I've seen a few inquiries here about 'easy' hikes in the NY area, so I'll share mine from this past weekend. It's a variant of hike #35 in the NY-NJ Trail Conference book, Hike of the Week. Most of my camping trips are designed as s24O, meaning I leave home, complete the trip and return home again within 24 hours, so it is not disruptive to my domestic life. This hike starts at the Tuxedo Metro North RR station, so city dwellers can get here without a car. It's also a parking lot that does not over-crowd compared to other lots serving the park.

The trail head is a short road walk from the RR station into a residential neighborhood and , BAM, there's the trailhead.



It is a steady uphill, rocky, walk to the first viewpoint overlooking Tuxedo...



After about an hour you arrive at Claudius Smith Rock



From there you have a few trails to choose to get you moving toward some nice lakes. I chose to hike toward Sebago, which rewarded me with nice foliage.



My camp for the night. Not pictured, the heavy rain that started at 10p and lasted until 5a!



For people unfamiliar with Harriman:
It's rocky. Annoyingly so. Probably not the place for trail runners, but definitely a place where the hammock pays for itself.
Water can be scarce. Maps show streams but they are often dry. So people tend to route past one of the lakes.
There are two shelter sites, Fingerboard and Bald, that have bear activity. So maybe don't stay there and be careful with your food!
Most of the trails are well-marked. Except where the marker is on a tree that fell over! So redundancy is important. Bring a paper map and something on your phone/GPS.

I made the bone-headed decision to hang my sweaty hiking clothes (it was 76 and humid on Sunday) over my suspension lines, put in earplugs (noisy insect life) and go to sleep because the sky was clear. Only to awaken to heavy rain and saturated clothes! Live and learn.