[Journal entry for April 14, 2013; Huyler Landing Trail, Palisades Interstate Park, Alpine NJ]. Dallas and I walk a loop of the Hudson Palisades Cliffs, south from Alpine Boat Basin. The afternoon is splendid and springy, with sun and temperatures in the high fifties, Fahrenheit. The southern end of the Boat Basin is still a bit torn up in post-Hurricane Sandy repairs; a large settling pond has been dug in the riverbank, making the connection with the Shore Trail (blazed in white) a little muddy. Except for a small slump near the Basin, the trail itself is in good shape. Myrtle, forsythia and daffodils are blooming, the fiddleheads of ferns are unrolling, many bushes are partly leafed out and the trees are starting to show a faint green of budding. We pass several boulder fields with huge blocks that must have tumbled off the cliffs above. We take a side path where we must crawl between two rocks that make a small tunnel.

We pass a bronze plaque in memorial to John Jordan, a former head of the Palisades Interstate Park. Afterward, I find an old newspaper account of his tragic death on February 5, 1915: “Plunging backward as he lost his foothold in ascending an ice covered path near the top of the Palisades here, [and] was killed instantly when he fell a hundred feet.” I know from my own experience that these cliff-side paths are treacherous in icy winter conditions; crampons are a must!

The Shore Trail descends to river level. We pass quite a few hefty beams and planks that I suppose were torn off of docks during the storm and deposited along the trail. We connect with Huyler’s Landing Road (blazed in red) at a small point of land that I suppose was once the dock. It is a one lane woods road that switches back as forth as it ascends the cliff. We have to search a bit to find the trail as we cross Henry Husdon Drive; its upward continuation is a hundred yards to the south of where we come out onto the road. The climb up is relatively easy, for the trail is smooth and of an even grade, although we once have to crawl beneath a very large Sandy-felled tree. We join the Long Path (blazed in blue) at the top of the cliff, and take it back north.

We come to a wonderful overlook, atop a paved and fenced-in column jutting out from the cliff edge. It is smaller– but more dramatic– than the one at State Line Lookout. We stand for a few minutes looking out over the Hudson River towards the city of Yonkers, on its eastern shore. Several smaller spires of rock jut up next to us. From this vantage, we can see that many of the trees along the cliff edge are in the initial processes of leafing out. The woods have a faint greenish hue.

We walk through Alpine Lookout, a drive-up overlook on the Palisades Interstate Park, and then continue north on the Long Path. I can see the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge, far off to the east. We soon come to the ruins of Cliffdale Manor, built in 1911. Only the lower part of this once large and beautiful mansion remains – but it is substantial, indeed. We pass beneath a tall stone archway into what once must have been the carriage entrance and walk through to the other side. We then wander around the structure, finding a row of marble columns lying horizontally on the ground. Myrtle and forsythia is blooming on the ground around the ruins and a few ancient ornamental trees and bushes still survive in the surrounding woods. Yucca is growing on the cliff-edge.

We continue southward on the Long Path and cross beneath Henry Hudson Drive via a tunnel. I notice that the keystone of the archway is dated 1936. We then connected with the Old Alpine Trail (blazed in orange) and take it back down to the Boat Basin. The sun is getting low in the sky, lighting up the piers of the Boat Basin and the building of Yonkers very vividly.

About three hours.