Destinations

Five day hikes across New York State

A gorge in the far west, a glen with nineteen waterfalls, a cliff walk in the Shawangunks, the Catskill escarpment, and a lake in the High Peaks you need a reservation to stand above. Five landscapes, and five different sets of rules for getting to the trailhead.

DestinationsPublished August 4, 202612 min read

Lake Minnewaska from the cliffs above it. The white rock is Shawangunk conglomerate, and it runs for miles along this ridge.Photo: Juliancolton — CC BY-SA 4.0

New York is one state on the map and about five different countries underfoot. The Adirondack Park alone covers roughly six million acres, and the Adirondack Park Agency will tell you it's the largest publicly protected area in the contiguous United States, bigger than Yellowstone, Everglades, Glacier and Grand Canyon put together. Then there's a plateau in the Catskills that ends in a wall above the Hudson, a white quartz ridge in the Shawangunks, and two gorges in the west that most people outside New York have never heard of.

So I picked five day hikes that cross the whole thing rather than clustering around the city. They run west to east and then north: a rim walk above a 600-foot gorge, a mile of stone steps under nineteen waterfalls, a cliff-edge loop on bare white rock, a Catskill escarpment the Hudson River School painters made famous, and a flat road walk in the High Peaks that ends at the best view on the list.

We haven't walked all five. What we've done is read what each agency actually publishes about them, because in New York that's the part people get wrong. The climbing here is honest and mostly moderate. Getting to the trailhead is where it goes sideways. One of these needs a free reservation booked before four in the morning, one shuts for half the year, and one closes its gate when the parking lot fills.

Note

The most famous day hike in New York isn't on this list

Breakneck Ridge is closed. The Breakneck Ridge, Wilkinson Memorial and Lower Brook trailheads in the Hudson Highlands shut on 21 April 2025, along with the Breakneck Ridge Metro-North station beside them, for construction of the Fjord Trail's Breakneck Connector and Bridge. New York State Parks describes it as a two-year closure; the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference says the trailheads and the station stay shut until mid-2027.

Plenty of roundups still list it, and some still tell you to take a train to a station that isn't open. Hudson Highlands State Park Preserve has over 70 miles of trail and other trailheads nearby remain open, so the park isn't off the table. Check breakneck.info before you plan anything in that corner of the valley, though; the Trail Conference calls it the official closure hub.

The five

Not a ranking. They run roughly west to east across the state and then north into the Adirondacks. That's also, near enough, the order in which they get harder to arrange.

Middle Falls at Letchworth State Park in winter, a wide sheet of water dropping between snow-covered layered cliffs into a green pool — Middle Falls in winter. The park is open every day of the year; the fee booth is not.Photo: James St. John — CC BY 2.0

The Gorge Trail at Letchworth

Letchworth State Park, Wyoming and Livingston counties

The walk: Trail 1, the Gorge Trail — seven miles past all three waterfalls
Gorge walls: As high as 600 feet
Trail in the park: 66 miles
Parking: $10 per vehicle in season; open year-round

Letchworth is the one people mean when they say Grand Canyon of the East, and the park doesn't argue with the nickname. The Genesee River runs through the gorge over three major waterfalls between cliffs that reach 600 feet, and there are 66 miles of trail in the park. Trail 1, the Gorge Trail, is the one to walk: seven miles strung along the overlooks, linking all three falls. You can pick up a mile of it or most of a day's worth. In 2015 readers of USA Today voted the place the best state park in the country.

It's also the easiest arrival on this list. The park is open every day of the year from six in the morning to eleven at night, and the $10 per-vehicle fee is only collected in the warm half of the year: in 2026, from 8 May to 18 October, nine to five. Show up on a cold morning in November and the gorge costs you nothing but the drive.

Why it's here: You can walk for four hours here without repeating yourself, and the gate is open at six in the morning.

