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Elk Pen Loop Trail in Harriman State Park (NY)

We decided to explore some hiking just outside of NYC and had a few friends recommend Harriman State Park. We picked the Elk Pen Loop Trail because it seemed long enough (7.5 miles) to justify the ~1.5 hour each way drive from Brooklyn and was highly rated on Alltrails.

Is it worth it?

As you’ll see from the photos in this post, this trail takes you through a fairly standard-looking forest vs. the spectacular landscapes from our recent hiking destinations. It felt like a moderate hike with a few challenging ascents at the start, but it was a bit more technical than usual for us because the trail isn’t well-groomed. That said, it met our need for getting out into nature for a couple hours! I’m not sure I’d put in the effort to drive all the way out there from Brooklyn again, but I probably would go if I lived closer, like on the Upper West Side.

One of the more green areas along the trail in late March

How to do it?

The #1 thing to know about this trail is that there are no markings posted to tell you which way to go. We couldn’t have done it without periodically checking the Alltrails map, which worked for a while on my T-Mobile network and then we had to switch over to using S’s Verizon network when I lost connection. As moderate to fast hikers (for the U.S.), this hike took us 4.5 hours, so be sure your phone has a charged battery.

In some areas we couldn’t find a well-defined trail, and in others there were deep piles of leaves that hid uneven ground that was easy to trip on. There were lots of spiky plants jutting onto the “trail” as well. We were glad to have worn long pants and to have each brought a hiking stick.

We traversed a couple streams that didn’t have a real bridge and required some balance to cross, like this pile of logs

We used Google Maps to head to the Elk Pen Parking Lot in Tuxedo, NY. The highway exit that Google suggested was unexpectedly closed off, so we continued on the Palisades Parkway for a couple miles to Exit 18 and drove to Tiorati Circle in the state park. There a barricade blocked us from continuing on Arden Valley Road, but when we called the Harriman State Park/Tiorati office they told us it was okay to drive past the barricade. We had read that the lot has 25 parking spots, and on a chilly Friday morning around 10am, there were maybe 5-7 cars and plenty of available spots. It was the same when we returned to the lot in the mid-afternoon.

A guide to the hike

The trail starts out rather boring but becomes more interesting. We started on the Appalachian trail, which is marked by white blazes.

We got some nice views of a lake along the way.

Perhaps 25% into the hike, we encountered the Lemon Squeezer, a very narrow path hemmed in by rock. We continued to follow the Appalachian Trail (white blazers) through the Lemon Squeezer and then perhaps for ~20 mins beyond that.

Approaching the Lemon Squeezer

In the Lemon Squeezer

Trying to exit the Lemon Squeezer!

We hit an intersection where there was a wooden post naming many trails. We turned right to pick up the Long Path, a trail marked by turquoise blazes.

Following the turquoise blazes

Proceeding along this path, we passed a swamp with tall grass.

At some point we picked up the “L” path, and later we reached a clearing where we transferred onto the “red dot in a white circle” path.

We got lost a couple times and used Alltrails to backtrack and find the right trail. After the red dot with white circle, at some point we shifted onto the Dunning Trail, marked by yellow blazes.

Getting a bit tired of constantly checking the map and looking for the right blazes

This yellow blazes trail seemed to intersect with the Appalachian Trail (white blazes) for a while.

Last, we got onto the Arden-Surebridge trail, marked by a red triangle on a white blaze. These markings appeared to be stapled onto the trees, while all the previous markings we followed had been painted onto the trees or rocks.

We wrapped up the walk in a forest that led us, at the very end, back to a flat grassy area by the parking lot.

We stopped for a late lunch in Nyack, which has a cute downtown that reminded us a bit of Missoula, Montana. We really liked the acai smoothie at Bari, a healthy foods restaurant. Be sure to download the Parkmobile app to pay for parking ($1/hr + Parkmobile’s $0.30 fee).

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