Hike Claudius Smith Den via Black Ash Loop Harriman State Park, NY

Directions

Route Map

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Claudius Smith Den via Black Ash 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 State Park and not only will this map not get you lost, you can also change my route and add/remove trails.

Starting at the White Bar parking lot, head up Car Pond Mountain along the White Bar Trail (white blaze) until you meet up with the Ramapo-Dunderberg Trail (red blaze) on the right. Take this over Black Ash Mountain and down to Black Ash Swamp. Pick up the Blue Disc Trail (blue blaze) at the junction and take this to Claudius Smith Den. The views at the top of the Den are very pretty, but the actual Den is underneath. Head down to locate the cave where Claudius Smith hid out after doing some bad stuff. After checking out the Den, continued onto the White Cross Trail (white blaze) until it meets up with the Ramapo-Dunderberg Trail (red blaze) as it takes you up and over Tom Jones Mountain and back to the road. Rather than walk back on the road, continue Nurian Trail (white blaze), which takes you back to the trailhead.

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

Peaks on hike

Elevation

Prominence

Car Pond Mountain

1020 ft

168 rise

Black Ash Mountain

1140 ft

100 rise

Big Pine Hill

1100 ft

n/a rise

Parker Cabin Mountain

1240 ft

60 rise

Tom Jones Mountain

1289 ft

269 rise

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Starting at the White Bar parking lot, I headed up to Car Pond Mountain along the White Bar Trail.

Along the White Bar Trail.

Up and over Car Pond Mountain.

Along the Ramapo-Dunderberg Trail.

On top of Claudius Smith Den.

Nice views before dropping below to see Claudius Smith Den.

Blue Disc Trail leads down to Claudius Smith Den.

Claudius Smith Den entrance.

Claudius Smith Den.

Some pretty lighting.

Continuing back to complete the loop, starting along the White Cross Trail.

Along the White Cross Trail.

Ramapo-Dunderberg Trail.

Tom Jones Mountain along the Ramapo-Dunderberg Trail.

Heading down from Tom Jones Mountain, back to the road. Rather than walk back on the road, I continued along the Nurian Trail, which crosses the street and does a half loop, leading back to the trailhead (see map).

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!