It takes visitors for about 2/10 of a mile through the woods, ending at the ruins of the Youmans-Van Orden House. The other trail in the park, the Spur trail, is marked with white blazes and starts in the center of the park, and runs directly north as a shoot off of the Long Path. This trail climbs over 600 vertical feet from the trailhead to summit. However, the most spectacular view comes at the summit of High Tor, where visitors can see the towns of Haverstraw and Stony Point to the northeast, the Hudson River to the east, Lake DeForest and the Manhattan skyline to the south, and the Harriman hills to the north and west. There are many incredible view points along the trail, including the summit of Little Tor. This Long Path stretch is characterized by well-marked, gentle ambles through mixed hardwood forest, rocky streambeds, and a short, but steep climb to the summit of High Tor. During summer months, the trail can also be accessed at the park’s main entrance on South Mountain Road. The western entrance of the trail can be accessed at a trailhead parking lot on Central Highway, and the eastern entrance of the trail starts off of Route 304 near the intersection of Ridge Rd (parking is available on Ridge Rd). The Long Path skirts along the northern rim of the park ridge and is marked by aqua-blazes. High Tor State Park now hosts a swimming pool, a large picnic area, and hiking trails, most notably a 3.5 mile stretch of the Long Path and the Spur Trail, After decades of notorious wine-making (Crosby even wrote a book about his famous endeavor), the vineyard was acquired by The Scenic Hudson Land Trust and added to the state park. The play became well-known, and later became the basis for the 1956 movie, High Tor, with Bing Crosby and Julie Andrews.ħ8 acres of the Orden estate was also bought by Everett Crosby in 1949, a writer turned wine-maker, who turned the land into one of the east’s most prominent wineries, High Tor Vineyards. In 1937, Maxwell Anderson wrote a fantasy play, called High Tor, about a man who engages in a battle to save his beloved crag from a trap-rock crushing company.

This conservation story brought the land into the limelight. At the same time, Archer Huntington also decided to donate his bordering 470-acre estate, which included Little Tor, to the newly created park. When Orden died in 1942, local conservation groups, led by the Hudson River Conservation Society and the Rockland County Conservation Association, rallied together and raised $12,000 to buy the property, which was later turned over to the Palisades Interstate Park Commission for long-term protection. The owner at that time, Elmer Van Orden, staunchly opposed letting the land be mined for quarry purposes (the mountain’s diabase or “trap-rock” composition had been eagerly eyed by quarry operators for years). The land was sold in a grant from George III before the Revolution to the forebears of the Orden family, who owned the land for generations until 1942. An aircraft beacon was also once located on the High Tor summit, and the anchors of the beacon are still visible to visitors today.

After the settlers arrived, the land’s history varied, most notably including as a signal point during the American Revolution and as the site of an air raid watch during World War II.

The park sits on the homelands of the Munsee Lenape peoples, who lived between the shores of the Hudson and the hills of the Catskills for thousands of years. Located on South Mountain, the park hosts the highest peaks in the Hudson Palisades, High Tor (~800 ft) and Little Tor (~600 ft), and visitors of this park are rewarded with some of the most outstanding views in the lower Hudson Valley. High Tor State Park is a 618-acre stretch of forested ridge separating the towns of New City and Haverstraw, NY.

High tor state park lines