Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail: the region’s next great destination
Parks & Trails New York Newsletter | February 11, 2026
Imagine a crisp autumn morning in the Hudson Valley. Instead of navigating the narrow, white-knuckled shoulders of Route 9D or searching for an elusive parking spot near a crowded trailhead, you step off a Metro-North train and onto a wide, sweeping boardwalk that hovers just above the water’s edge. To your left, the majestic Hudson River ripples against the shore; to your right, the dramatic granite face of Breakneck Ridge rises toward the sky. This is the promise of the Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail (HHFT).
The HHFT is a world-class, 7.5-mile linear park currently coming to life between the Village of Cold Spring and the City of Beacon. As we move through early 2026, this decades-long vision is no longer just a set of beautiful renderings; it is a project in active motion, reshaping how we interact with one of the most iconic landscapes in America.
Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail to Aid Cold Spring and Surroundings
Mid-Hudson News | February 10, 2026
Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail, Inc. (HHFT) announced its pledge of $450,000 in matching funds to the Village of Cold Spring and the Town of Philipstown following the release of the SEQR Findings Statement for the Fjord Trail. The funds will be put towards the completion of the Fair Street sidewalk in Cold Spring, extending the existing sidewalk on Fair Street from Mayor’s Park to Little Stony Point. and plans to start Fjord Trail construction north to Beacon.
“HHFT is pleased to support the Town of Philipstown and the Village of Cold Spring to complete the sidewalks on Fair Street,” said HHFT Executive Director Amy Kacala. “A continuous sidewalk along Fair Street is a meaningful first step in our larger effort to create safe pedestrian connections from the Village of Cold Spring through the Hudson Highlands State Park Preserve and all the way to Beacon.”
One of New York’s Most Popular Hiking Destinations Is Getting an Eco Transformation
Nice News | May 28, 2025
The Breakneck Ridge Trail is one of the most popular day hikes in not just New York state but the entire country — the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference estimated in 2018 that the destination receives around 100,000 visitors each year. That’s partially thanks to its proximity to the Big Apple: It takes under 90 minutes to ride the train north from Manhattan’s Grand Central Terminal to the Breakneck Ridge station.
But all that traffic, as well as compounding environmental factors like invasive species and poor stormwater management, have taken a toll on the trail and its surroundings in the Hudson Highlands region. “One of the challenges is that, in many ways, the landscape — particularly the Breakneck landscape — is being ‘loved to death,’” Gena Wirth told Nice News.
Breakneck Ridge Trailhead to Close for Two-Year Period
Hudson Valley Magazine | April 4, 2025
As HHFT begins its next phase of construction, the Breakneck Ridge trailhead will consequently close for a two-year period beginning on April 21 of this year.
Along with the popular Hudson Valley trail, other area trails and the adjacent Breakneck Ridge Metro-North Station will also close this spring as a part of the construction of HHFT’s Breakneck connector and bridge project in Hudson Highlands State Park Preserve. The public will still be able to hike the rock scramble and upper overlook at Breakneck Ridge through April 20.
“This is the start of a transformational project that will ensure access to Hudson Highlands State Park Preserve for people of all abilities and recreational interests. At the same time, it will help better manage the increased tourism the region has been experiencing while helping to restore the natural ecosystem of the Hudson Highlands. It’s truly a resilience project in every sense of the term,” says HHFT executive director Amy Kacala.
Beacon to Fjord Trail: ‘Enthusiastic’ Support
Highlands Current | February 21, 2025
Beacon Mayor Lee Kyriacou was the first elected official to speak when the state Department of Environmental Conservation held two virtual hearings last month on the Draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement (DGEIS) for the proposed Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail.
The hearings came after the state parks department’s release in December of its 709-page review of Scenic Hudson’s plans to construct a 7.5-mile linear park connecting Beacon and Cold Spring. Ninety people spoke during the hearings; written comments are being accepted until March 4.
Fjord Trail State Report Released
The Highlands Current | December 13, 2024
After several years of work, the state parks department on Dec. 4 released a draft of its environmental review of the proposed Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail.
The 709-page Draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement considers the effects the proposed trail could have on the Highlands in 14 areas, including land use, emergency services, traffic and transportation, biological resources and community character.
