According to the map, the Appalachian Trail’s corner-cutting path across the southern edge of the state seems well outside New York City’s sprawl, but there is no escape from the greater reality of the urban northeast: This part of the Atlantic seaboard is the original megalopolis. The map may not make it obvious that some tens of millions of people live within an hour’s drive of this route, but the volume of traffic will.
Between the Connecticut border and the Hudson River, many of the roads along the route of the Appalachian Trail have become heavily developed corridors of suburban malls and Park ’n’ Ride lots for Manhattan commuters.
The hiker’s Appalachian Trail, and our driving equivalent along old US-6, both cross the Hudson River near West Point, the Army’s famous military academy, located at a point on the west bank of the Hudson, naturally. West and south of West Point, the two routes stay together for a scenic foray through Harriman and Bear Mountain State Parks before heading west toward Pennsylvania.
