Hiking Bearpen Mountain, a Catskill 3500 Peak from Heisinger Road

Bearpen Mountain is westernmost of the Catskill 3500 peaks in the Catskill Mountains. Standing tall at 3,587 feet in elevation, the mountain offers several great views of the surrounding region.

While considered by some as a trailless peak, this hike is one of the easiest of the Catskill 3500 peaks thanks to the presence of snowmobile trails on the mountain.

For this hike I began at the trailhead on Heisinger Road in Prattsville, NY and followed the snowmobile trail to the summit of the mountain. There are no official hiking trails on Bearpen, just snowmobile trails that double as hiking trails in the non-snow months.

From Heisinger Road, the red marked snowmobile trail follows a wide open, generally well maintained old roadway on its ascent of Bearpen Mountain. The trail/road makes a series of switchbacks . A few sections are a bit eroded, but not overly difficult to walk. There are also a few muddy sections.

The summit of Bearpen is reached a little over 2.5 miles from Heisinger Road. From there you can walk along the summit ridge to its western edge where there are two good views – one to the southwest and one to the northwest. This is also a great spot to capture the sunset if you don’t mind hiking back down with a headlamp.

This is one of my go-to hikes in the area. The presence of the snowmobile trail/old road, makes this a perfect get out and stretch kind of hike without any technical terrain. There’s plenty of elevation gain for exercise and thanks to the good tread, it can be done as a trail run too.

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