>>2851721So I barely saw anyone yesterday, which may have been due to both the holiday weekend and the cold. I haven't explored the trails around Garrison much but I spend a lot of time north around Cold Spring and Beacon. My best advice for that area is go during the week if you can and start as early possible. Being on the train line and right near some popular tourist towns they usually get a ton of traffic on the weekends. Although I've been on some of the back trails there during the week and didn't run into another person for 3-4 hours.
The Casino trail which goes up Mt. Beacon to the fire tower is an ecological disaster due to overhiking. All the soil and vegetation is worn away and it's just loose rocks the entire way up. It's actually my least favorite trail in the park and I've done literally every trail there. There are ways you can avoid most of it if you know your way around.
I really like the Breakneck Ridge scramble but it's closed for at least another year because of construction at the trailhead. You can still do a big chunk of that hike but it's a bit inconvenient getting there.
There are some other nice peaks in that park. Bull Hill is pretty popular. There's also Lambs Hill, Bald Hill and Scofield Ridge which are usually less crowded. I've actually never seen anyone on Bald Hill but I've only been there maybe 5 times during the week.
It's a beautiful area, but as much as I love it I don't think I could live there because of how crowded it gets on the weekend. Maybe somewhere further north like Poughkeepsie or Kingston.
