We love Bowdoin Park for so many reasons. The park is so spacious with so many nooks and crannies…read morethat there's something for everyone. Multi use sports fields, swing sets, toddler play areas, great spaces for picnicking, and for my purpose, Dog exploring. My black lab mix has to sniff frequently to feel gratification. So our trips to Bowden Park happened roughly once a week so he can read all the "Social PEEdia.". Regardless of what time or day it is, you'll always find people enjoying the trail, walk, quiet, picnic, entertaining children, or using one of the several permanent gazebo structures to host a celebration. I think it's still possible to rent out the lodge for overnight stays and private parties. I would defer to them to confirm that There's a little chapel on site and I've never been inside, but it looks absolutely adorable. This could be a great place for a casual country wedding celebration and picnic in place of those high priced extravagant weddings. This is our third visit this month and I have failed to report in two other times. If you have a dog, this is a great place to visit but make sure you bring your 6 foot leash. It is mandatory Like all parks in the county, the park closes at dusk. Be respectful and carry your trash out with you if you can't find a receptacle of which there are many. And by all means, clean up after your pet and your children. Keep the Park beautiful for everyone. The location of Bowden Park is on the edges of the Hudson River. You can't see the river from everywhere but you know it's there parallel to the train path to New York City and up to Poughkeepsie

Bowdoin Park is one of those parks where "I wish I discovered this place many years back." Driving…read morein leads to many things to do, a playground for the kids, and two big fields with one providing a baseball and soccer field. Picnic tables are scattered throughout the park along with pavilions. The pavilions are in great shape and in use. Bathrooms are provided in the main building. Also, be on the lookout for upcoming mini concerts, which are performed on the hilly field just as you enter. There are a total of six trails that are assigned a color, starting at one point and ending at a different location (with some reconnecting with the same path), except the blue trail, which does a loop, and also the Wappingers Greenway Trail, which passes through. I've enjoyed exploring, with decent views and scenery. The intersections of different paths need to be marked clearly, and instead, the sign is further in. Reading the map is key to not getting lost, which Bowdoin Park provides. There's a lot to offer for all ages, and it's a destination anyone won't regret along the Hudson River with a touch of nature.

Went here for the first time and it was gorgeous! Parking is $10 flat fee, I went on a week day so…read moreit wasn't busy at all. The hiking trail was a bit tricky to find because they don't have any signs telling you where to go, but once I figured that out then it was easy! The hiking trail itself was nice, amazing views once you're up top and waterfalls were gorgeous! Great place for a picnic or to spend time with family!

What a stunning beautiful park , so clean with plenty of parking , picnic table and a beautiful…read morewaterfall-river . It's an amazing place to spend the day on a romantic date or with the family .

Canopus Lake is splendid!…read more It has all the appurtenances of an outdoor oasis. Part of Clarence Fahnestock State Park, it stretches long and windy (shore line of nearly 4 miles around) up Route 301 and is about 100 acres of wetland and forest to explore, with picnic sites, boat ramp, a dock and trails. There are copious amounts of fish (bass, bullhead) in these backed-up reservoirs and unlike the mighty Hudson River; there are no nuisances like ships, dinghys, haulers, traulers.. Canopus Lake is a quiet and calm lake close to both Garrison and the neoned restaurants/bars in the river town of Cold Spring, NY. This area is not as forlorn and uninhabited as say western Massachusetts: it's got some fantastic, taste-bud dazzling dining, gas stations that double as markets, infamous West Point - as well as nifty outdoor exploration venues; like Canopus Lake! Rebel review: 5

Great playground for the kids. Has a great area for sports like soccer or softball playing…read more Bathrooms and ample parking available.

Twin Brooks Park is a very beautiful and well maintained park. It has a nice paved walking/bike…read morepath with flowers and trees that bloom in spring and summer. There are a total of 5 ponds/lakes, two of which people sometimes fish at. There are swings (in very good condition) and a playground that is suitable for kids around age 4-13. In the winter Twin Brooks has easily the best sledding hill in a 10 mile radius. It's such a good sledding hill that it can actually be dangerous due to the sheer distance. With most sleds you don't have to worry but with high quality inner tubes you can generate a lot of speed. Sledding not your thing? No problem! There is also an extensive network of mountain biking/hiking trails in the woods to the north of the park. In fact you can mountain bike or hike from Beach Memorial Park all the way to Twin Brooks! Twin Brooks is beautiful in all 4 seasons, just don't forget your Trumbull parking pass. If you don't have one there is street parking on Franklin Street.

Candlewood Lake is the largest lake in Connecticut. It spans 5,420 acres, 11 miles long, 2 miles…read morewide, 65 miles of shoreline, depth up to 90 feet, and has 12 islands. It also borders five towns: Danbury, New Milford, Brookfield, Sherman,and New Fairfield. This is a very popular place for all kinds of water sports, and bass and trout fishing. There are two state boat launches and many marinas for docking. The shoreline has so many magnificent homes, and don't be surprised if you see a seaplane landing or taking off on the lake. This lake usually gets very busy on the weekends in the summer.

Have not been on the lake for quite a while and decided to give it a shot. Ok, so it was a really…read morenice Sunday and I know it will be busy, and my expectations were that it would be busy. Launch at Lattin's Cove was solid jammed and the number of rude idiots just simply ASTOUNDING. No courtesy for other boaters/pwc's whatsoever. Couple of morons were camped out on the dock and screwed up everyone else's put in/take out routine. No surprise to see the NJ and NY registrations on their PWCs. While coming back in, 3 idiots on PWC's came screaming past us in the no wake zone to "beat" us to the ramp, then they sat there blocking one side of the launch. One fellow asked nicely if they could move over just a bit so he could launch his pwc and he got snapped at by one of the tattoo queens... "we're leaving in a couple of minutes". Definitely will not go back here on a weekend anytime soon. Very sad because it never used to be like this.

