A short loop in the Gunks with potential for a waterfall.

The Shawangunk Mountains or the Shawangunk Ridge is long – 47 miles long. It extends from northern New Jersey to the Catskills and is a “continuation of” (I would interpret that as “not technically part of” but close enough to give more context—please feel free to correct me if wrong) the Appalachian Mountains.

Yet most people would probably associate “the Shawangunks”—or “Shomgum” as it’s more properly pronounced by locals—with just a small portion of it enclosed by and around the Shawangunk Ridge State Forest straddling two counties of New York State, Sullivan and Ulster. Anywhere else you go in the range of mountains it would likely be called by other names.

Height-wise, it’s not very high. Maximum elevation reaches only 2,289 feet at what is called “Sam’s Point”, diminutive when compared to mountains out west that climb to 14,000 feet and more, but typical of the east where the highest peak stands at 6,000+ feet in North Carolina.

I mention all this to hopefully satisfy any curiosities you might have as to the types of trails and hikes one can do in the region, which I say would be my mission statement for filming and sharing my first-person videos of my hikes in the region.

Thank you for watching. In this video I hike the Old Mountain Road – Yellow Trail Loop in “the Gunks”—a shorter moniker used by locals—where I gain an elevation of 299 feet along a 1.4-mile loop.