Doggin’ Long Island

Doggin' Long Island: The 30 Best Places To Hike With Your Dog In New York's Playground Buy on Amazon

Hike With Your Dog Adventure Log - Long Island: Places in New York's Playground Where You Won't Be Able to Wipe the Wag off Your Dog's Tail (Hike With Your Dog Adventure Log Books) Buy on Amazon

Have you ever considered how far you walk with your dog? If you walk just 15 minutes a day you will have walked far enough in your dog's lifetime to cross the United States. With all that walking ahead of you, aren't you ready for a new place to take a hike with your dog?

Long Island can be a great place to hike with your dog. Within a short drive your canine adventurer can be
climbing seaside dunes that leave him panting, trotting in rolling pinelands, exploring the estates of America's wealthiest families or circling lakes for miles and never lose sight of the water. DOGGIN' LONG ISLAND explores the region's top trails with your best friend in mind...

Where can your dog see Long Island's largest population of its only native cactus, the prickly pear? (page 83)
Where can your dog visit the site of United States government time travel experiments (maybe)? (page 51)
Where can your dog stand by the grave of August Belmont's Gordon setter, Robin, who he showed in the first Westminster Dog Show in 1877 (page 63)

No Dogs!
Is there any more dispiriting day for a dog owner than driving to a new park and encountering the dreaded "NO DOGS" sign? DOGGIN' LONG ISLAND tells you the parks that don't welcome dogs. Also packed inside these 120 pages are...
...dog-friendly campgrounds
...tips on outfitting your dog for a hike
...tips on practicing low impact hiking with your dog
...great beaches to take your dog on Long Island
...and much more

What makes a great place to take your dog hiking? Well, how about a paw-friendly surface to trot on? Grass and sandy soil are a lot more appealing than asphalt and rocks. A variety of hikes is always good - long ones for athletic dogs and short ones for the less adventurous canine. Dogs always enjoy a refreshing place to swim as well. For dog-friendly parks our guides describe the trail options for your dog, evaluate park traffic from other users, tell you whether you will need a guide dog to find your way around and, of course, tell you how to get to the park.

While walking the dog around Long Island, we bring along generous helpings of local history, botany, geology, architecture and more. So what are you waiting for? Your dog will want to hike to the highest point on Long Island (page 55), visit the first "Dark Sky" park on Long Island (page 45), hike through the island's oldes white pine plantation (page 53), see one of the world's rarest wildflowers, the sand plain gerardia (page 41)...

THE BEST OF THE BEST

BEST ONE-HOUR WORKOUT FOR YOUR DOG
Laurel Valley County Park (Noyack)
A sporty loop takes your dog in and out of kettle depressions and across ridges for almost three miles.

BEST PLACE FOR YOUR DOG (any dog) TO SWIM
Wades Beach (Shelter Island)
The sandy shore on the south side of the island is almost lake-like and the sandy bottom continues out far into the water.

BEST PLACE FOR YOUR DOG (athletic dog) TO SWIM
Napeague State Park (Promised Land)
The waves come fast and furious on the Hampton beaches and this one is no exception.

PRETTIEST HIKE FOR YOUR DOG
Prosser Pines County Park (Middle Island)
The only attraction here is Long Island’s oldest grove of white pines but that is enough to enthrall your dog during his adventure here.

BEST HIKE TO VIEWS WITH YOUR DOG
Shadmoor State Park (Montauk)
You won’t see anything but the sky above on this hike through dense beach heather but in short time your dog will be hiking on open bluffs above the Atlantic Ocean.

BEST BEACH TO HIKE WITH YOUR DOG
Fire Island National Seashore (Shirley)
The Otis Pike Wilderness Area opens to your dog after Labor Day for seven miles of hiking on the wide, sand beach and behind the dunes.

BEST HALF-HOUR HIKE WITH YOUR DOG
Walking Dunes, Hither Hills State Park (East Hampton)
This 3/4-mile loop travels over and around 80-foot high sand dunes, moving past ghost forests buried in the shifting sands.

MOST HISTORIC HIKE WITH YOUR DOG
Camp Hero State Park (Montauk)
From the Revolutionary War, when it was used as an artillery practice range, through the Cold War Camp Hero has hosted the United States military.

BEST PLACE TO CIRCLE A LAKE WITH YOUR DOG
Belmont Lake State Park (Babylon)
The immortal racehorse Man O’ War may have loped on the easy route around the park’s centerpiece lake.

BEST PLACE TO LOSE YOURSELF IN THE WOODS WITH YOUR DOG
Edgewood Oak Brush Plains Preserve (Deer Park)
No need to limit yourself to a pre-determined route on a hike with your dog around the grounds of a former hospital.

BEST PLACE TO HIKE AND SEE OTHER DOGS
Gardiner County Park (West Bay Shore)
There is no reason to come to this park with a maze of short trails on the Great south Bay without a dog. Not many do.