Rockland County and Surrounding Areas Offer Easy, Lush, and Colorful Hikes

By Yehudit Garmaise

With temperatures climbing in Rockland County, it’s time for hikers to hit the trails, breathe fresh air, and check out the lush, colorful scenery on some new hikes this summer.

Rockland County is home to some of the most beautiful hike trails in the area:

Tallman Mountain State Park, located Route 9W in Sparkhill, offers a hiking trail, a bike path, a running track, tennis courts, and picnic areas.

Tallman Mountain State Park provides “beautiful vistas overlooking the Hudson River basin and the village of Piermont,” Park Ridge resident Monique Bliss told lohud.com.

For hikers who are interested in researching and identifying the many different birds and flora that flourish at Tallman, rocklandaudubon.org offers free guides.

On Spring Valley Road in Yorktown, the Teatown Reservation offers 15 miles of hiking trails that range from easy to moderately difficult.

Hikers who lace up their sneakers for the Teatown trails will discover lakes, wildlife, waterfalls, swamps, forests, and meadows.

Adventurous hikers who want to trek to Teatown’s highest point, will enjoy an overlook to the Hudson Highlands, after climbing Teatown's 15th trail, the 2.3-mile Twin Lakes.

Hook Mountain provides another easy hike at Nyack Beach State Park, which is located at 698 N. Broadway, in Nyack.

By following the trail that runs alongside the banks of the Hudson River, trekkers, who can choose circular hikes of varying lengths, can stop at many vantage points to view not just a variety of birds, but the Manhattan skyline, the Tappan Zee Bridge, and the foliage and greenery that run up and down the river’s banks. 

Another gorgeous hike awaits close by at the Ramapo Valley County Reservation in Mahwah, NJ.

Offering 21 trails, including several newly designed routes this summer, on the park’s 4,290 acres, fun-seekers can also fish, but first they must secure NJ fishing licenses. 

Flat Rock Brook at 443 Van Nostrand Ave., in Englewood, NJ, makes Cresskill resident Janet Sharma feel “transported,” when she hikes at the 150-acre preserve that includes a cascading stream, wetlands, a pond, wildflower meadows, and quarry cliffs.

Plus, Sharma added, “There really is a brook with big flat rocks: great for clambering, for people of all ages.

“You’re close to Fort Lee, the George Washington Bridge and Route 4, yet you feel like you’re a million miles away.”