5.4 miles | 909 ft gain | Difficulty: Easy | Rating ★★★

It’s FALL! No other season even comes close. And it’s not just because it’s my birthday season. Crisp evenings, chilly mornings, ideal hiking weather, apples, cider, fire colors, leaf peeps, Halloween, oh my! What’s not to love?! While we didn’t get to actually hike on the first day of fall, it’s first Saturday brought ideal conditions to explore the Anthony Wayne Recreation Area, which has been closed for over a year while acting as a covid testing site.

Sometimes parking can be a struggle. Not here. When we pulled off Route 9 into the lot…it was the size of multiple football fields with only a few cars parked. We first saw the lot a few years ago when we climbed Bald Mountain in Bear Mountain park. At the top of our climb we were rewarded with a vast…parking lot. We first thought it was a park and ride, but no, just a lot. And some Googling shed no light on its history or vacancy.

From the lot we headed clockwise into the woods, first on a wide bike path, then cutting across to a trail. We climbed steadily, coming away from the trees with views of yes, the parking lot, and mountains in the distance. At one point we got a great view of Bear Mountain straight ahead.

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We made our way to West Mountain, that was wooded, but looked like a great camp site with a couple of fire pits, but no views. There was nothing stunning about this hike, but a beautiful forest walk and perfect fall day.

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