[Journal entry for May 11, 2016] The weather, which has been very wet for the last three weeks, has finally cleared. I take a morning hike on what I call the "Cliff Circuit". This three hour loop starts in the Lamont Preserve, adjacent to the Lamont-Doherty Earth Obsevatory, descends down to river level via a trail that follows the little stream in Skunk Hollow that makes Peanut Leap Falls, follows the Shore Trail southward along the edge of the Hudson River for a mile or so, ascends back to cliff-top level via the Forest View Trail at State Line Lookout, and then follows the cliff-top Long Path northward, back to the Lamont Preserve.

This is one of my favorites, though a tough one, for the Shore Trail covers very rough ground. I try to do the hike once a year or so, but I always avoid it in high summer, because the poison ivy can be very bad then. I have done the loop in as little as 1:45, but today I plan to take my time, and take some photographs, too.

The morning is warm and sunny; I am dressed in a tee-shirt. The trail is straight and gently downhill, passing large, brown rock outcrops and following a little stream that I call Skunk Hollow Brook, after the name of the valley in which it runs. Skunk Cabbage is growing along the brook, and is especially dense by the fork where the Shore Trail and Long Path diverge. I walk out onto the Long Path footbridge to view the brook, but then backtrack and take the Shore Trail (blazed in white) down to Peanut Leap Falls. I climb down into the streambed at peer over the top of the falls, and the climb back out and descend, via a set of three or four steep switchbacks, down to river level. The Falls are very beautiful for the recent rain has supplied them with ample water. Old, ruined stonework of Mary Lawrence’s (1868–1945) now-defunct sculpture garden is set at the base of the falls. The spot, with its view of the Hudson River and the Falls, must once have afforded her a beautiful place to display her work, but is now overgrown.

The trail runs southward here. I cross the stream - the outflow of the Falls - tiptoeing from rock to rock. The trail runs along an old line of hedges. I'm amazed that they still survive, as the debris from Hurricane Sandy destroyed much of the vegetation along the shore. The view up the river, northward, towards the Gov. Malcolm Wilson Zee Bridge, is good here.

The trees are still in their spring colors, all lemon green. The rocks – diabase boulders that have fallen off the cliff – are dark brown. The sky is blue with cirrus clouds. Wildflowers, such as columbine, are in bloom.

The trail now crosses, by my count, six rock-falls, called locally Giant Steps, each several hundred yards long. The most recent of these was created by the May 12, 2012 rockfall. Its rocks are yellowish – a much lighter in color. The yellow scar on the cliff is vivid, where thousands of tons of rock dislodged came roaring down. The Shore Trail crosses a wide, flat area just before it intersects the Forest View Trail (blazed in blue and white). Forest View ascends through a gulley in the Hudson Palisades Cliff though many switchbacks and staircases. I take it up to the top and join the Long Path (blazed in blue) at State Line Lookout.

The views of the cliffs and the Hudson River are spectacular from the lookout. I find a half dozen viewpoints, each with its own beautiful vista. I chat with a photographer with a camera with a long telephoto lens who has spotted two Peregrine Falcon this morning. I pass the top of the rockfall, which almost took out the retaining wall next to the roadway. I then continue northward to State Line Café, where I purchased a soda.

The Lookout itself is built atop a rock pillar that protrudes out from the It hugs the cliff edge. It commands a wonderful view of the cliffs and river. I continue northward after a few minutes of view, stopping briefly at Eagle Rock, a protruding point on the cliff that has a nice view to the north. I then head down the final staircase into Skunk Hollow. I crossed the brook by the footbridge that I had visited in the morning, thus completing the Cliff Circuit. A short walk up a side trail took me back to the Comer Building on the Lamont Campus.

About three hours.