Best Trails in Storm King State Park

great hike awesome views

This was a well-balanced hike—equal parts light to medium scrabbling over sheer rock and painless and serene strolling beneath a thick forested canopy. Start this hike by bearing to your left to get the walk up out of the way. We brought our small dog who is a master scrambler and had to be lifted only once or twice. This is an awesome hike that you can cut in half by taking the middle route in the center of the loop. A good two hours going this way. Some great views from the top. Be careful and don’t pass the parking lot on the right as you climb up the mountain on Route 9A or you’ll have to turn around and go all the way back down the mountain and come back up—you can only enter the lot going north. Have fun!

Nice trail!

One of my all time favorite trails. Begins with rippling brooks for quite awhile. Magical woods, mushrooms, variety. I enjoyed that even more than the expansive river views further along. A good effort, but not scary.

Great trail! A bit hard to navigate in sections with two leashed dogs, bit worth the climb!

Just completed today. Did it in 2ish hours with a 20 minute picnic at the money spot. Fun scrambling in the beginning. Not too crowded, great views

I’m in love with this mountain - I’m from the area so I will only hike it during the week if I happen to have a day off. On the weekends, it’s just way too crowded. You get breathtaking views every couple of steps if you hike the orange trail. You can get a little turned around once the orange trail ends, but if you take that to the teal blue diamond trail aka the blue bird (not the teal and yellow) it will take you up to a spectacular 360 view - keep following that trail to another junction, at this point take the teal and yellow - it will lead you out to more spectacular views - you can take the white trail all the way back out to the parking lot. I always find peace up here, I bring a lite snack with me when I get to the money spot - it’s worth taking it all in for a short rest. Enjoy!

This was a great short hike- everything we like- scrambles, views, quiet trails, wildlife. So glad we had to wait for a fuel pump repair on our way back to Boston. Great way to pass a couple hours.

This is one of my favorite hikes. Very easy and extremely beautiful views, but this time of yeah the marsh is very over grown and hard to see the beauty in the views. The best time to hike this is in the fall.

Great hike with a gorgeous view of the Hudson Valley. The scramble over the first 40 minutes or so was an invigorating kind of challenging. Not too hard. Not too easy. Totally recommend.

Park at “Storm King Parking Lot” on RT 9W

Solid hike — more like 4.2 miles than 3.2. Beginning of hike is harder than moderate — and overall felt harder than moderate. Signage is great on the trail but map signs at parking lot are impossible to read.

Excellent trail. First mile hard up, good cardio, then fairly easy down next 3 miles with varied terrain.

seeing this place in person is truly astonishing, you get to see Breakneck on your right and so much more around you! Easy Hike to a great view!

Recap video: https://youtu.be/zSXbs3X1UJs

Great hike with great views! And pretty short too! I took plenty of time and stopped at lookout points and took photos and still got back in 3 hrs. It’s a nice day hike with some elevation climb and great views of be Hudson.

The trail was excellent! I used the app a few times just to get an idea of how far we'd gone and where the best picture stops were, but the trails are clearly marked with various colored markers. You can do the entire thing as a loop and even with a lot of photo stops we made it through the whole thing in under 3 hours. We had a dog with us and he had no problem. Highly recommend!

Would give this 4.5 stars if I could. Really boring first two miles, downhill on the rocky white trail, but after you hit the small parking area off Storm King Highway, you start to rise on the blue trail on switchbacks then are awarded with some spectacular views. There are stairs built into the hillside that make the ascent easier, and several side areas where you can get some amazing views up and down the Hudson. It was a bit overcast the day I went so the North Point Summit view was not as spectacular as it might have been. Still, a great great hike and you are amply rewarded for the first 2 boring miles. I suppose you could do this hike from Storm King Highway but then all of the views would be at the start of the hike. Better to build up to it. You could also just hike up to North Point from 9W by going counterclockwise, but what's the fun in that? One more note: there are a TON of blueberry bushes on the way down from the summit, so bring a basket or help yourself to a handful.

