Today we walked over the George Washington Bridge to New Jersey for a hike in the Palisades, the green belt directly opposite Washington Heights that you can see from The Cloisters, located in Fort Tryon near the apartment. Our information was that this hike was beautiful, great views, and lots to see — a real getaway from the city. Well, it was pretty, lush, and even charming at times, but we lost interest pretty quick after walking North about two miles on a trail that bordered the Palisades Parkway, which is basically a high-volume thoroughfare with traffic racing by and the occasional service station a stones throw from the trail. Lots of trash, lots of noise, that’s nature New Jersey style.
We stumbled upon the gated Allison Park, which was actually spacious, sparely populated, and the least trafficked gay cruise I’ve ever seen. Bathrooms were so bad I felt kind of sad inside after I took a leak. We wandered around a bit then went a little bit further to St. Peter’s College at Englewood Cliffs, overlooking the Hudson (the lovely structure you can see from New York), but didn’t go any further than that. The campus would have been nice to explore but No Trespassing signs were everywhere and I’m way to old to get yelled at for something stupid.
It was due to rain anyway, so we hightailed it back and saw a hare and a couple of young deer that were scared off by some dumbass on a bike who wasn’t even supposed to be on the trail. We took a little break first and ate some watermelon and pineapple.
Back in Washington Heights it started pouring and we were both starving. We ate at a Zagat-Rated Dominican place called Malecón and thought the food was awful. So we left and walked a block away stopped to get some take-out Chinese and that was awful too. We figured the best bet was not to eat in our neighborhood if we could help it at all.
Later, after doing some research I found out the the best bet was to take a bus from our New York that will take you further up on the Palisades and drop you off at a spur that will lead you into the woods and away from the noise. Also found out that back in the 40s and 50s there was a night club where the woods are now called the Riviera, even saw a remnant of the sidewalk.
Eventually the trail heads into New York.
We stumbled upon the gated Allison Park, which was actually spacious, sparely populated, and the least trafficked gay cruise I’ve ever seen. Bathrooms were so bad I felt kind of sad inside after I took a leak. We wandered around a bit then went a little bit further to St. Peter’s College at Englewood Cliffs, overlooking the Hudson (the lovely structure you can see from New York), but didn’t go any further than that. The campus would have been nice to explore but No Trespassing signs were everywhere and I’m way to old to get yelled at for something stupid.
It was due to rain anyway, so we hightailed it back and saw a hare and a couple of young deer that were scared off by some dumbass on a bike who wasn’t even supposed to be on the trail. We took a little break first and ate some watermelon and pineapple.
Back in Washington Heights it started pouring and we were both starving. We ate at a Zagat-Rated Dominican place called Malecón and thought the food was awful. So we left and walked a block away stopped to get some take-out Chinese and that was awful too. We figured the best bet was not to eat in our neighborhood if we could help it at all.
Later, after doing some research I found out the the best bet was to take a bus from our New York that will take you further up on the Palisades and drop you off at a spur that will lead you into the woods and away from the noise. Also found out that back in the 40s and 50s there was a night club where the woods are now called the Riviera, even saw a remnant of the sidewalk.
Eventually the trail heads into New York.
posted by Stewart A. Williams at
8:47 PM
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