Harriman State Park (1)🌟

On a sunny and cool autumn afternoon, I found myself back in New York State, this time visiting Harriman State Park, which is about an hour and a half drive from northern New Jersey. 🌊🎢 Although the New Jersey Forest Service had updated that the leaves in the northern part of NJ had already passed their peak, the sight of mountains covered in red leaves near the NJ/NY state line on I-287 (around West Mahwah, NJ, and Hillburn, NY) was truly breathtaking. 🍂✨ I parked at the Elk Pen parking lot, planning to follow the Elk Pen and Island Pond Mountain Loop Trail on AllTrails. Feeling that the 7.2 miles might be a bit short, I decided to take a bolder route (the red circle) for a total of 10 miles. 🌊🎢 Starting at 1:30 pm, it took me exactly four hours. Along the way, I walked the Appalachian Trail past Island Pond, squeezed through a narrow crevice (nicknamed "Lemon Squeezer"), which was really tight but only took less than a minute to get through. Then I turned onto the Long Path in the valley, heading south. 🌊🎢 On one side was a reed marsh, and sometimes hearing bird calls and the rustling of squirrels was a bit eerie. #NewYork 🗽✨