[Journal entry for February 20, 2014; Peanut Leap Falls, Palisades NY]. The morning is sunny and warm, with temperatures in the high thirties, Fahrenheit. Two feet of snow still lies on the ground, but it’s started to melt. I walk from the Comer Building on the Lamont Campus down to Peanut Leap Falls, taking first an unblazed trail that starts behind the building, then the Long Path (blazed in Blue) and then the Shore Trail (blazed in white). The Shore Trail follows the northern bank of the little stream- I don’t know it’s name - that creates the falls. The rocks in the stream are covered with thick caps of snow, but open water is showing through between some of them. The trail descends slowly at first, following this valley incised into the Hudson Palisades Cliffs, until it reaches the top of the falls, and then descends rapidly to Hudson River level via a series of switchbacks. The trail has been packed down by snowshoers. I am wearing crampons and have no trouble with it. I get my first good look at the falls when I am halfway down. It’s a modest sized waterfall, perhaps a hundred feet high. Much of the falls are covered with ice, though flowing and spraying water has melted the central area. I meet a party of hikers at the base of the falls. They head south, following the Shore Trail. I walk down to the Hudson River and admire the view north towards Piermont Marsh and the Tappan Zee Bridge. The river was crowded with ice flows a couple of weeks ago. Now it is mostly open water, though a few smallish slab of ice float by. The area below the falls has some ruins of old stonework from a formal garden that once stood there. A semi-circle of decorative columns stood near the river’s edge when I first visited the falls in 1975. The columns are gone now – swept away by Hurricane Sandy, I suppose. A few bricks scattered around the shore is all that remains of them. Only the stonework built into the cliff remains. The shore is littered with slabs of ice carried there by the river. I am surprised by their thickness – a couple of feet or more. Their sides have been smoothed and sculpted by the river water. I then hike back up to the top of the falls, following a steep informal trail just to the north of the falls. Here the toe points of my crampons come in handy; I kick them into the thick layer of snow and ice. This path affords me a few close-up views of the ice near the top of the falls. I then headed back to Lamont. The sun is lighting up the stream valley pretty obliquely, bringing out the broad terrace on the south side of the stream. It’s an unusual feature that suggests the stream was ten feet higher sometime in the geologically-recent past. Perhaps a rock-fall dammed it for a while? About an hour.

[Journal entry for March 8, 2014; Peanut Leap Falls, Palisades NY]. I returned to Peanut Leap Falls on this beautiful morning, which is clear and just below freezing. Quite a bit of snow remains on the ground, so I again wear crampons. The rocks on the stream still have caps of snow, and new ice formations, too. The steep part of the trail is mostly snow-free, owing to the heat of the morning sun, and as a result is more difficult to negotiate. The ice on the falls is even thicker than two weeks ago, with many columnar and bulbous formations. I’ve done some reading since my last trip. In the early twentieth century, Sculptress Mary Lawrence-Tonetti designed the "Italian Garden" that once stood at the foot of the falls. Her family owned a nearby estate; I suppose that Lawrence Lane in nearby Sneden's Landing is named after them. I could find just a few remains of the colonnade (or maybe gazebo) that once stood near the river – just one broken column and parts of a brick foundation. The retaining wall on the lower part of the cliff face, and the stone stairs by the falls have fared a little better, though they too are missing pieces. The retaining wall has two niches, one rectangular and the other arched. Empty now, I suppose that they once held sculptures. The Hudson was mostly free of ice, now. I spent fifteen minutes at the base of the falls and then headed back. About an hour.