[Journal entry for November 26, 2011; Storm King]. I took a long afternoon hike on Storm King Mountain, a prominent hill on the west bank of the Hudson River. I parked just south of the State Park, by an overlook on Route 9W that looks eastward across a valley between Storm King and Crows Nest mountains. The view is very nice, for one can see across the Hudson River to Mt Taurus (Bull Hill). Also visible is an imposing cliff face on Storm King – a reminder that the hike was likely to be strenuous. I walked the road cut along Route 9W for a while, in order to get a sense of the geology. Like all of the surrounding Highlands, Storm King is composes of a gneiss. However, the details are very complicated. In addition to the gneiss, both granites and mafic dikes are exposed, both showing signs of high-grade metamorphism. Two faults cut across the outcrop. The smaller one is the most distinct and has bright green slickenslides. The larger one is more of a broad zone of rubble than a distinct feature. I then took a hiking trail, blazed in orange, which headed steeply uphill. I had taken with me a hiking map, but it was clearly out of date, for this trail wasn’t marked on it. The way was steep and rocky. It passed by the base of the large cliff that I could see from the overlook. The area was full of huge angular stone blocks that had fallen from high up. Some of these were piled together to form small caves. I sat in one for a while. Unfortunately, the floor was very jagged and uncomfortable. The trail wound uphill. It passed over a high spot that afforded a splendid view to Crows Nest and the other hills to the southwest. The trail connected with another, blazed in both blue and yellow, that climbed yet further up the mountain. I found a US Coast and Geodetic benchmark on a rocky knob that I suppose marked the North Peak – a bit of a misnomer, for it’s in the south end of the park. From this vantage I could see that the summit was still quite far to the north, and was separated from me by a valley. The trail, however, hugged the west flank of the mountain, and so avoided the deepest part of the valley. It would around to the north flank, passing several rocky overlooks that had wonderful views of the Hudson River valley to the north. In the foreground, from west to east, was the confluence of Moodna Creek, Plum Point, Bannerman’s Castle on Pollepel Island and Breakneck Ridge. In the distance was the Newburg-Beacon Bridge, and far beyond it, on the horizon, the Catskill Mountains. Several large tree trunks were stranded in the Hudson near the outlet of the Moodna. I suppose that the force of Hurricane Irene flood waters had tore them loose from the banks of the Moodna and deposited them there in the relatively still waters of the Hudson. I spent a half hour or so prowling about the summit area, looking at the various views and searching for the exact summit. I climbed several rocky knobs; perhaps one of them was it. One vantage point looked south east. I could see the overlook on Pitching Point that Dallas and I had hiked to in the spring, and the quarry on Mt Taurus where I had hiked a few weeks ago. I also came across a linear notch in the rock of the summit, six feet high, ten or so wide, and several hundred feet long. I believe that it is structurally controlled, for its northern wall overhangs, as if a weak dipping layer has been eroded away. I then headed back, first retracing my route, but then staying on the blue-yellow blazed trail, and passing by the intersection with the orange-blazed one. It cut diagonally down the west flank of the mountain on a fairly even but steep grade. Quite a lot of work must have been put into this trail, for it is wide and smooth. It terminated near Storm King School, off of Mountain Road. I walked the road back to Route 9W and then hiked back uphill to the overlook where I had parked the car, passing the road cut on the way. About three hours.