Best Hikes in New York

New York's fifteen ranked summits split into three real clusters, over 300 miles apart start to finish. Seven sit in the Adirondack High Peaks around Lake Placid: Mount Marcy (5,344 feet) is New York's official state high point, sharing a trailhead at Adirondak Loj with Algonquin Peak and Mount Colden, while Cascade Mountain, Giant Mountain, Big Slide Mountain and Whiteface Mountain each start from their own trailheads nearby. A quirk worth flagging: the climbing tradition behind the region's celebrated "46 High Peaks" list — organized as a club in 1936 — rests on 1920s-era survey figures that later proved slightly off: modern resurveys found four of the traditional 46 actually sit under 4,000 feet, and a fifth peak that does clear it, Mount MacNaughton, still isn't on the list; club tradition keeps the original count anyway. About 140 miles south, four Catskill peaks form a second cluster: Slide Mountain (4,180 feet, the Catskills' own high point) and Wittenberg Mountain share a Woodland Valley trailhead, with Hunter Mountain and Overlook Mountain nearby but separate. The remaining four — Storm King Mountain, Bear Mountain, Breakneck Ridge and Anthony's Nose — sit another 45-50 miles south again, strung along the Hudson River in the Hudson Highlands, the same range already anchoring this site's Hartford, Poughkeepsie and New Haven /near/ pages. Breakneck Ridge's 0.3-mile loop is the shortest hike in the group; Wittenberg Mountain's 19.5-mile out-and-back is the longest. — these 15 are simply the ones with a confirmed route and elevation profile today.