Stone steps beside a series of small cascades in the narrow gorge at Watkins Glen, with fallen leaves on the layered rock and hikers on the steps above — The Gorge Trail cut into the rock beside the stream. Those steps are the trail, and there's no way around them.Photo: Joe Mabel — CC BY-SA 4.0

The Gorge Trail at Watkins Glen

Watkins Glen State Park, Schuyler County

The walk: 19 waterfalls in a one-mile stretch
The drop: The stream falls 400 feet past 200-foot cliffs in two miles
Season: Typically mid-to-late May to mid-to-late October
Parking: $10 per vehicle, mid-May to mid-October

Nineteen waterfalls inside a mile, and the trail goes under, over and behind them on stone steps cut into the glen wall. Within two miles the stream descends 400 feet past cliffs 200 feet high. The park's own page is refreshingly blunt about what that means for your legs: there are many beautiful stone steps on this trail, it says, making it a difficult hike for some visitors. It's short and it isn't flat.

The catch is the calendar. The Gorge Trail typically opens mid to late May and closes mid to late October depending on the weather; in 2026 it opened on 9 May. Outside that window the park is still open dawn to dusk and the rim trails still run, but there's no access to the gorge or the waterfalls from them between November and May. One more thing that trips people up at the gate: pets aren't allowed on the Gorge Trail at all.

Why it's here: Nineteen waterfalls packed into one mile of stone steps. The trail to them is shut for half the year.

Gertrude's Nose

Minnewaska State Park Preserve, Ulster County

Loop: 7 miles, rated moderate to strenuous
Underfoot: Carriage road first, then bare rock ledge
The ridge: The Shawangunks rise more than 2,000 feet
Parking: $10 per vehicle, charged all year — and the lot fills

The Trail Conference's description of this seven-mile loop does the job in one sentence: it runs along the dramatic cliffs of Shawangunk conglomerate, with exceptionally fine views. You start on the carriage road that circles Lake Minnewaska, turn onto the Millbrook Mountain carriage road, and then step off onto the Gertrude's Nose trail, which climbs along bare rock ledges with sheer drops of several hundred feet just to the right of it. Most of the blazes are painted on the rock and the trail ducks into the woods in a few places, so it's one to keep watching. The Conference is direct about the edge, too: the unprotected cliff edge can be dangerous, children should be kept well away from it, and the hike is not recommended for anyone who is fearful of heights.

Minnewaska has 35 miles of carriage roads and 50 miles of footpaths, and the $10 vehicle fee is charged year-round rather than seasonally. The thing to plan around is the gate. State Parks says plainly that Lake Minnewaska and Sam's Point are experiencing extensive congestion on good-weather days and that both are subject to intermittent closures as the parking lots reach capacity. The park opens at nine. On a clear Saturday in October, so should you.

Why it's here: Bare white rock, several hundred feet of air off the side of it, and no railing anywhere. This is the one I want to do first.

Kaaterskill Clove seen from a rock ledge on its rim, a deep forested valley opening east between two ridges toward the hazy Hudson Valley — Kaaterskill Clove from its rim. The gap on the left is where the plateau ends and the Hudson Valley begins.Photo: Daniel Case — CC BY-SA 3.0

The Escarpment Trail above Kaaterskill Clove

Catskill Park, Greene County

Loop: 5.5 miles
The edge: About a mile and a half of walking along the rim
Looking at: Kaaterskill Clove, Kaaterskill High Peak, the Hudson Valley, the Taconics
Dogs: Allowed, on a leash

This 5.5-mile loop near North/South Lake is the cheapest way to understand what the Catskills actually are: a plateau that stops dead above the Hudson Valley. You follow the blue-blazed Escarpment Trail out to the rim and then walk the edge of it for a mile and a half, looking down into Kaaterskill Clove with Kaaterskill High Peak and Roundtop across the gap and the Taconics on the far horizon. Sign the trail register at the four-way junction near the start; a stone monument further along remembers Frank Layman, a firefighter who died here in August 1900.

