Hiking Dunderberg Spiral Railway/Bald Mountain Loop

View of the Hudson River early on in the hike.

Hike Length: 7 miles

Hike Time: 5.5 hours

Peak Elevation: 1, 175 feet

Sunshine, rain showers, Hudson River views, wild blueberries, hours of conversation and walking with friends - these are all the things the Dunderberg Spiral Railway/Bald Mountain Loop hike offered our trio back in June 2017. It was the longest hike I had done in a few years and it was very rewarding! The fauna in Harriman State Park changed often and there were several opportunities to take in beautiful viewpoints, even a peep at the NYC skyline in the far distance.

The trail starts right off the highway near Jones Point, New York.

The hike starts on the Timp-Torne trail (the blue markings),
the way back is on the Ramapo-Dunderberg (red-dot on white markings).

We started off so sunny, and check out that luscious and vibrant green!

That's me, Brian, Leslie, and their pup Miso.
You may remember them from previous hikes.

Super zoom of the New York City skyline in the background!

Then it rained and while we hid under trees we saw a deer =)

Gorgeous, right?

And then the sun came out again!!!

Seems like every 30 or so minutes the scenery changed.

Leslie and I ate all the blueberries we could find.

Atop Bald Mountain! Trees blocked the view from there, but the location was snazzy.

New York State Festival of Balloons

Quick post about a happy day! My mama and I drove upstate for a ladies weekend over labor day and made it all the way to Dansville for the New York State Festival of Balloons. Back in 2012 I was lucky enough to go on a hot air balloon ride in Cappadocia, Turkey but this was equally special. I have been seeing ads for this festival on the New York City subway for years, so I was very excited to finally witness it!

The festival happens every year over labor day weekend (first weekend of September). It is very dependent on weather, and as much as they try as hard as they can to lift off, they really can't if it's, say, windy. Even if, say, you don't think it is that windy. We got there Friday evening in time for the 6pm launch, but due to the wind they delayed until it was determined that conditions were unsuitable for a launch. However the hot air balloons were still blown up and put on display! The next morning we woke up at 5am to get to the 6am launch....which actually happened at 8am (yes we slept in the car!) and was a sight for happy, sleep eyes =)

Friday's 6pm Launch

Mama had never seen hot air balloons!

Saturday's 6am Launch

Hearts

Ausable Chasm, the Grand Canyon of the East

Ausable Chasm is called the Grand Canyon of the Adirondacks because it is a gigantic sandstone gorge on the east coast. Sure it is no Grand Canyon, but I was so pleasantly surprised and delighted the magnitude of Ausable Chasm. It is America's oldest natural attraction, open for exploring since 1870. You can walk the 4 different trails (2 miles one way) and explore Rainbow Falls, the ins and outs of the gorge, raft the water, and you can even rock climb and adventure if you pay for a guide. Worth the trip, ya'll!

Early father's day trip, behind us the start of Rainbow Falls.

EPIC views!! (Now google what it looks like in the wintertime)

Rainbow Falls and Ausable River

Always good to look up for a new perspective.

Look at how tiny the railing is on the left side.

Look how massive this canyon is!

Look at that moss!!

6 foot father looks so small in the chasm!

We went on a raft through the chasm!

This is possibly the happiest our mom was in recent times because she was in a raft!

Entering the Grand Flume, the deepest part of the chasm (90 feet of water below us)

Things even out after the rapids.

The rapids

That was us!