Big Hill & Jackie Jones Mountain Trail — Attraction in Town of Stony Point

This is a nice quick trail (~5 mile loop). Very flat until the last 1/10th of a mile or so up to the shelter. The trail starts a few hundred feet west of the parking lot along the road almost directly across from the Harriman State Park sign. The yellow trail is well marked but the junctions can get a bit confusing when it junctions with the green trail loop. About 3/4 of the way in between the fire tower and the shelter, we hit a wasp swarm right in the middle of the trail. We were able to outrun them but everyone got stung a few times. I'm not sure if we accidentally disturbed something or if they are always there - we took a different path back. The shelter is a nice place to spend the evening and offers gorgeous sunrise views! My main complaint is the lack of water sources on the trail but since it's pretty short, we were able to carry enough for the two days...

Great hike. One HINT ... if you want to do the 4.5m loop, when you arrive at the Big Hill Shelter (a lean-to with a couple of fireplaces), that is the turnaround point (for the 4.5m loop). At this point the yellow and blue trails merge. You can take the blue trail back rather than the yellow trail for a loop. We blew right past the shelter and kept on going to the Third Reservoir. We ended up with a 6.5m hike ... 4 hours including a visit to the tower and picture stops along the way, and a return just barely...

One of the shorter trails in Harriman State Park. The trail starts right before the sign for the park and it follows the Suffern-Bear Mountain Trail (S-BM). One of the feature of this trail is the ORAK ruins. The mansion was owned by George Briggs Buchanan of the Corn Products Refining Company. His heirs sold the estate to the park after he died and the mansion was demolished in 1973. Two scenic viewpoints are on top of the Jackie Jones Fire Tower and Big...