[Journal entry for September 25, 2017; The Bowling Rocks, Harriman State Park, New York]. I parked along Route 106, west of Kanawauke Circle, at a pull off near where the Ramapo-Dunderberg Trail crosses the road, and began a long bushwhack up the hills north of the road. I scrambled up onto the ridge, which consists of a series of rocky knolls, some with views of the rolling hills to the east, and rock pavements surrounded by meadows full of fern, blueberry and sweet fern and small copses of trees. The woods are mostly still green, with just occasion Red Maples and Black Tupelos in their bright red fall colors, but the grass has gone to amber, the fern to yellow and the blueberry to rust. Eventually, I joined the Ramapo-Dunderberg Trail (RD, blazed in red) and followed it north along the ridge-crest. This area, called the Bald Rocks, is very striking, with wide rock pavements, weather to show the subtle stripes of the gneiss rock, full of glacial erratic boulders, most commonly of Highland leucogranite, but with some Schunemunk quartzite and sandstone, too. The ridge offers occasional view points to both the east and the west.

The bright late afternoon sun had heated up the ridge into the nineties, Fahrenheit, and I was glad when the trail took me into valleys shaded by stands of trees. I took RD past the Bald Rock Shelter and then made a short bushwhack to view a pair of Black Tupelo trees, which stood out on account of their brilliantly red fall colors. I then took the Dunning Trail (blazed in yellow) east, but would up actually bushwhacking along a ridge a little north of the trail, for the blueberry meadows there were particularly beautiful. Eventually, I rejoined the trail and took it to the Bowling Rocks.

The Bowling Rocks is a large rectangular rock pavement, a hundred yards of so long and perhaps half as side. The central part – I guess you could call it the bowling alley – is emply, with large glacial erratic boulders – the bowling balls - strewn around its edges. I parked myself on one of the boulders, admired the scenery and sipped my water, for the afternoon was still very hot. After resting, I went on a stroll around the edges of the rock pavement, listened to a woodpecker and took a short bushwhack to admire the flaming red leaves of another Black Tupelo tree. Once completing the circuit, I returned to my resting spot and sat quietly as the sun slowly sank towards the horizon and the shadows lengthened. The grey rock pavement began to take on a reddish-brown hue. About twenty minutes before sunset I retraced by path south, to a high point just where the Nurian Trail (blazed in white) descends westward down off the ridge. I watched the sunset from there. The orange sun first dipped through a thick layer of clouds, lighting up their edges a brilliant orange, and the reappeared as a deep red orb shortly before setting. Large cumulous clouds to the north glowed orange. Subtle glacial grooves on the rock pavement became more obvious as they were illuminated by the sun’s final rays.

I took the Nurian Trail off the ridge. It led me southwestward, to Route 106 at the Pine Meadow Lake pullout - a point considerably west of, and below, my car. I walked the highway back up. A Screech Owl called nosily as I was passing a wetland on the north side of the road.

About 5:00.