Park Overview:

A preserve with over 100 miles of carriage roads and trails offering easy, scenic hikes and rugged rock scrambles requiring the use of hands as well as feet.

Park Description:

The Mohonk Preserve is New York State's largest not-for-profit privately owned nature sanctuary. Its 6,400 acres extend for nearly eight miles along the Shawangunk ridges, from Bonticou Crag to Millbrook Mountain, and includes cliffs, forests, fields, ponds, and streams.

Hiking on preserve lands is by day-use [or annual] permit, for which a fee is charged.  Preserve Permits, which may be obtained at the visitor center or from rangers on patrol, also allow one to hike on Mohonk Mountain House lands.

Trails Overview:

There are over 100 miles of carriage roads and trails.  Walking in the preserve ranges from easy, scenic strolls on carriage roads to rough scrambles over boulders, through crevasses, and across open ledges.   Only a brief indication of the possibilities can be suggested; hikers are encouraged to go maps in hand and make their own discoveries.

• Millbrook Ridge Trail [3.0 miles; light blue]:  This trail, at the southern end of the preserve, is one of the loftiest in the Shawangunks, skirting along the crest atop some of the Shawangunks' taller cliffs:  the Near Trapps, Bayards, and Millbrook Mountain. 
  • The trail starts on the Trapps carriage road, accessible from the West Trapps parking area.
• Overcliff and Undercliff Roads [5.4 miles; directional signs only]:   This easy, level walk on carriage roads loops around the dramatic scarp of the Trapps cliffs, the hub of the southern preserve.  Undercliff Road is especially remarkable, considering it was solely built to capture the scenic panoramas of the Wallkill Valley and the cliff above. 
  • Trailhead at West Trapps parking area.
• Bonticou Crag:  The top of Bonticou Crag [1,194 feet], at the northern end of the preserve, is a far more rugged and dramatic viewpoint than its modest height would suggest.  The shortest route is to start on the Crag Trail [red], but a map may be needed to guide a hiker to the top.  The Bonticou Ascent Path [yellow] is a rock scramble that requires agility, confidence, and the use of hands as well as feet.  A longer but much easier ascent is along the Northeast Trail [blue].
  • Trailhead at Spring Farm Entrance.  

Wheelchair users will need a special overland wheelchair, as the trails are shale-surfaced. There is handicapped parking at most trailheads.

Park Acreage:

Municipality: