Bear Mountain - The Real Bear Mountain

mountain scene The Real
Bear Mountain

Discover the Backwoods Trails and Secret Places
with Kathy and Ranger Bob

Join Us On a Bear Mountain Adventure...

Climbing "The Timp" and Exploring the Abandoned Dunderburg Spiral Railway

Finding the Lost Town of Doodletown

Surviving in "The Valley of Dry Bones"
Coming Soon!

Climbing the "Cascade of Slid" and Discovering "Ga Nus Qua Rock"
Coming Soon!

Exploring Claudius Smith's Den (Secluded 1700s Bandit Hiding Grounds)
Coming Soon!

second tunnel Like so many complex "things", Bear Mountain looks different depending on your perspective. To tens of thousands of weekend visitors, the park is a weekend place for lounging under trees, hot dogs on the barbeques, softball games and swimming with the family. Pretty much a typical "week-end at the park" outing. Very few of these visitors will venture beyond the sunlit fields near "The Inn" to discover the musky mysteries of the deep forest that wait for the explorers and hikers that share our sense of adventure.

Our Bear Mountain starts at the "special place" where the sounds of civilization end and the murmurs of nature begin to rise.

The Lost Town of Doddletown, The Valley of Dry Bones, Claudius Smith's Den and The Cascade of Slid are just some of the names that LEAP off the pages of the trail maps. My son, Darren, and I have camped in stone shelters built 70 years ago on the tops of several of the mountains. From those shelters we have watched evenings darken as the lights of New York City, visible fifty miles away, rise with the stars. On sunday mornings we have awakened to the silence of a mountain top with only the wind and the almost soundless distant thump of ceremonial canon fire that calls the West Point cadets to revile.

Join Kathy and me . . . oh yes, and a few old "Germans in leather shorts", as we go back to The Bear Mountain forest that we love, to explore some of the hidden adventures that are still there waiting for us.

Ranger Bob

decending the Timp Only about one hour north of New York City, the park covers 54,000 acres of some of the most beautiful and historic sections of the east coast. The world famous Appalachian Trail crosses the Hudson River over the Bear Mountain Bridge, enters the park from the north-east, meanders across mountain tops and exits into the town of Suffern in the south-west.

What still amazes me is that such a secluded area has remained virtually undiscovered by the millions that seem to press upon its borders.

Over the next several years, Kathy and I will take you along on our hikes, as we rediscover the wonders of what I have called "The best kept secret in America."