If you had been to the Long Dock Park by the Hudson river in Beacon, you’ll probably be there many times in every season of the year. I don’t know why, but if you look at the river, you feel like standing in the center of the world, quiet, peaceful, and somewhat a bit touching by the scenery of the Hudson Valley.

Honestly, my preference tends to be for walking around nearby Pete & Toshi Seeger Park. It’s the underdog to Long Dock, and an echo, perhaps, of a grittier Beacon, one that was known as much if not more for its place as a refuge for people engaged in “the fight” as a respite and playground for trainfuls of well-situated travelers who come for shopping and views.

At Pete & Toshi, we wander ancient understory on lawns that are well cropped but not unnatural. We watch our steps for goose poop and rest on rip rap, watching currents run and reverse. Everyday the tide pushes the river back, all the way up to the federal dam in Troy, and fishes spin in the mix, and g-d help anyone who ends up in the water unintended.

Beacon’s story is a unique mix of commerce and communism, innovation and activism. The river is wild and wide, and Newburgh fades up the hill across it, around the bluff, and into the distance. Storm King leans over, a shoulder with Breakneck, a split body between which the river is thin and quiet as a ribbon in the wind.

Long Dock is a highly refined landscape of well manicured pathways, and well pruned wildflowers. They mow natives at the end of every season, surely for purposeful horticultural reasons. Trees lean back from the turbid river, bending over the long path to Denning’s Point, where the collar comes off and the wilderness picks up.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Beacon, and Long Dock. Look at how beautiful it can be…

But I walk out to the tip of Pete & Toshi remembering protest songs at the long gone Clearwater Festival, and Pete’s testimony under oath to congress, and the fight… the fight! Anyone who comes here should know that this is our heritage: “Which side are you on?”

It was a nice visit to Long Dock, it’s a wonderful place to go for a walk, or watch the sunset, or wander in the rocks and the weeds… but remember Toshi & Pete, and think about what it means to get free.

Such a dreamy park! We visited when it was almost time for sunset, and there was this beautiful mist hanging above the river and it just looked so gorgeous. There is a parking lot right outside and we easily got a spot. There are multiple paths around the park leading to different areas, all of them along the Hudson River. Overall the park is definitely worth a visit and it completed our memorable visit to the beautiful city of Beacon.

Beautiful place to picnic, family friendly great place to view sunset

Great views, not very crowded, especially gorgeous in the summer.