New Yorkers Will Love This New 7.5 Mile Trail Along the Hudson River Highlands Inspired by Landscape Painters

March 4, 2025 journo

The Hudson River Valley and nearby upland is dotted with popular hiking spots, but poor access and limited infrastructure have meant that nearby towns are overwhelmed by visitors during the hiking seasons.

A new comprehensive park and trail will connect these peaks and troughs like never before, and will help spread visiting hikers more evenly along the riverside and keep them off the main road of State Route 9D.

Called the Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail, the design borrows from the landscape palette of the Hudson River School of 19th century painting, by linking marshland, forests, highlands, and riverlands with a 7.5 mile linear trail stretching from Beacon to the town of Cold Spring.

Environmental stewardship has long been valued among the hills of the Hudson River, and the Fjord Trail plans to help regenerate degraded landscapes and protect those which remain.

Powered by a public-private partnership with the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, the trail will span two counties, engage four local communities, and ensure that as many people as possible can enjoy the area’s scenic bounty while also reducing the impact of overvisitation on man and nature alike.

“The team bringing this to life is second to none,” Lori Moss, a spokeswoman for the project, told GNN.

“Kate Orff, a TIME 100 honoree and founder of the renowned landscape architecture firm, SCAPE, is designing the project, while Peter Mullan, who led the design and construction of the famous High Line urban trail in New York City, is shepherding the project forward as President & CEO.”

The Fjord Trail will have biking, rail, and wheelchair access for 7.5 miles along the Hudson River, connecting multiple trailheads up into the highlands like Breakneck Ridge, and Sugarloaf, Taurus, and South Beacon mountains.

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Balancing visitation with ecological sensitivity, the Fjord Trail will connect communities while weaving in and out of four distinct landscape zones including the river’s edge, highlands, forest, and marsh. The trail’s design and materials will shift to reflect each zone.

Multiple areas along the Breakneck Connector are set for landscape restoration with 436 native trees and 2,000 native shrubs already planted to ensure it regains and retains the natural, native beauty that has captivated so many over the area’s long history of habitation and visitation.

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