Taconic State Park (Brace Mountain)
Dutchess County, NY

Directions:

NY 22 north through Millerton for 5.5 miles; turn right onto Whitehouse Crossing Road; left on Dutchess County 63/Boston Corners Road; drive .25 of a mile and turn right onto Deer Run; left onto Quarry Drive.

Geology:

Brace Mountain is part of the South Taconic Mountains. It is a klippe, like Stissing Mountain, slid into its position some 450- million years ago during the Taconic Orogeny. The rock is a Cambrian green-blue metamorphic mixture of schist and phyllite. There is a cairn on the peak top.

Brace Mountain is the divide between the Hudson River and Housatonic River watersheds.

View:
North: Taconic Hills
East: Taconic Hills; Mount Frissell
South:
West: Harlem Valley; Stissing Mountain; Catskills

History:

2000 (November)  --  OPRHP acquired 327 acres of the Martineau Property as an addition to Taconic State Park. The property runs along the Connecticut border at the top of the Taconic Ridge.  From the floor of the Harlem Valley up to the second highest elevation in Dutchess County, South Brace Mountain, the new land filled a substantial gap in the Taconic State Park.

Habitats:

acidic crest top

Trails:

white-blazed South Taconic Trail. The climb up is a steep one!

PLANT LIST:

Trees:
Acer pensylvanicum (striped maple)
Betula papyrifera (white birch)
Pinus rigida (pitch pine)
Quercus prinus (chestnut oak) stunted
Quercus rubra (red oak)
Tsuga canadensis (eastern hemlock)

Shrubs:
Kalmia latifolia (mountain laurel)
Quercus ilicifolia (scrub oak)
Vaccinium sp. (low bush blueberry)

Herbs:
Arctostaphylos uva-ursi (bearberry)
Potentilla tridentata (three-toothed cinquefoil)

Ferns and Fern Allies:
Lycopodium lucidulum (shining club moss)