Sterling Forest State Park — Attraction in Town of Warwick

I'm always mystified at how many people are obsessed with nearby Harriman and yet have never heard of, much less been, to this park. It's one of my absolute favorite places in the area to hike, and because it's still a bit of a hidden gem, it's not very crowded and the wildlife sightings are always excellent.

I came by this past Saturday morning for one of my classic hikes, a 7.5-mile lollipop up to Bare Rock. Same starts over by the Visitor Center (huge fan of the Center - it has bathrooms and an awesome 3D interactive map; you can click buttons to light up certain suggested trails/hikes) on the blue Sterling Lake Loop trail, goes on the road alongside Sterling Lake for a few minutes, then turns left on the orange Bare Rock trail up to the summit, continuing south to its terminus, then left on the green West Valley/red Fire Tower trails until you hit the "stick" of the lollipop again, returning down the Bare Rock trail. The markings on all the trails are very good - intersections are usually noted with a formal wooden sign, along with mileage updates to certain areas (e.g., Route 17A parking lot and the fire tower).

Difficulty-wise, this is moderate to strenuous in my opinion. I'm in pretty good hiking shape so I'm usually a little tuckered out by the end but nothing egregious. The climb up to the summit is probably the toughest part but the incline isn't too dramatic and it's early enough in the hike where your haunches shouldn't be tired. The last 40% or so of the hike is either flat or mostly downhill. The view at the summit is worth the sweat - I'm hard-pressed to think of a better optic in the area. It's gorgeous up there and you can see just about the entirety of Greenwood Lake. The rest of the orange trail is a bit meh in terms of personality, but towards the end has a very pleasing batch of rhododendron draping over the path, almost like a tunnel.

Shortly after you start back on the red/green trail, there's a very pretty pond with several beaver dams. This is close to where I encountered my Wildlife Sighting of the Day, likely a black racer or black rat snake. Very accommodating creature that appeared to tilt his head up to the camera. A real professional. On prior visits, I've seen wild turkeys and a bear - this is legit nature out here.

The canine situation was inexplicably lacking. It was about 60 degrees and gorgeous out, and yet I didn't see a single pooch until I was back on the road to the Visitors Center. This is usually teeming with quality canines though so I have to assume it was just a troubling anomaly.

I usually park in the lot across the street from the Visitors Center, which consistently has one of the cleanest port-a-potties I've ever frequented. When is the last time you used one and didn't smell an earlier visit? Fine, fine work on that front.

Beyond my specific hike, you have a lot of options in terms of environment, visuals and terrain. You can hike around the lake, seek a mid-ridge trail that goes to the Fire Tower (that seems to be the most crowded area in my experience) or go all the way up to the top like I did and take in the sights. You can't go wrong with...

Sterling Lake, named for the silvery barked beach trees in this area, is located off Sterling Mine Road on Old Forge Rd. I must admit, it's somewhat confusing the way the nearby lakes are named. We are referring to Sterling Lake. There are also Little Sterling Lake and Sterling Forest Lake(also called Blue Lake on the IBM Corporate Office Park. IBM's nickname is "Big Blue"). Mining for iron in this area was taking place before the Revolutionary War. The links of chain across the Hudson River to prevent British warships from sailing past West Point were made in the original foundry at Sterling Mine. It was intended to halt progress of warships. Cannon placements in West Point and strategic hill tops would lob cannon shot down onto the stranded vessels. This was a physically impractical engineering design the chain failing under its own weight. And British naval strategists knew how risky a notion it would be to travel up the Hudson River while the Continental Army held such a strategic and formidable fortress. It was a stalemate. But the mines held an important place for it made the weapons needed to win the war. Mine shafts travel under thIs lake. It is a watershed. It's clean water is part of the Hudson Highlands Watershed and provides water for reservoirs below it. Hiking, mountain biking and cross country skiing trails are available for use in this 20,000 acre park. The Frank Lautenburg Visitors Center and parking area sits on a prominence on the south side of the lake. You could hike the lake and many connected trails from here or take a short walk to see the restored original blast furnace or crumbling remains of later iron works operations. But now to the present. Last year, two climate related events devastated Sterling Forest and its trails are closed indefinitely. There is no time line for remediating damage here. A May, 2024 violent change of season storm brought the jet stream tumbling to earth, which destroyed the forest as though it was a clear cutting operation. We spoke to a sawyer by the visitors center. Brian was his name and he told us to look at his YouTube videos of what he does. Just Google Brian NV to see his videos. He hikes miles into the woods to open trails with a chain saw. Then, on November 9, 2024, after a long drought, the Jenkins fire scorched the area. It was a quick moving forest fire that may actually be beneficial to old growth trees by removing underbrush that can choke and rob these trees of nutrients. But it's a nice ride to get here and see the big blow down and mine operations and visitor center displays of dioramas, mine artifacts...

We started the Blue loop in the counterclockwise direction from the visitor center. I would say the part of the loop around and crossing the road was not enjoyable. Garbage along the trail and very buggy due to the swamp /marsh in that area. Once you are away from the road, it becomes a decent hike in the woods that is pretty easy. There is a cool spot in the woods where there is a swamp right along the trail.

If you want to go counterclockwise, I personally would just walk up the road to where you can join the loop as it leaves the road for good. Skip the beginning that starts with crossing the field.

But, from the swamp deep in the woods and the entire second half of the loop, it becomes a scenic hike with views along the lake. The top of the lake has a few "beachy" spots where you could stop for a break while taking in the views.

When we go back, we will just do the hike out and back in the clockwise direction, turning around at the point where the loop crosses the top...