Inspiration Point is the payoff, two big flat rocks carved with inscriptions, some of them over a century old, and the Trail Conference's own note about it is worth carrying with you: be careful approaching the edge, because the drop is precipitous. Signage here is genuinely confusing. The Conference points out that its Map 141 labels these viewpoints differently from the signs on the ground, so don't navigate by viewpoint names. The return is gentle, a carriage-road descent on the red-blazed Schutt Road Trail. This is DEC Forest Preserve rather than a state park, so check DEC's page for the current fee and season at the North/South Lake area before you set off.

Why it's here: The Hudson River School painters made this escarpment famous, and the clove you spend the whole walk looking down into is one of the places they painted most.

The Great Range in the Adirondack High Peaks in summer, a line of forested summits with pale rock slides on their flanks above a deep green valley — The Great Range: Lower and Upper Wolfjaw, Armstrong and Gothics. The pale streaks are slides, where the thin soil has torn off the rock.Photo: Mwanner — CC BY-SA 3.0

Indian Head from the Adirondack Mountain Reserve

Keene Valley, Essex County

Round trip: 8.2 miles
Climb: About 1,430 feet, and 730 of it in the last 0.8 mile
Underfoot: 3.3 miles of flat dirt road, then a steep trail
Before you go: A free parking reservation, 1 May to 31 October

The Ausable Freshwater Center puts this at 8.2 miles round trip with about 1,430 feet of climb, and the shape of it is unusual: the first 3.3 miles are Lake Road, flat and fast, and then 0.8 miles of trail climbs 730 feet to the ledge. What you get for that is Lower Ausable Lake lying in a trench between two walls with the Lower Great Range standing over it. It's the closest thing to a fjord New York has.

Start with the reservation rules. The Adirondack Mountain Reserve is 7,000 acres of private land that the public can cross under a conservation easement with DEC, and since 2021 that access has run through a free parking reservation at hikeamr.org, required from 1 May through 31 October. Walk-in users without a reservation will not be permitted: not on foot, not dropped off, not by bike. You can book up to two weeks ahead, and the window stays open until 4 a.m. on the morning of your hike. After that there's nothing: no later booking, no waitlist. The lot is open 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. with a one-way gate that lets late parties out, one spot per reservation, and no dogs anywhere on AMR land. Parking on Route 73 nearby is illegal and gets ticketed. None of this applies to the rest of the Adirondack Park.

Why it's here: The best view on the list, and most of the walk to it is a flat dirt road. It's also the only one here where you can be turned away at the gate.

Panoramic view from the Indian Head ledge down Lower Ausable Lake, a long narrow lake enclosed by steep forested mountainsides with cliff bands, under summer cloud — Lower Ausable Lake from the Indian Head ledge, with the walls closing in on both sides.Photo: daveynin — CC BY 2.0

The gate hours, the fee season and the reservation window decide more about these five days than the climbing does.

A New York hiking year

Four of these five run on a calendar somebody else set. Here's roughly how the year moves. Every date shifts a little each season, so the agency's own page is always the one to trust.

Mid-April
The Adirondack booking window opens
DEC and the Adirondack Mountain Reserve open the season's parking reservations in mid-April; hikeamr.org has the exact day. The first release covers 1 to 15 May only, and from 2 May it settles into a rolling two-week window, so an October Saturday can't be locked in months ahead however organized you are.
1 May
The AMR gate starts checking
From here to the end of October, a free reservation is required to park, and walk-ins without one are turned away. The system doesn't apply anywhere else in the Adirondack Park.
Early May
The fee booths and the gorge open
Letchworth started collecting its vehicle fee on 8 May in 2026; Watkins Glen's Gorge Trail opened on 9 May. Before those dates you can walk at Letchworth for free, and you can't walk the glen at all.
June to August
The Shawangunks fill up
State Parks warns that Lake Minnewaska and Sam's Point see extensive congestion on good-weather days and close intermittently when the lots reach capacity. This is the season to be at the gate by nine, or to go on a Tuesday.
Late September to mid-October
Everything at once
Color on the escarpment and the Gunks, cool air in the gorges, and the busiest two weeks any of these five will see. Plan on an early start.
Late October
Two of the five close down
The Watkins Glen gorge shuts for the season, typically mid to late October. The AMR reservation season ends on 31 October. Letchworth stopped collecting fees on 18 October in 2026, so late fall there is very good value.
November to April
The quiet, cheap, harder half
Letchworth and Minnewaska stay open and Letchworth stops charging. Watkins Glen's rim trails stay open but there's no way into the gorge. The Adirondacks stop needing a reservation and start needing winter skills.