The falls are truly incredible…read more The trail down to the bottom of the falls, is a bit tricky. But so incredibly worth it. I would suggest not to believe the sign saying 189 steps.... it is definitely more! Take drinking water because you'll need that for sure. We went back in August and the heat was definitely there. The parking lot was pretty packed but throughout the trails people were pretty evenly spaced out. Not so much at the base of the falls themselves but there was still plenty of room to move around freely.

One of the tallest waterfall in NY, similar height to Taughannock Falls. Physical requirement is…read moredifferent tho, Kaaterskill Falls has about 500foot of elevation change and a lot of slippery stone steps at the end, if you come here when the weather is still cold. Parking: most people park at the Laurel-House Road parking area, because it is the closest. Or you can park at Mountain Top Historical Society, the old train station, which an extra mile. Starting from the old railroad station is nice, you can still see some old tracks on the ground. Walk to the overlook is fairly easy, once you get to the start point of Lower falls junction, it is where you need to be prepared. I recommend hiking shoe, especially in colder months where the ground is wet and iced. When you reach to the stone steps, they can get slippery. I am surprised no one fell in late March. Half of the steps were cover in ice and people were wearing regular sneakers. Once you reach the base of the two tier falls, the view is tremendous. If water levels are high, you can feel the energy of the water. There is a lot of spray from the falls when you get close. There is short trail to the middle tier pool. It was iced up during winter, spikes will definitely be useful. The end was amazing too. So close to the lead of the waterfall. You can keep going and follow Escarpment trail and follow the edge of the valley. There is monument for fireman Frank Layman who died during firefighting in 1900, at his monument, you can see route 23A bend around mountain. And if you keep going, there are a couple viewpoint to overlook the valley. Nice break points to enjoy the view and rest your legs.

Seeing pictures is one thing, but the hike is a whole another story. Let's just say a lot of ups…read moreand downs and rocks in the way; but that's not all. Getting to the peak has loads of great views. Some places on the trail is pretty unclear where to go, as we ended going off the trail. It took a bit to notice, and I was asking to my friend, "where's the red marker?" 15 minutes in (see photo). We ended up turning around. Silly us. Just keep an eye out for it on the tree barks. If someone's not in best shape, it's good to stop once in awhile to catch a breath. Go slow in areas where it's very steep. On a side note, *Definitely bring water bottles.* We never got to the end of the trail, but that will be for another trip.

So the parking lot is kind of small, there's room for just a handful of cars. Next, no maps or…read moreinformational posts were available and one of the trails had no tree markers. It was very confusing and we were unsure where we would end up. We got to a nice overlook and stayed there for a while then turned back. We didn't finish the whole trail because we didn't even know where to go. It took us 3 hrs roundtrip to the mountain overlook and back to the parking lot. Very uphill and rocky trails and slippery with all the leaves. Definitely not a walk in the park

Great trail maintenance, accurate mapping, crystal clear water - I was impressed. We will return.read more

I made my Gunks debut yesterday and was pretty impressed despite the very meh weather situation…read more This is about 90 minutes from my HQ so probably right at the limit of a convenient day hike, and somehow I've never really been in this area before beyond travelling past it going up and down the NY Thruway. Definitely returning when the sun is actually out. I did the 8.7-mile Castle Point hike (my gut says it wasn't QUITE that long, but I don't want to argue with my book) from the Awosting parking lot down the Mossy Glen Trail (yellow blazes), making a left onto and up Blueberry Run (blue) to Castle Point itself, and then went basically straight down the cliff on the Scenic Trail (lavenderish and formerly light blue), down the Rainbow Falls Trail (orange) and finally making a right on the Lower Awosting Carriageway back to the parking lot. Wasn't crazy about the $10 fee to park - nature shouldn't cost anything - but it is what it is. It's really a shame the weather was crappy because I could tell that viewpoint at Castle Point is legit - it's sprawling and you can see for miles in almost every direction. That's a very cool spot and easily the highlight of the hike. There are some interesting viewpoints throughout the rest of the adventure, but I'd say they're primarily of rock formations and water features, which have their selling points but nothing beats a view at the top. I'm in decent hiking shape right now, and this was just not particularly challenging for me. The only part where I was even a little out of breath (and it was humid, so grain of salt in that regard) was on Blueberry Run, which was a pretty steady incline up, but really not hardcore at all from my perspective. The drop down from Castle Point on the Scenic Trail IS a little tricky and you really want to spend some time there figuring out where your foot is going to go next. Compared to other parks in the tristate area, this one definitely has more hazards, cliffs you could potentially fall down, etc. But same token, it has a ton of these completely flat carriageways as well. It rained while I was on the Rainbow Falls trail and I DID slip/fall on some of the rocks at one point, but that's on me since I willingly came over here knowing what the forecast was. Wasn't impressed by the Rainbow Falls themselves, and neither were the other hikers who were there at the time. Maybe it was just not an ideal situation for them, but it's been rainy the last few days so unclear when you should take advantage of the optics there. The trail blazes were EXCELLENT, easily some of the best I've ever encountered. Each official trail had an accompanying sign that not only gave you the name of the trail, but a map of the nearby area, the grade profile so you can see what types of inclines/declines you'll experience on that trail and tons of basic facts. Really well done stuff. The bathroom situation was pretty good as well, with ample restroom options in the parking lot albeit without plumbing. You get what you get, but I'll take a clean bathroom situation in a heartbeat, regardless. Okay wildlife sightings. The rain I'm sure kept some of the good quality shizzle away, but I got a cool shot of a black vulture and saw an edgy newt. Worth the trek and will return for further investigation shortly.