It also lists suggested mitigation efforts for HHFT to receive permits for the project, such as limiting construction in certain areas to specific times of year to avoid disturbing threatened and endangered wildlife, and replacing invasive species with native plants.
[DGEIS] Environmental review process begins on Fjord Trail
Mid-Hudson News | December 5, 2024
The 60-day public comment period for the environmental review of a new 7.5-mile linear park connecting trailheads from Beacon to Cold Spring, including popular Breakneck Ridge, began on Wednesday.
The proposed Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail, a public private partnership between Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail, Inc., the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, Metro-North Railroad, and the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, would ensure greater accessibility to Hudson Highlands State Park for all people, preserve and protect the landscape’s ecological resilience, provide enhanced safety for hikers who currently walk a dangerous stretch of state highway to access trails, and better manage regional tourism that has strained local municipalities. Pending environmental review, the linear park would be completed by 2032.
Fjord Trail Data Committee Issues [Consensus Memo on] Report
The Highlands Current | October 18, 2024
After 14 months of work, the Visitation Data Committee, an independent group representing Philipstown, Beacon and Fishkill, has approved a report for the Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail. The committee, created by HHFT to review its traffic and pedestrian data and projections for the proposed 7.5-mile linear park between Long Dock Park in Beacon and Dockside Park in Cold Spring, met for the first time in August 2023 at Little Stony Point.
The 11-member committee selected and worked with BFJ Planning to examine trends in visitation throughout Hudson Highlands State Park Preserve — which includes Breakneck Ridge, Mount Beacon, Denning’s Point, Little Stony Point and Bull Hill — to project how the Fjord Trail might affect visitation. It includes representatives from Cold Spring, Nelsonville, Philipstown, Beacon and the Town of Fishkill.
Poll Finds 87% Support for Fjord Trail
The Highlands Current | June 28, 2024
The Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail (HHFT) says that a poll it commissioned found that 87 percent of respondents who had heard of the proposed 7.5-mile linear park between Cold Spring and Beacon expressed some or strong support for it. Nearly 90 percent said they had a somewhat or very positive view of the project.
Greenways and multiuse trails create paths for people
Saving Land magazine | Summer 2024
Greenways used to be the realm of parks and rec departments or other municipal agencies. But nationwide, land trusts are becoming more and more involved in greenways and multiuse trails. And not just as amenities for the few, but as essential infrastructure for connecting communities. A greenway is a linear belt of land preserved for recreation and conservation. Within the greenway, there’s a trail with nodes that connect to schools, shopping, housing, hospitals, parking, metro stops or other trails. Greenways can be urban or rural, providing multiuse paths for people to recreate and offering conservation benefits, such as trees for shade that reduce the urban heat island effect and plantings to absorb storm runoff and improve climate resiliency.
State pushes public comment period for Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail to early fall
Mid-Hudson News | June 13, 2024
Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail, Inc. (HHFT) says the DGEIS public comment period for the Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail has been shifted by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation to early fall 2024...This timing will better align with the completion of the work of the Visitation Data Committee (VDC) in preparing local municipal boards for their review of the Draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement (DGEIS) during the public comment period.
Commentary: Hudson Highlands project will connect more New Yorkers with nature
Albany Times Union | May 1, 2024
New York has long championed environmental stewardship and safe recreation for all. As spring returns and hiking season commences, visitors to the Hudson Valley will see the first phase of construction for a long-anticipated linear park, known as the Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail, which champions these values. The Fjord Trail project, through a public-private partnership with the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, is not just a trails and conservation initiative; it will make critical improvements to public infrastructure in the Hudson Highlands.
Beacon Mayor Endorses Fjord Trail
The Highlands Current | April 26, 2024
Beacon Mayor Lee Kyriacou and Town of Fishkill Supervisor Ozzy Albra asked this week for increased representation on the Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail’s Visitation Data Committee, an eight-member group tasked with analyzing the projected impacts of the trail...In a statement on Tuesday (April 23), Albra noted that while the committee has only one member from Beacon and one from Fishkill, 80 percent of the proposed trail would run through those communities. He and Kyriacou said their municipalities strongly support the project and called for “completion of an objective analysis of potential impacts” to be reviewed by the full committee.
The Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail Is a Solution-Driven Project
Hudson Valley Magazine | April 30, 2024
It’s no secret that the Hudson Valley is home to many amazing hiking trails, bustling Main Streets, and riverfront parks. Yet, as the area attracts more tourists, regional day trip towns can be overwhelmed by large quantities of visitors, and the question of how to manage visitation comes into play. As a solution, the Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail is a project almost 20 years in the making that is finally being brought to life.
Fjord Trail: Access Would Be Limited if Overrun
The Highlands Current | April 12, 2024
Officials from the Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail on April 3 expressed a willingness to limit access to its planned Cold Spring-to-Beacon connector if visitors overwhelm it and threaten the environment or local communities.
In a two-hour program, staff and consultants for HHFT, a subsidiary of the Poughkeepsie-based environmental group Scenic Hudson, outlined potential ways to reduce the impacts of the planned 7.5-mile linear park paralleling the Hudson River, Metro-North train tracks and Route 9D, a state highway.
Fjord Trail Releases Survey Results
The Highlands Current | March 27, 2024
The Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail on Tuesday (March 26) released the results of a survey it offered to Cold Spring residents who live along Fair Street and on the river side of the Metro-North tracks.
HHFT said it mailed the 25-question survey to 147 households and received 66 responses, or 45 percent. Two-thirds of those who responded live on Fair Street.
Forty-five percent of respondents expressed a great deal of support for connecting Little Stony Point to Breakneck, and 24 percent moderate support, according to HHFT. Thirty-two percent expressed a great deal of support for connecting Dockside to Little Stony Point, and 23 percent moderate support.
A New Route for Fjord Trail?
The Highlands Current | March 19, 2024
Work is underway on the Breakneck Connector section of the Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail, but the rest of the 7.5-mile route, especially between Cold Spring and Breakneck, remains uncertain.
The HHFT says its preferred route begins at Dockside Park, which is owned by the state and maintained by the village, and largely follows the shoreline north toward Beacon. But there are also at least five “what-if” paths that were considered as part of an ongoing state environmental review and were presented by HHFT March 11 at Dutchess Manor.
Is Trail Connector the Key?
The Highlands Current | March 8, 2024
A coalition of planning and transportation professionals is trying to build momentum and gain funding for a 1-mile walking and biking path that it says would promote safe, non-vehicular access to the outdoors for nearly 125,000 people in Dutchess and Orange counties.
The Regional Connector would run from the Metro-North station in Beacon to the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge. Closing that gap would connect Beacon and Newburgh and potentially unify a growing trails network even further, says Naomi Hersson-Ringskog, an urban planner who lives and works in Newburgh.
The potential for connectivity is significant, although many of the projects it would link are only proposals. The Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail, if implemented as envisioned, would connect Cold Spring and Beacon, making a bike trip from Newburgh or the Beacon waterfront to Main Street in Cold Spring much safer than Route 9D.
Q&A: Kate Orff
The Highlands Current | December 22, 2023
Kate Orff is the founder of SCAPE, the landscape architecture firm involved in the design of the Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail. She is the first landscape architect to receive a MacArthur “Genius” Grant and earlier this year was named by Time as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Fjord Trail Unveils Preliminary Hudson Shoreline Design
The Highlands Current | December 22, 2023
On Sunday (Dec. 17), representatives from the Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail revealed the next iteration of design renderings at an open house held at the Hubbard Lodge on the edge of Fahnestock State Park.
While the dreary deluge from a rainstorm kept nearly everyone away, the renderings offer a glimpse of the plans for the southernmost section of the trail, which would begin at the northern border of Dockside in Cold Spring and end at Breakneck Ridge.
Can the Landscape Change Behavior?
The Highlands Current | October 13, 2023
There are many ways to describe the Breakneck Ridge train station, but “welcoming” isn’t one of them.
Jutting up from the cracked ground is a vast thicket of such invasive plants as tree of heaven and barberry, which not only don’t provide habitat or nutrition for native wildlife but are the preferred homes of spotted lanternflies and black-legged ticks, respectively. Cars roar by, choking the air with exhaust and noise. There’s no shelter from the elements. Concrete blocks and barriers are the only places to sit. And the station is hemmed in with a towering chain-link fence, blocking the view of Storm King, the mountain that led to the formation of Scenic Hudson in 1963 when citizens banded together to stop a power plant from being built into its north face.
