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The Best Car-Free Spring Hikes Near New York City

Forget the rental and the Saturday 7 a.m. Avis line. Public transport covers every hike worth doing this spring—and the Hudson Valley is having a year.

Spring in New York City—and more specifically, the month of May—has a way of turning the apartment into a problem. Whether it's the radiator that won't quit, the neighbor's bass line, or the simple fact that the sidewalk smells like garbage soup again, the answer is a train ticket and a trailhead by 10 a.m. Alas, the hike most people default to for a New York day hike is closed. Breakneck Ridge—the iron-staircase scramble above Cold Spring, the metro's default May hike—is shuttered through 2026 and won't reopen until mid-2027, when it returns as the centerpiece of the Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail with a new pedestrian bridge at the trailhead, a re-engineered ridge, and a visitor center in Fishkill.

The good news, however, is that the bench is deeper than anyone remembers. With Breakneck out of rotation, the hikes that used to live in its shadow have made their way into the mainstream. Bull Hill, the bigger (and arguably better) ridge just south of it, is having a moment. Sleeping Giant in Connecticut added 28 acres last May and broke ground on a new visitors' center. Boscobel—the 1808 Federal mansion overlooking West Point—reopened last August with "Preservation in Progress" tours that walk guests through rooms in active states of repair. Storm King unveils Anicka Yi's first large-scale outdoor commission on May 17. Lambert Castle in Paterson is open for the first time in five years.

Reaching all of this is, perhaps surprisingly, friendly to the carless. Five of the 10 hikes below sit within a 25-minute walk of a Metro-North or NJ Transit platform. Three more involve a single bus from Port Authority, with Coach USA and Short Line still running the routes they have for decades. The May-June window—full leaf-out, working waterfalls before the summer drought, pre-haze visibility down to the Manhattan skyline—is shorter than the season feels. Take advantage with these 10 hikes to tackle, where you can go car-free to the trailhead and back.

The Best Spring Hikes Near New York City—No Car Needed

Hemlock Falls (South Mountain Reservation, New Jersey)

The Palisades Long Path (George Washington Bridge to Alpine Lookout, New Jersey)

Walkway Over the Hudson (Poughkeepsie, New York)

Cold Spring Waterfront and Boscobel (Cold Spring, New York)

Mount Beacon Fire Tower (Beacon, New York)

Anthony's Nose (Manitou, New York)

Hook Mountain and Nyack (Nyack, New York)

Sleeping Giant Tower Trail (Hamden, Connecticut)

Bull Hill (Cold Spring, New York)

Bear Mountain Loop (Bear Mountain, New York)

Hemlock Falls (South Mountain Reservation, New........

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