Suggested Running Routes

What are some of the best routes?

Follow links below to see the trailhead where you can start your run. You’ll get a free trail map when you arrive.

KEY:
Easy     Moderate     Strenuous

A gentle run under craggy cliffs...
 

The route: Get a trail map and ask staff for directions to Trapps Bridge. Head north on Undercliff Road (a carriage road). Come to junction of Overcliff Road after 2 miles and follow Overcliff Road back to your starting point.

Cool down on your way to the falls...

(Moderate, 7.5 miles) Run a long, fairly flat, carriage road route, which takes you through a verdant hemlock grove -- cool even on hot days! The route also passes Awosting Falls, an awesome, 80-foot-high waterfall.

Access: Start at the West Trapps Trailhead or Visitor Center

The route: Get a trail map and ask staff for directions to Trapps Bridge and head south on Trapps Road (a carriage road). Cross the paved Lyons Road carefully and continue on Trapps Road to the Minnewaska State Park Preserve border, where the road becomes Awosting Carriageway. Follow this to the Awosting Falls, making sure to stop and enjoy the falls before you head back to your starting point by the same route.

Take the uphill challenge...

  (Strenuous, 9.25 miles) Run a long, hilly route through an oak forest past the white cliffs of Bonticou to the summit of Guyot Hill on carriage roads and on fairly rough, cross-country, single-track trails. This run covers some of the route for the Preserve’s annual Pfalz Point Trail Challenge Fundraising Run.

Access: Spring Farm Trailhead

The route: Start at the Spring Farm Trailhead, get a trail map, and head out on Spring Farm Road. (Note that this carriage road makes a definite, uphill turn to the right.) Travel uphill about two miles and make a left on Bonticou Road. Pass Bonticou Crag and follow signs for Guyot Hill at the intersection of Bonticou Road, Cedar Drive, and Guyot Hill Road.

Go left at the first intersection, then right at the next 3 intersections. This section will take you in a loop up and over Guyot Hill, with great views of Bonticou Crag.

When you get back to the intersection of Bonticou Road, Cedar Drive, and Guyot Hill Road, you are about 5 miles into your run. Get on Cedar Drive and head downhill, staying on Cedar Drive until you see signs for Cedar Drive Loop. Bear right on Cedar Drive Loop and look for the "Ski Loop" sign on your right.

Take the Ski Loop until it forks, bear right, and follow this to Farm Road where you go left. Farm Road takes you through the fields around Spring Farm and intersects with Spring Farm Road. A right on Spring Farm Road takes you back to the trailhead.