Harriman State Park

Harriman State Park covers the wooded hills west of the Hudson River in Rockland and Orange counties. It is the second-largest park in the New York State park system, with 31 lakes and reservoirs and 200 miles of hiking trails. It began as a gift: in October 1910 Mary Harriman gave the state 10,000 acres of her family's land and a million dollars to make a park. Troop 23 was founded that December.

For Troop 23 this is where Scouts learn to backpack. The park is close enough to Bay Ridge for a weekend and rough enough to be a real test: rocky trails, steady climbs, and stone lean-to shelters that can only be reached on foot.

The map above marks the Silver Mine Lake parking area on Seven Lakes Drive. NYS Parks sends hikers from here to two of the park's shelters, and the troop's three-day trek in 2024 started and ended here.

Learning to Backpack

As far back as November 2018 the troop took a cold-weather overnight in Harriman. In May 2023 the park hosted the first trip of a series that prepared Scouts for that summer's Adventure Trek in the White Mountains. The group set out from a trailhead on the Tuxedo–Mount Ivy Trail late on a Saturday afternoon, carried full packs about three and a half miles, and reached the Stone Memorial Shelter after dark, finding the way by flashlight. A bear sighting along the way did not turn them back, and they hiked out the next morning. The 2023 overnighter has its own page, with the recorded track.

In May 2024 the troop came back for three days and two nights. From Silver Mine Lake the route climbed to the William Brien Memorial Shelter for the first night, passed the painted boulder hikers call Times Square, and ended the second day at the Stockbridge Shelter on its rock ledge. The whole loop back to Silver Mine was about fifteen miles. Both shelters have a steel cable for hanging food out of reach of bears. As Sherman Wong wrote to the troop that Sunday, backpacking in Harriman isn't easy. The plan and the route are on the 2024 trip page.

Orienteering in Winter

On Saturday, January 4, 2025, the troop spent a day orienteering on the Surebridge map, on a course from Hudson Valley Orienteering's winter series. From the parking area at Lake Kanawauke, Scouts worked with map and compass over rocky, wooded hills to find the orange-and-white control flags, ate on the trail, and stayed until the sun went down over the water. A map-and-compass course is part of First Class navigation, and the day was built so Scouts could practice it. The day is on the 2025 orienteering trip page.

Camping at the Shelters

Harriman's trail shelters are first come, first served. If a shelter is taken, NYS Parks allows camping 300 feet away from it. Fires are allowed only in the shelters' fireplaces, and there is no reliable water at the shelters, so water from lakes and streams has to be filtered. First come, first served is why the troop's trip plans send a group to the shelter early; in 2023 the Scouts were simply lucky to find their lean-to free.

In winter, Route 106 between the Kanawauke Circle and Route 17, Tiorati Brook Road and Arden Valley Road are closed to cars from December 1 to April 1, so a winter trip has to plan its parking around them.

Getting There

The Silver Mine Lake parking area is on Seven Lakes Drive. NYS Parks charges a parking fee there on weekends and holidays.

From Our Lady of Angels in Bay Ridge it is about sixty miles by car, roughly an hour and a half without traffic. On Harriman trips the troop carpools from the OLA parking lot.

Bear Mountain State Park adjoins Harriman to the north, and the troop's Bear Mountain day hike in March 2026 went there, with a visit to Fort Montgomery.

NYS Parks has the trail map and the list of shelters on its own Harriman State Park page. Troop 23 is a Scouts BSA troop in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and every family starts the same way: come to a Monday meeting.