Is New York State a Dangerous Destination for Novice Hikers?

The weather is finally starting to change, the snow and cold is beginning to disappear. With that, fairweather hikers and those looking to dabble outdoors will go to local hiking trails.

Some hiking trails are easier than others, but is New York State a safe destination for newbie hikers?

Hiking For Beginners. What States Should You Avoid?

Personal Injury law firm, DeMayo Law Firm, recently analyzed the number of hiking trails in each state. With help from the All Trails site, they broke down the numbers of trails that were marked as difficult and then calculated "a percentage of the overall number to reveal the states with the highest ratio of dangerous trails."

To get the highest difficulty rating trails would have to use an "excessive amount of physical exertion" to complete like climbing high altitudes and steep includes, also technical skill is taken into account along with the risk of death or injury.

According to their research, Montana is the most dangerous state to visit if you're a hiking beginner followed by Idaho, Alaska, New Hampshire, and Utah.

Is New York a Difficult Hiking State?

New York State didn't crack the Top 10 of most dangerous hiking trail states, but they did make it in the top 20.

New York came in at number 19 for states with the most dangerous hiking trails. Research shows that New York State is home to 4,281 trails with 671 trails receiving a difficult label.

Dangerous Hikes in and Around The Hudson Valley

Last year around this time, we looked into some of the more dangerous hikes around the Hudson Valley. These are hikes that should be avoided by hikers in the beginning stages of their hiking journey.

Breakneck in Cold Spring and Kaaterskill Falls topped our list as 2 of the more dangerous hikes in the area. When you type in "Breakneck Ridge" into Google the second search suggestion is "Breakneck Ridge deaths."

READ MORE:  Are These 5 of The Most Dangerous Hikes in the Hudson Valley?

Devil's Path also made our list, mainly because it was named one of the 5 most dangerous hikes in the world by Insider.com back in 2017.

The trail hasn't gotten any easier over the years, one hiker left the following review on All Trails:

This trail kicked my a**. Must be in good shape and experienced hiker to complete