If you’ve lived in Albany for any time at all and never made it out to Beverwyck Park — locals mostly call it Olsen Park, after the family that donated the land — you might be wondering what the draw is. It’s not flashy. There’s no admission gate, no gift shop, no interpretive signs telling you what to feel. What there is: a long, quiet loop trail through mature second-growth forest on Albany’s western edge, a creek that runs cold even in August, and enough solitude on a weekday morning that you might not see another person for an hour.
The park sits off New Scotland Avenue, roughly where Albany starts to thin out toward Slingerlands. Getting there is easy — take New Scotland west past the medical district, hang a right onto Krumkill Road, and look for the small parking pull-off on your left. The trailhead is unmarked but obvious once you spot it. I’d budget two to three hours for the full loop, though you can shorten it considerably if you stick to the main path without any side detours down toward the creek bed.
The trail surface is packed dirt with some root scrambles and one section that gets genuinely muddy after rain — wear actual shoes, not sneakers you care about. The elevation change is modest, nothing that’ll leave you gasping, but enough to make it feel like a real walk rather than a stroll. Fall is the obvious pick for timing: the canopy goes full color in mid-October and the light through the trees in the late afternoon is worth the drive on its own. Spring works well too, before the underbrush fills in and while the creek is running high.
What I find myself returning for is the quiet. It’s genuinely rare in a city this size to get that far from traffic noise, and Beverwyck manages it. You’ll hear the creek, some birds, the wind. That’s about it. The trail isn’t maintained to any sophisticated standard, which is part of the appeal — you get the sense that the city has mostly left it alone, and the forest has taken advantage of that.
Cost is exactly zero. The park is open year-round during daylight hours. Dogs are welcome and you’ll see a few on weekends, though the terrain keeps the crowd self-selecting toward people who actually want to hike rather than those looking for a manicured path. There are no restroom facilities on site, so plan accordingly.
A couple of practical notes: cell service is thin once you’re past the first quarter mile, so download an offline map if you’re the type who gets turned around easily. The loop is well-worn enough that it’s hard to lose, but there are informal side paths that branch off and don’t loop back cleanly. I’d also say go earlier rather than later in the day — the parking pull-off is small, and on a good fall weekend it fills by nine or ten in the morning.
Beverwyck doesn’t compete with Five Rivers or Thacher for amenities or scenery. What it offers instead is proximity and simplicity: a real trail within city limits, free, low-key, and genuinely good for the head. Albany has a few of these quietly functional green spaces, and this is one of the better ones.
