Park Overview:

A beautiful 162-mile segment of the Appalachian Trail passes through the New York-New Jersey region.

Park Description:

The Appalachian Trail is one of the longest continuously marked footpath in the world, measuring roughly 2,180 miles in length. The Trail goes through fourteen states along the crests and valleys of the Appalachian mountain range from the southern terminus at Springer Mountain, Georgia, to the Trail’s northern terminus at Katahdin, Maine. 

In the New York-New Jersey area  the “AT” goes north from the Delaware Water Gap along the northwest border of New Jersey, entering  New York State near Greenwood Lake, crossing the Hudson River at Harriman-Bear Mountain State Parks – at 124 feet its lowest elevation  -- and passing ultimately into southwestern Connecticut near Kent. 

The AT passes through the following parks. 

• New Jersey -- 72 miles total (all Trail Conference web pages for NJ State parks and forests have Web Map links displaying the AT)
  • Worthington State Forest (entering NJ from PA)
  • Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area
  • Stokes State Forest
  • High Point State Park
  • Wawayanda State Park
  • Abram S. Hewitt State Forest (leaving NJ to NY)
• New York -- 90 miles total
  • Harriman-Bear Mountain State Parks (the Trail's oldest segment)
  • Hudson Highlands State Park
  • Fahnestock State Park (Clarence Fahnestock Memorial State Park)

The National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy and 31 local trail-maintaining organizations manage the Scenic Trail.  The New York-New Jersey Trail Conference is one of these organizations, maintaining all 162 miles in the region.

Additional information and resources concerning the AT in the metropolitan area may be found at the Appalachian Trail Region web page. 

There are no fees to hike the Appalachian Trail, but New York and New Jersey state parks may charge entrance fees seasonally at some locations.  Check specific parks web pages.

Trails Overview:

An overview map of the trail along its entire length is available from the National Park “Appalachian National Scenic Trail” web page. 

The AT is uniformly marked with a 2" x 6" white-painted, vertical blaze.

For detailed descriptions of hikes along the AT in NY and NJ click the "Choose another experience" button on this web site.  In the search field enter "Appalachian Trail."  The majority of these are loop hikes in conjunction with other trails.  For AT-only hikes click here. The database includes a few AT hikes in nearby sections of Pennsylvania and Connecticut. 

Two of the few wheelchair accessible sections from Georgia to Maine are in this region:

• A 0.40-mile segment at Bear Mountain State Park  (news release). This trail segment is included as part of a summit loop hike.
• A 0.67-mile segment on the Pochuck Boardwalk in Vernon, NJ  (trail map with parking information)

Park Acreage:

Municipality: