Dater Mountain Park and Harriman State Park, NY

ABOUT THE PARKS:
Dater Mountain Park - County of Rockland
Harriman State Park - The Palisades Parks Conservancy
Harriman State Park - New York State Parks

DIRECTIONS:
GPS Cooridinates 41.171518, -74.176847

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Dater Mountain Park parking on Johnsontown Road.

TRAIL MAP:
NY/NJ Trail Conference Southern Harriman Bear Mountain Trails Map 118
Dater Mountain Park and Harriman State Park, NY at EveryTrail

HIKE DISTANCE:  7 miles

THE HIKE:

The orange trail uphill from the parking area,

Then left on blue.

New York State Thruway

Another view of the Tuxedo Park and the thruway farther along at a power line cut.

Wild Turkey!

There were icy areas left from the previous Sunday where freezing rain encased everything in ice causing multiple car pileups and closure of the thruway.

Several boulders still encased in ice.

Back on orange for a short distance to ...

... left on the white-blazed Kakiat Trail at the end of orange. 

Kakiat Trail going into Harriman State Park.

Her preferred way of navigating blow downs.

I wasn't comfortable with the options for crossing the creek so we bushwhacked uphill along the creek to find a better crossing spot.  Found lovely cascades up higher and a crossing spot!

The Kakiat Trail follows along the NY State Thruway down below.

On this side, long sections of trail were covered in sheets of ice.  Shawnee wiped out once - she was OK - but really avoided icy patches after that.

Because the Kakiat Trail continued steeply downhill and the trail was covered with ice, we took the abandoned telephone cut.

Some ice here, too, but easy enough to get around.

Taking a break in the abandoned telephone cut.

On icy days I like to take hot tea and it stays piping hot throughout the entire hike in an insulated Kleen Kanteen inside an insulated bag.  Shawnee is fine with ice cold water.

The red-dot-on-white Ramapo-Dunderberg Trail went steeply uphill on ice so we had to find a way around that.

Made it up without either of us sliding and falling.  I could have worn microspikes but I didn't so that I could find a safer  route for Shawnee.

Right on red-line-on-white Tuxedo-Mt. Ivy Trail.

Coming up on Claudius Smith's Den.

Claudius Smith's Den with a smoldering fire someone left behind.

Instead of scrambling up to the Blue Dot Trail, we went around to the right on a faint path that lead right to it.

We have hiked Elbow Brush a couple of times already so with all of the ice, took the easy bypass this time.

Looking down at Elbow Brush - we'd be squeezing through that if we hadn't taken the easy bypass.

It was very pretty along the upper easy bypass route.

Looking back where the trails merge together.

Views over Almost Perpendicular.

Descending steeply - no ice here!

But along some sections the trail was solid ice but nothing else was icy.

A burl with a hole.

Back on the Kakiat Trail.

The only bird of many that sat still long enough for a picture.

Back on orange.

Views from the orange trail.

Turkey vulture tracks in the mud.

Back downhill to the parking area.

HIKE SUMMARY:
[  0.00]  Take the orange-blazed trail from the parking lot
[  0.20]  Left on blue when orange goes right
[  1.65]  Left on orange at end of blue when orange also goes right 
[  2.00]  Left on white Kakiat Trail at end of orange
[  3.00]  Right on abandoned telephone cut when white continues downhill
[  3.15]  Right at T-intersection to continue in telephone cut
[  3.25]  Right on red-dot-on-white Ramapo-Dunderberg Trail
[  3.60]  Right on red-line-on-white Tuxedo-Mt. Ivy Trail
[  3.95]  Claudius Smith's Den; keep right on unmarked footpath around rock scramble
[  4.00]  Right on Blue Dot Trail
[  4.25]  Left at split to take easy route around Elbow Brush
[  4.45]  Trails merge back together
[  5.45]  Right on white Kakiat Trail
[  5.70]  Left on orange
[  6.10]  Left on orange when blue goes right
[  6.80]  Left on orange when blue goes right
[  7.00]  Back at parking