[Journal entry for April 7, 2012; Hook Mountain north of Landing Road] Dallas and I walked the Long Path, north of Landing Road, along the top of the Hudson Palisade cliffs. We sighted a group of five deer as we began. We passed a cemetary on the hillside, a small square plot enclosed by a wrought-iron fence. The gravestone inside dates from the mid-1800's. The Long Path (blazed in blue) follows the cliff edge, but good view are infrequent, owing to the dense trees. Only atop two old quarries are the views really superb. We stood at each for a few minutes, looking out over the Hudson River and Croton Point on its eastern shore. The Long Path is quite hilly, and descends several times to low points that are nevertheless quite high above river level. We hoped to encounter trails leading east, down to the bicycle path att river level, but found none. We did, however, pass several side trails leading west. One led to the golf course at the north end of Rockland Lake State Park. We had lunch at a high point, in a pleasant grassy meadow surrounded with trees. Unfortunately, the view northward to High Tor was partially obscured by the trees. We walked further north, to the next local high, hoping for a better view, but found none. We turned back when we had gone a total of about a mile and a half, roughly half the distance to High Tor. We spent time looking at wildflowers on the way back. Many were blooming. We sighted several more deer and numerous turkey vultures. The latter were soaring just off the cliff edge. We also encountered a large patch of Prickly Pear cactus, growing amid rocks. This plant is fairly common along the Hudson Palisades, especially along the cliff edge. We also passed several large glacial eratic boulders of sandstone and gneiss. About three hours.