The words New York uses

Forest Preserve: The state-owned land inside the Adirondack and Catskill Parks. Article XIV of the New York State Constitution says it shall be forever kept as wild forest lands. It isn't a state park, and it's run by a different agency.
DEC and State Parks: Two agencies, two rule books. The Department of Environmental Conservation runs the Forest Preserve; the state parks are run by the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Three of the hikes here are state parks; two answer to DEC.
Adirondack Park: About six million acres, roughly 44 percent of it state-owned. The Adirondack Park Agency calls it the largest publicly protected area in the contiguous United States, larger than Yellowstone, Everglades, Glacier and Grand Canyon combined.
Escarpment: The eastern edge of the Catskill plateau, where it drops away to the Hudson Valley. The Escarpment Trail runs along the top of it.
Clove: A Catskills word for a steep narrow valley — a cleft — cut back into that escarpment. Kaaterskill Clove is the famous one, and one of the places the Hudson River School painted most.
Shawangunk conglomerate: Milky-white quartz pebbles cemented together by more quartz, which is why the ridge stands high and the softer rock around it doesn't. It's what you walk on at Gertrude's Nose and what the cliffs are made of.
Carriage road: A wide, graded, nineteenth-century track built for horse-drawn carriages, now the easiest walking in the park. Minnewaska has 35 miles of them.
The AMR: The Adirondack Mountain Reserve: 7,000 acres of private land near Keene Valley that the public may cross under a conservation easement with DEC, on the landowner's terms.
Empire Pass: New York's annual parking pass, starting at $80, which waives the vehicle use fee at most State Parks and DEC facilities. One pass, both agencies.
Trail register: The box near the trailhead with a book in it. Sign it going in and coming out, because it's how anyone knows to look for you.

What we'd carry on these

None of these needs specialized gear. One is a mile of stone steps, one is bare rock with nothing to hold on to, and the longest keeps you out all day carrying your own water. Grippy boots and a pack that sits right will cover all five, and I'd take poles for the one steep descent.

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Questions worth answering before you drive

Which of these five New York hikes is hardest?

Depends what you find hard. Indian Head is the longest at 8.2 miles with about 1,430 feet of climb, and 730 of that comes in the last 0.8 mile, so it front-loads three miles of flat road and then makes you pay all at once. Gertrude's Nose is the one that gets to people: seven miles rated moderate to strenuous, with the Trail Conference warning of an unprotected cliff edge and saying outright it is not recommended for anyone fearful of heights.

Do I need a permit to hike in New York?

Almost never. The one on this list is the Adirondack Mountain Reserve's parking reservation: free, required from 1 May to 31 October, and strictly enforced, since walk-ins without one are not permitted. It covers AMR land only and doesn't apply to the rest of the Adirondack Park. Everywhere else here you need a parking space and an open gate, not paperwork.

Should I climb a High Peak instead?

Eventually, yes, but treat it as a different scale of day rather than a longer version of these. The Route 73 corridor into the High Peaks is actively managed for parking, and the DEC and AMR reservation FAQ says flatly that parking is limited at the other popular trailheads along it and to come prepared with back-up plans. Indian Head gets you a High Peaks view without committing to a High Peaks day.

