[Journal entry for November 7, 2014; State Line Lookout, Alpine NJ] I parked at the Lamont Campus and walked Old Route 9W up to the Lookout. The ground is still wet from last night’s rain and droplets are clinging to leaves and twigs. The morning sun is lighting up the fall foliage. Though it’s late in the foliage season, the beech trees are now beautiful amber yellow in color and a surprising number of maples, with their marvelous orange leaves, remain.

The Lookout is an observing area built on a two rock columns that extend out from the edge of the Hudson Palisade Cliffs. The view of the cliffs and of the Hudson River is spectacular. The top third of the cliff is bare vertical rock, but the lower two thirds are a wooded sloping skirt. As I look down, I discover that the trees below me are much closer to their peak than those around me and are extraordinarily beautiful.

I stand on the Lookout for a few minutes, admiring the view and chatting with a couple of birders equipped with cameras with long telephoto lenses. They say that a Grey Ghost (a male Northern Harrier) has flown by earlier in the morning. I stroll around the general area of the Lookout, which includes a picnic area and the State Line Café. The view directly east, across the Hudson Rover, is very interesting, for I can see a thin sliver of Long Island Sound between the hills of Westchester County and Long Island.

I then follow an informal trail north along the cliff edge. I find some very nice view, looking both south and north. The informal trail merges with the Long Path (blazed in blue). It leads to a wide rock ledge, right on the cliff edge, that the locals call Eagle Rock. The view to the north is particularly good from this vantage. Today the air is clear enough for me to see well past the Tappan Zee Bridge, to Hook Mountain in the distance. The Long Path then descends a long set of crude rock stairs into a valley which, though deep, is still well above river level. The trail then turns westward, away from the cliff edge, and crosses the little stream that feeds Peanut Leap Falls. Tall trees, including beech and tulip, grow along the stream. Their yellow leaves glow in the morning sun. Had I stayed on the Long Path, I would have joined Old Route 9W near the entrance to the Lamont Campus. Instead, I took a spur trail that led to the Comer Building, in the central part of the Campus.

About an hour and a quarter.