Hike Bear Mountain, West Mountain, and Doodletown Loop Bear Mountain State Park, NY

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Bear Mountain, West Mountain, and Doodletown Loop GPX Track

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I highly recommend you purchase the New York - New Jersey Trail Conference map here. There are a lot of trails in Harriman/Bear Mountain State Parks and not only will this map not get you lost, you can also change my route and add/remove trails.

I was really looking forward to a big loop in the Bear Mountain State Park area of upstate NY. I love this area, and despite the relative flatness compared to the stuff I've been doing out west all year, the hills around here will always hold a special place in my heart. I've done and redone so many of the trails near here years ago before I was tracking hikes/routes on my site, but I can never get sick of hiking in the Hudson Highlands area and was hpapy to return.

Starting from the major parking lot within Bear Mountain State Park, I followed the Appalachian Trail (white blaze) west up to Bear Mountain's summit. This section has a ton of stairs, apparently meant for preventing erosion, but really felt a bit extravagant. At the summit of Bear Mountain, I took in the views for only a minute, leaving to avoid the crowds who took the road and drove to the top. I continued west on the Appalachian Trail shortcut before linking back up with the A.T. The trail wandered south for a while as it descended Bear Mountain before crossing Seven Lakes Drive. About a hald mile after the road crossing, the A.T. continues south, but I wanted to hit a cluster of little stars representing viewpoints that appeared along the Timp-Torne Trail (blue blaze) and didn't show on the A.T. (seen on the New York – New Jersey Trail Conference map). So, I took a slight detour to the northeast and met up with the Timp-Torne Trail. I'm happy I did, because this trail had some boulders that made the ascent a bit more interesting, and also it was nice to follow the full northern ridge of West Mountain, facilitated by this trail. Eventually, I met back up with the A.T. and continued to the West Mountain summit. An A.T. shelter had some nice views and I could see my next objective to the southeast: The Timp. Continuing along the Timp-Torne Trail, I passed over to The Timp, which had some nice views, and then left the Timp-Torne Trail to follow the Ramapo-Dunderberg Trail (red blaze) north. This led to Bald Mountain, which also had a nice view. Just north of Bald Mountain, I left the Ramapo-Dunderberg Trail and continued north along the Cornell Mine Trail (blue blaze), which led down to a parking lot.

Before reaching the parking lot, I took a detour to check out Doodletown, a historic area within the park. I took a social trail leading west off the Cornell Mine Trail which passed a small waterfall and headed past the Doodletown Reservoir. Doodletown was uneventful, unfortunately. All the buildings were no longer standing, but there were a few foundations. I didn't explore it much, but did check out the Second June Cemetary.

Anyway, I made it to the a parking lot along the Cornell Mine Trail (blue blaze), and continued following it until it met with Ski 1777 E (red blaze), which took my back to the trailhead.

PEAKS ON HIKE
Elevation (ft) / Prominence (ft)

Peaks on hike

Elevation

Prominence

Bear Mountain

1300 ft

700 rise

West Mountain

1257 ft

537 rise

The Timp

1100 ft

260 rise

Bald Mountain

1120 ft

300 rise

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Just after leaving the parking lot, Bear Mountain visible on the left.

Starting up the very well-manicured Appalachian Trail, complete with stairs and interpretive trail labels.

Anthony's Nose peeking through the trees.

A view point on the way up the A.T.

Bear Mountain lookout tower.

Bear Mountain, view south.

Heading down the shortcut route to pick up the A.T. again.

Great views along the A.T.

The A.T. crosses Seven Lakes Drive after a while.

I picked up the Timp-Torne Trail (blue blaze) and followed it up the ridge of West Mountain.

View back toward Bear Mountain.

Some rocky obstacles along the ridge.

The Timp-Torne Trail merges with the A.T. again.

Views along the Timp-Torne Trail/A.T.

Summit of West Mountain nearby.

Heading southeast.

West Mountain shelter.

The Timp in the distance.

Heading down from West Mountain to The Timp.

The Timp summit, view north. Bear Mountain visible top left.

The Timp.

The Timp suimmit, view northwest toward West Mountain.

Heading down from The Timp toward Bald Mountain.

Crossing The Timp Brook.

Heading up to Bald Mountain.

Bald Mountain summit, view north toward Bear Montain and the Bear Mountain Bridge.

Heading down from Bald Mountain.

I left the official trail and followed a social trail along Doodltown Brook.

Passing a small waterfall on Doodletown Brook.

An old road leading to Doodletown.

Some ruins.

Doodletown Reservoir.

Continuing along a road to Doodletown.

Doodletown Signs.

One of the Doodletown Ruins.

Second June Cemetery. Still used.

Back on the official trail.

Approaching the road (Rt 202).

Route 202. Entrance Road center. I continued on the blue blaze trail. You could just follow the Entrance Road back to the trailhead.

The trail got me back to the main Bear Mountain parking lot.

Hire me or show me some love!

Hire/refer me as a web developer or send me a few bucks if you find my site useful. I’m not sponsored, so all fees are out-of-pocket and my time preparing trip reports is unpaid. I really appreciate it!