Geography
The park is composed of four separate tracts of land, two of which are contiguous, reflecting its piecemeal acquisition. The southernmost section begins just north of Peekskill, abutting the New York National Guard's Camp Smith, following the Bear Mountain Highway (US 6 and 202) around the lower slopes of Anthony's Nose. In Putnam County, it serves as the AT's corridor along the north of the mountain and on Canada Hill. In the land above Manitoga, the former estate of industrial designer Russel Wright, the AT interconnects with its trail system and follows the border with another parcel known as the Osborn Preserve, formerly part of Wing & Wing, the estate of 19th-century Illinois Central railroad president William Osborn.
The AT leaves the state park for a National Park Service-owned corridor here, and the other trails provide access to Sugarloaf Hill, whose 760-foot (230 m) summit looks across the river at the village of Highland Falls and the United States Military Academy at West Point. Here, near Garrison, the southern parcels end.
North of the villages of Cold Spring and Nelsonville is the central and largest section. Starting at the Little Stony Point area along the river, it is Broken slightly by the easement for the New York City water supply system's Catskill Aqueduct, it contains Bull Hill and Breakneck Ridge, with Breakneck Brook between them, then sprawls into Dutchess County, where it includes Pollepel Island, Sugarloaf Mountain, the south summit of Beacon Mountain and Beacon Reservoir, reaching its northern terminus at the Dry Brook trailhead at the end of Pocket Road in the city of Beacon. It is complemented by Storm King State Park across the river.
The Fishkill Ridge Conservation Area, owned by the environmental organization Scenic Hudson but managed by NYSOPRHP, bridges the gap between that central tract and the northern tract, a trail-less parcel on Sour Mountain at the Highlands' northern end, reaching almost to Interstate 84 at the bottom of the slope.
Also in Beacon is the 66-acre (27 ha) Denning Point parcel. This small wooded promontory is located where Fishkill Creek drains into the Hudson.
Read more about this topic: Hudson Highlands State Park
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