When is the best time of year to hike in New York?

Late September into mid-October, with the obvious caveat that it's also the busiest. The gorges are cooler, the escarpment and the Gunks turn over, and Letchworth's fee collection ends partway through. If you'd rather have the trail than the color, early June is quiet and everything is open by then.

Can I bring my dog on these New York hikes?

Check each one, because they disagree. The Escarpment loop allows leashed dogs. Minnewaska allows them on a leash no longer than six feet, but not in the bathing, picnic or camping areas. Watkins Glen bans pets from the Gorge Trail entirely, which is the trail you came for. And the AMR doesn't permit dogs on its land at all, so if the dog is coming, pick a different hike.

Is Breakneck Ridge really closed?

Yes. The Breakneck Ridge, Wilkinson Memorial and Lower Brook trailheads closed on 21 April 2025 along with the neighboring Metro-North station, for the Fjord Trail's Breakneck Connector and Bridge project. The Trail Conference has them staying closed until mid-2027. Trust the closure page over any hiking list, this one included.

What's the cheapest way to do all five?

An Empire Pass, if you're doing more than a handful of these a year. It starts at $80, waives the vehicle use fee at most State Parks and DEC facilities, and covers both agencies with one card. The Adirondack reservation is free either way, and the Escarpment loop asks nothing for the walking itself.

Sources

Facts on this page were checked against these. Conditions, fees and rules change — check the official page before you go.

Letchworth State Park — New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation · checked August 4, 2026
Popular Hikes at Letchworth State Park — New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation · checked August 4, 2026
Welcome to the Genesee Region — New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation · checked August 4, 2026
Watkins Glen State Park — New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation · checked August 4, 2026
Minnewaska State Park Preserve — New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation · checked August 4, 2026
Hudson Highlands State Park Preserve — New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation · checked August 4, 2026
Empire Pass — New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation · checked August 4, 2026
Gertrude's Nose Loop/Millbrook Mountain — New York-New Jersey Trail Conference · checked August 4, 2026
Shawangunk Ridge — New York State Museum · checked August 4, 2026
Hike: Catskill Escarpment Loop (South) — New York-New Jersey Trail Conference · checked August 4, 2026
Reminder: Breakneck Ridge and Wilkinson Memorial Trailhead Closure Remains in Effect — New York-New Jersey Trail Conference · checked August 4, 2026
Sunset Rock — Hudson River School Art Trail, Thomas Cole National Historic Site · checked August 4, 2026
Kaaterskill Clove — Hudson River School Art Trail, Thomas Cole National Historic Site · checked August 4, 2026
NYSDEC & AMR Reservation System — Frequently Asked Questions — New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and Adirondack Mountain Reserve · checked August 4, 2026
Hiker Parking Reservation Portal — Adirondack Mountain Reserve · checked August 4, 2026
DEC and Adirondack Mountain Reserve to Pilot New Reservation System in 2021 — New York State Department of Environmental Conservation · checked August 4, 2026
Indian Head — Ausable Freshwater Center · checked August 4, 2026
About the Adirondack Park — New York State Adirondack Park Agency · checked August 4, 2026
New York Constitution, Article XIV §1: Forest preserve to be forever kept wild; certain uses and exceptions authorized — New York State Senate · checked August 4, 2026

Five day hikes across New York State

The five

The Gorge Trail at Letchworth

The Gorge Trail at Watkins Glen

Gertrude's Nose

The Escarpment Trail above Kaaterskill Clove

Indian Head from the Adirondack Mountain Reserve

A New York hiking year

The Adirondack booking window opens

The AMR gate starts checking

The fee booths and the gorge open

The Shawangunks fill up

Everything at once

Two of the five close down

The quiet, cheap, harder half

The words New York uses

Best Hiking Boots of 2026

Best Day Hiking Backpacks of 2026

Best Budget Trekking Poles of 2026

Questions worth answering before you drive

Sources

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