Everything You Need to Know About Storm King Mountain State Park & Art Center
Storm King Mountain and State Park are located in Cornwall on the Hudson in upstate New York. This is pretty close to Fish Kill/Poughkeepsie and Beacon, NY. It is a great day trip to take from New York City, as it is only about an hour and a half north of NYC. Within this area, there are multiple hikes and an outdoor art center to visit.
The Storm King Art Center is an awesome outdoor art museum. They have about 500 acres of all outdoor art sculptures, statutes, and more. It is a great place to get outside and see amazing art, while also seeing the beautiful Hudson Valley area. The art center is about 10 minutes from the state park.
This article is all about the Storm King Mountain, the Storm King Mountain Trail, the Storm King State Park, the Storm King Art Center, and more.
This article is about Storm King Mountain.
Storm King Mountain:
Storm King Mountain/State Park : Directions
To get to the mountain, you will get on interstate 87 South or North, depending on where you are coming from (From NYC, you will get on North, from Albany, you will get on South). You will take Exit 17 towards Newburgh from 87. Then keep left towards Newburgh, Stewart once you pass through the overhead Easy Pass tunnel. Keep right onto NY-300 towards Newburgh, NY-17K, then in 900 feet take a right onto NY-300 toward NY-17K. In 2.2 take a left onto Little Britain Road, and continue on this road, NY-32 for about 2.7 miles.
After, in 1.7 miles you will take a left onto Quaker Avenue, then in about .4 of a mile take a slight right towards Bear Mountain, then in 6 miles turn right onto NY-218. In 400 feet keep right onto NY-218, in 500 feet take a right onto US-9W North, in 150 feet turn right onto US-9W North again, again in 600 feet turn right onto US-9W North. In 3.1 miles keep right, then your destination will be on your right in 350 feet.
Alright now, to get to the state park, you will follow the exact same directions, only your destination will be closer on your right then Storm King Mountain trailhead will be.
Storm King Art Center : Directions
Alright, so the art center is about 10 minutes away from the state park and mountain. To get to the art center, you again, will get on Interstate 87. You again, will get off at Exit 17 towards Newburgh, again you will want to stay towards Newburgh, Stewart to the overhead Easy Pass tunnel. Then in about 900 feet you will take a right onto NY-300 towards NY-17K. In about 2.2 miles you will take a left onto Little Britain Road, then continue straight onto NY-32 for 2.7 miles. Then, in 1.4 miles you will take a right onto Orrs Mills Road.
In half a mile you will turn left onto Old Pleasant Hill Road, then in .2 of a mile take a left onto Museum Road. After, in half a mile turn left, then in 200 feet you will arrive at the museum. There will be ticket windows as you enter the art center, so I would have your money ready in a place that you can easily access. Because, they will ask you to pay once you get to the windows or show your tickets if you prepaid/booked online.
Storm King Art Center
For the day, costs will vary depending on how many people are in your car. You can find the different prices through this link. You can get tickets in advance through this site as well, just hit the book tickets icon. I think the summer and fall seasons are the best times to visit the art center, particularly in the fall, because of all the different colored leaves.
The art center does offer other programs such as concerts, yoga, moonlight walks, and more, that you can find here. As well as different walking tours throughout the park, which I think are the best way to see the art center. You can find their walking tours here, you can also rent bikes and cycle through the park as well instead of walk.
Some other really cool outdoor art museums are :
- Art Omi, Ghent, NY
- Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton Township, NJ
- LongHouse Reserve, East Hampton, NY
- Griffis Sculpture Park, East Otto, NY (near Buffalo)
- Brunel Sculpture Garden, Catskills, NY
- Old Westbury Gardens, Old Westbury, NY (Long Island)
Storm King Mountain Trail
Okay, there are a couple different ways you can hike this mountain, it just depends on, if you want to only hike Storm King Mountain or if you want to add on some peaks as well. To just hike the Storm King Mountain Loop, you will start from the trailhead listed in the directions paragraph above. It is about 3.6 miles long with a little over 1,000 feet of elevation gain.
Another great peak to add on to Storm King, is North Star. The mileage will double, making the hike about 7.1 miles with an elevation gain of around 2,500ft. Or if you just want to do North Star and Storm King Mountain on their own, on different days, you could do that as well. I did North Star on it’s own one day and I HIGHLY recommend it. I hiked it counterclockwise, which I recommend doing because you get all the best views first and the elevation gain is easier to handle hiking it counterclockwise, than clockwise, in my opinion.
Other Hikes in Storm King State Park
- Cornish Estate Trail, 1.8 miles, easy
- North Point and Pitching Loop, 3.8 miles, moderate
- Bull Hill Short Loop, 4.3 miles, moderate
- Breakneck Ridge, Breakneck Bypass, Wilkinson, 3.2 miles, advanced
- Bull Hill via Washburn, Cornish, 6.4 miles, advanced
- Breakneck Ridge, Notch Trail and Wilkinson Trail, 6.5 miles, advanced
- South Beacon Mountain via Breckneck Ridge, 9 miles, advanced
Also, the closet towns to Storm King State Park are Fishkill, Poughkeepsie, and Beacon. Fishkill and Beacon are about 30 minutes northeast of Storm King, while Poughkeepsie is about 50 minutes north of Storm King. I recommend stopping and eating at one of these towns after your hikes. I recommend eating at the Red Line Diner, in Fishkill, Mill House Brewing Company and Lola’s Cafe in Poughkeepsie, and Max’s on Main, Cafe Amarcord, and Glazed Over Donuts (just for donuts) in Beacon.
And that wraps up everything you need to know about Storm King Mountain, State Park, and Art Center. I hope this article was helpful if you had any questions about the mountain, state park, or art center. Also, I hope it gave you new road trip ideas to take with your family/friends. Thank you so much for reading and take care!
