We had planned to visit New York for the day, but after seeing how beautiful the weather was, we wanted to get out into the countryside. We thought we were a little early to see the leaves changing colour but google searched ‘The Best Places to see Fall’ and the Bear Mountain State Park came up for late September/early October.

We were staying in Union (New Jersey) and Bear Mountain was under an hour away so we also decided to do a little detour through the Seven Lakes area to see the scenery. We drove north up the Garden State Parkway and then followed the I17 to Sloatsburg. At Sloatsburg we picked up the Seven Lakes Drive.

We drove past Lake Sebago and although it is beautiful but there is no where to stop on the road. We carried on and saw a turn off to Lake Welch and thought we may as well see if there is any parking. We didn’t find a car-park but were able to pull over in a lay-by, get out and take some pictures.

We returned to Seven Lakes Drive and a little further down the road was Lake Skannatati which did have a car park. We pulled in and there were quite a few people with dogs and it appeared there were some hiking routes starting from here. We were quite excited that the sign said to watch out for black bears and to never leave food unattended. We kept our eyes peeled but never saw any – although we did spot a chipmunk. We went for a short wander but will definitely return to do some hiking here one day.

We drove for a few more miles passing more lakes and arrived at Silver Mine Lake which had a huge car park and toilets etc. On the hill it looked as if there was a ski slope here but I think it has closed down. We were going to go for a little walk but the ground was quite boggy and we didn’t have our walking boots.

We picked up a sign for Bear Mountain and a turn off for the Perkins Memorial Tower. It was a steep road but took us all the way to the summit. We parked up and climbed to the top of the tower which gave 360° views of the area.

We then walked out to the viewing point and thought it was really cool that you could ‘just’ see the Manhattan skyline in the distance.

^{Manhattan Sky Line in the background and the Hudson River}

There are lots of hiking trails from here but we wanted to go down and explore the Hudson Valley. However, we realised that there was a geo-cache about 300 metres away so we went to find it before returning to the car. It was in a camouflaged container hidden under some driftwood just off one of the paths.

We drove down to the Bear Mountain Inn and Park Office where we could pay $10 to park. There were playing fields, a merry go round and a lake. There was a cafe so we ordered pizza and a turkey sandwich but none of this was available (despite it being 11.50am) so we shared a ham and cheese sandwich and started following the trail to the Hudson Docks.

What we hadn’t realised was that there was a zoo here so as we walked down the trail we passed bears, bob cats and a porcupine. We then saw a turn for Fort Montgomery – which was where we wanted to go. The path took us under the Bear Mountain Bridge and down the hill to the Hudson River.

^{Bear Mountain Bridge}

We then crossed a small bridge on an off shoot of the river and climbed back up another hill to reach the Fort.

Fort Montgomery was built by the Americans to control navigation along the Hudson. In 1777 the British attacked the Fort and destroyed it. When we arrived at the Fort there were people dressed up in old army clothes, firing rifles. We found out it was the 242nd anniversary of the Battle of Fort Montgomery and they were re-enacting parts of it.

^{Shooting rifles and a cannon demonstration}

We headed up to where the cannons were and a presentation & demonstration was given on how the cannons would have been fired in the day. There was also a small museum giving information about the battle. We then headed back to the car to go home. We will definitely come back here with the kids and maybe do some hiking.