Mount Beacon via Notch Trail to Wilkinson Memorial Trail

If you want to get to the Beacon fire tower and the old casino site, but you're tired of crowded parking lots and trails, this loop provides an alternative. Start at a small parking area on NY Rte 9D, just south of Dutchess Junction. Take the Notch Trail (blue), which, in a short while, parallels a ravine. From the trail, you can look down (foliage permitting) onto a a waterfall. After about 1.25 miles (just after a sharp right turn), turn left off the Notch Trail on a well-defined old woods road. Stay on this road (passing occasional viewpoints to the west) until it ends at the Casino Trail (red). Turn left, and, in about 100 yards, you'll be at the site of the historic old casino (great views to the west and northwest). Be sure to visit the small red-brick building which houses the engine which used to hoist an incline railway up the steep slope of Mt. Beacon. Retrace your steps and then keep going on the Casino Trail for about 0.8 miles, where you take a right at an obvious intersection with the old route of the Breakneck Ridge Trail. This takes you to the fire tower. After enjoying the incredible 360º view, descend via the newer route of the Breakneck Ridge Trail (white). Where it ends, take a right turn onto the Casino Trail. When the latter ends (although the woods road it's following continues!), take a right on the Wilkinson Trail (yellow). At the point where the Notch Trail (blue) comes in from the left, stay straight, following the Notch Trail (through various twists and turns) back to your starting point.