Trail Description: Bull Hill (Mt Taurus) is a loop trail that offers amazing views of the Hudson River and surrounding mountains in the Hudson Highlands such as Storm King and Breakneck Ridge.
Trail Info:
Where: Cold Spring, NY Distance: 5.4m (3-4 hours) Difficulty: Moderate to Difficult Trail Type: Loop Features: Views, Mountains, Valley, River, Ruins
How to get there:
The trailhead is north of Cold Spring village along Route 9D by about a mile. The parking is shared with Little Stony Point. The location you may see searching on google map will be the Washburn Trail, which is where the hike begins.
Click here for parking lot coordinates
Hiking Tips
There are multiple trails, can choose short or long route.
Stick to a loop trail and connecting to other trails to get back. The terrain is steep going up, probably not fun going down…unless that is your thing!
Parking lot is small, fills up very quick on weekends!
The Hike
Starting at the parking area, you have a decision. How long do you want to hike? To be completely honest, my intention was to take the short route but I ended up hiking about the same as the full loop somehow. So, this is the short loop with a little twist. To begin, start trekking on the right to the white marked trail, the Washburn Trail.
The trail follows through the woods along a road at first with a gradual incline. This will lead to an open area with a sign to take a sharp right to continue on the trail.
This is a well marked trail and there are many signs for all the viewpoints.
The first few miles are pretty steep before you reach some viewpoints.
The first viewpoint will be a view of the Hudson River with Breakneck & Storm King Mountain in the background. Shortly after, the second viewpoint provides views of Cold Spring & West Point in the distance.
Continue along the white trail markers as the trail incline increases. There will be more views to take in. Eventually, the trail reaches an intersection. The short loop will be to your left following the yellow marker and the full loop is straight ahead following the white trail. I wanted to reach the summit view of Mt Taurus so I went straight here. Continue on this trail and you will notice some rocks with the word “View” painted with arrows pointing up. This will lead to the astonishing views from Bull Hill (Mt Taurus).
From here, I retraced my steps back down to the intersection and hopped on the yellow marked trail (Short Loop). You could continue on the long loop as well.
Once on the yellow marked trail, there continues to be awesome views such a clear shot of Storm King Mountain.
Follow the yellow marked trail until reaching signage for the red marked trail to connect to. There will be a stream to your right and a bridge to pass. Follow that and the blue marked trail will connect quickly and this will lead you all the way to the parking lot. There will be gradual decline in switchbacks and will become flat pavement for the last mile or so. Along the blue trail, the ruins of the Cornish Estate can be explored as well but this was a very crowded day so I decided to skip that.
This is a fun hike with so many viewpoints and exploration. It is certainly not easy with a lot of steep inclines the first few miles but the views are nonstop you won’t even notice the difficulty. This is definitely one of the better marked trails and there are many trail options to make the hike your own. Fantastic day hike!
HIKING FOR DONUTS
Hi, I’m Mark. I live in Connecticut. I take new trips every chance I get. A good trip has a great hike, great food, and something fun to do. My goal is to search out new trips and share them to inspire others to try something new and exciting.
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