From the parking lot, we went to the right and I think had an easier hike based on the amount of downhill on the way out and the fact that we finished this is under 1 hour 30 whereas most other peoples recordings were 2-3hours. So if you want a challenging hike, go left up the hill, if you want a moderate hike, go right down the hill. The views were great on this trail but there seemed to be a lot of broken glass and garbage not long after the entrance halfway up the hill. Also, lots of people were blasting blue tooth speakers. Why go into nature just to listen to rihanna? I'll never understand.

Bring a lot of water on a hot day. Beautiful hike. Worth the challenge. If you want to shorten your trip do it as an out and back and turn around after you see the views looking south. Had the entire trail to myself, and I saw a lot of wildlife. Wild blueberries are in season for a nice trail snack :-)

It s in my backyard and I never get sick of it or the views

Moderate fun rock climbing with fantastic views. Great for adventurous family day with the dog.

Loved this hike! It's a moderate one with some rock scaling. The views are outrageous and worth the climb

This is my 1st time writing a review on this particular trail. I’ve done this hike many times and all four seasons (summer, fall, winder, and spring) with friends and most of the time alone, every time I do this hike - I always enjoy the fantastic scenic views that it has to offer.

However, for the beginners that would like to try this hike – do recommend to research other people advice on the proper direction / trail guide for this hike. Please be advice, all of this is not to say that this is an easy hike. There are a couple of very steep stretches within this hike. For example: In the beginning of hike it requires a little bit of rock scrambling. These steep stretches in the beginning are the reasons I’ve rank this hike a fairly beefy difficulty rating of 5 stars. If you can get past the first 30 minutes or so, though, this hike becomes more of a stroll, with amazing views in all directions as you circle the crown of Storm King Mountain.

I highly recommend this hike, even if you don’t like hiking, give it a try and see if it doesn’t change your mind. And if you already like hiking, you’re in for an amazing treat!

Hiking here in the winter is very dangerous do to ice all over the path. Don't hike here in February... unless you like fun

This is a cute little trail. Nothing overly difficult and definitely something a little different along the river.

Love this hike. Don't let the distance fool you, it's got a lot of elevation and too many good views to make it a short one. Incredibly varied pace thanks to some steep inclines and then some breezy walks through forest sections. Did this on a hot 98F day and whilst I was not attractive by the end, the actual hike was pretty cool in many sections thanks to the tree coverage and breeze up top.

This is definitely a hike you can do for 3 hours stopping a lot, or race around on a cool day. It's such a fun trail to try different routes up the rocks. Do not do this on a hot day if you don't like walking up steep rocks. Not many loose rocks, but they are steep sometimes!

Not all the trails you find are marked on AllTrails maps or even any other maps, so take a map so you can follow the route you're supposed to be on. Ended up on a detour on aqua/yellow on a trail not marked on maps - even with a GPS unit I was confused.

As of July 1st 2018 there is NO car park as it's under repair, but there is parking along the side of the road, which as others mention... is a bit hairy when bikers come along at 60+.

Excellent guide! As of today, it is applicable. Hike took us 2:10. We stopped a bit to enjoy the views. Great easy to moderate hike. Recommendable!

I did this hike with my parents and sister for the first time with a guide. I booked it for Father's Day. There were some moderately steep climbs that my parents (both over 50 and not super active) were able to do but struggle a little bit. The views were worth it and now they can't stop talking about it! We started at 7:30am on a Sunday morning and there were only a couple hikers on the trail. When we finished around 10:30am there were so many more cars so I recommend starting before 8am.

If you go from near the highway to around the mountain and up, it can be exhausting. The hiking trip our group did was about 6 miles. Gorgeous area, you can see vultures flying above and even find wild blueberries there.

great hike. tip: go to http://hikethehudsonvalley.com/storm-king/ and follow their trail guide. easy to get lost at points. per their guide, it’s about an hour hike to the money point, with some rock scrambling. not suitable for small hikers or those wishing for an easy stroll. once you’re ready to head back down, it’s about another half hour walk. AS OF JUNE 17, the parking lot is still closed. park along the roadway, can get crowded at times.