Brace Mountain

Brace Mountain
Mountain from southwest
Highest point
Elevation	2,311 ft (704 m)
Prominence	100 ft (30 m)
Parent peak	Mount Frissell
Listing	New York County High Points 21st
Coordinates	42°02′39″N 73°29′33″W / 42.04417°N 73.49250°W / 42.04417; -73.49250Coordinates: 42°02′39″N 73°29′33″W / 42.04417°N 73.49250°W / 42.04417; -73.49250
Geography
Brace Mountain Location of Brace Mountain within New York
Location	North East, New York and Salisbury, Connecticut
Parent range	Taconic Mountains
Topo map	USGS Ashley Falls, Copake
Geology
Age of rock	Ordovician
Mountain type	Thrust fault; metamorphic rock
Climbing
Easiest route	South Taconic Trail

Brace Mountain is the peak of a ridge in the southern Taconic Mountains, near the tripoint of the U.S. states of New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts. Its 2,311-foot (704 m) main summit is located in New York; it is the highest point in that state's Dutchess County.

The New York and Massachusetts portions of the mountain are within protected areas; Taconic State Park and Mount Washington State Forest respectively. The Connecticut portions are privately owned and conserved.

It is a challenging yet popular hike since its summit, along with 2,304-foot (702 m) subpeak South Brace Mountain, are along the 15.7 mi (25.3 km) South Taconic Trail. Hikers approach the mountain either from the New York side on the west via the South Taconic or from another trail following the Connecticut-Massachusetts state line on the east, a route that allows them to visit both the tristate marker and the highest point in Connecticut, near the summit of Mount Frissell, along the way. Brace's bald summit, marked by a large cairn, offers views in all directions, particularly to the Hudson Valley and Catskills to the west. It has become a popular site for launching hang gliders and paragliders.

Brace is near the south end of an escarpment roughly paralleling the Connecticut and Massachusetts state lines, which runs north-south east of the summit, in North East, New York, at the northeast corner of a narrow northward extension of Dutchess County. To its east is the largely undeveloped, privately owned Riga Plateau, with Riga Lake, Connecticut's highest at 1,749 ft (533 m), to the south in the town of Salisbury, Connecticut. Due east, on the other escarpment, is 2,316-foot (706 m) Bear Mountain, Connecticut's highest summit. There is a 100-foot (30 m) drop into the col between Brace and South Brace, a quarter-mile (250 m) to the south. The ridge continues to the south for several miles past the lower Mount Riga and Thorpe Mountain before ending where U.S. Route 44 crosses the state line.