does have the best pizza!! I will join you on the pizza week!!
You make me want to hike and then have a pizza lol
Mission accomplished 😂
The hike looks beautiful but the pizza maybe looks even better 😛
Haha it’s hard to pick 😂
Good for you..a great place to hike.
This hike is on my list. That view looks amazing!
You’ll love it!!
Sounds like a great experience with lots of beautiful images. The pizza was a nice reward.
Looks like a lovely spot. Where is it,exactly?
It was great! It’s near Cornwall, NY about 60 miles north of NYC
It looked like the hike had a nice view and the pizza photo is making me hungry 🙂
I passed that place on Sunday. I wondered what kind of hike it was. I hiked an easier spot nearby.