Harriman State Park
Harriman State Park
Ramapo, NY
Transportation –
There are two primary ways to access Harriman State Park. The most convenient way is via car. There are many trailheads throughout this park. You can see all options on this map. Parking is free in most locations, but parking lots fill up on nice, warm weather days.
The second way is via train. You can take NJ Transit to several different parts of the park. They follow the Port Jervis line. You have to switch at Secaucus Junction if you are taking a train from Penn Station. We’d highlight the following train stations to consider:
· Suffern: Less than a mile from the Suffern-Bear Mountain Trail
· Sloatsburg: About 1.5-2 miles to the Pine Meadow and Seven Hills Trails
· Tuxedo: About 0.5 mile to the Ramapo Dunderberg Trailhead that connects to the Kakiat, Tuxedo – Mount Ivy and Triangle Trails
· Harriman: Despite its name, this station is not that close to Harriman State Park. The closest trailhead is over 2.5 miles away to the Appalachian Trail
The Trail -
Harriman State Park, like its neighbor Bear Mountain State Park, is home to classic east coast trails. Prepare for lots of rocks and roots. You won’t find the kind of climbs that you might out west, but there are still some challenging ones here. This is the largest park within driving distance from NYC with over 200 miles of trails, so make sure to bring a map here. We would also strongly advise downloading the Avenza map of Harriman State Park, which works regardless of your cell phone service availability. Most named trails are marked well, but not all are and there are also unmarked trails. It is very important to pay close attention to trail blazes in this park for that reason.
Some historical trails run through Harriman. They include:
· The Appalachian Trail (white rectangle blaze) totals 2,200 miles, going from Georgia to Maine (or vice versa depending on what direction you are starting in)
· The Ramapo-Dunderberg Trail (red blaze) is the oldest in the park and transverses the park east to west starting in Tuxedo and ends at Jones Point, covering over 21 miles
· The Suffern-Bear Mountain trail (yellow blaze) that begins at the Bear Mountain Inn and runs about 23 miles south to the bottom of Harriman State Park in Suffern, NY
· The Long Path (turquoise blaze) that runs 358 miles from 175th Street Subway Station in NYC to Albany
For additional detail on trails at Bear Mountain check out:
Tips:
· Bring a water filter for long trail days. There are a number streams throughout Harriman State Park
· There is very poor cellphone service throughout the park, so maps like Avenza come in handy
· There are some small cities / towns bordering Harriman State Park, but nothing inside the park to pick up food or drinks at. Plan to bring how ever much food you may need for the trip and then bring more than that (prepare for the worst so the worst doesn’t happen!)
· This park is very large, so we advise picking simple routes that follow only a few blazes to avoid confusion
· Bear Mountain State Park borders Harriman State Park, so some trails run through both of them
