ABOUT THE PARK:
Black Rock Forest - Black Rock Forest Consortium
DIRECTIONS:
GPS Coordinates 41.420258, -74.027786
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| Parking at 9W and Peck Road |
TRAIL MAP:
West Hudson Trails Map 113 - New York New Jersey Trail Conference
This map on the Avenza app comes in very handy as intersections can be confusing.
HIKE DISTANCE: 8.8 miles
THE HIKE:
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| The white-blazed Black Rock Hollow Trail starts from the parking area. |
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| A kiosk a short distance along with unmarked Hulse Road to the right which would be our return route. |
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| The trail follows a pretty creek on the left. |
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| It was 24 degrees so there was lots of ice. |
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| Coyote tracks on the ice and we would be seeing many more of those tracks in the snow. |
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| Just before the water filtration plant, blue starts to the left, white leaves the road to the right. |
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| Right on white for us. |
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| I almost got .... |
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| ... a pileated woodpecker. |
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| Had much better luck with this white-breasted nuthatch. |
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| We had a few minutes of sunrise before clouds started taking over in preparation for a snow storm coming later in the afternoon. |
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| Looking back at Butter Hill in Storm King State Park. |
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| Brodie was an excellent indicator of hidden ice under snow when he would wipe out :( Did he learn not to step on the snow? Of course not. |
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| At the end of white with Aleck Meadow Reservoir down below ... |
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| ... right on the teal Highlands Trail/yellow Stillman Trail for a short distance. |
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| A leaping mouse? |
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| Then left on White Oak Road. Based on the footprints and paw prints, this is apparently a very popular road. On almost all of the other trails we were on during this hike, it was mostly me, Brodie and the coyotes. |
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| The White Oak Tree up ahead where the rest of the world turned right ... |
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| ... and Brodie and I followed a single set of coyote tracks to the left. It always fascinates me how they follow the roads. |
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| A short distance ahead, right on white (this is looking back the way we came). |
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| This is not noted on the map but we went to check it out. |
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| A short unmarked trail leads to ... |
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| ... a boardwalk to ... |
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| ... a bird viewing platform at the swamp but nobody was out and about so we headed back. |
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| Continuing on the white trail. |
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| Coming up on the Sphagnum Pond dam. |
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| Someone else had been on the dam before us according to the footprints. |
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| Another little critter had been there, too. |
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| We went out on the dam ... |
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| ... where I snapped this picture of frozen Sphagnum Pond. We suddenly heard the most awful breaking sound underneath us. It sounded like the dam was collapsing. Brodie and I made it off of that dam in record time. I am sure it was just ice cracking under the surface but OMG, scary! |
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| Back on solid ground, continuing on white. |
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| At the end of white, left on the teal Highlands Trail/yellow Stillman Trail. |
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| Watch for a white trail to the left just opposite where yellow turns right and is joined by the blue trail coming in with the Highlands Trail straight ahead. |
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| This leads a short distance to ... |
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| Split Rock Overlook with Sutherland Pond down below. |
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| Heading back I had forgotten that I should have turned left on the Highlands Trail/blue trail and accidentally followed blue/yellow downhill 1/10th of a mile before I figured out what I had done and headed back up to the Highlands Trail. The bonus was I saw one of those elusive coyotes whose tracks we had been following. He was skittering away while ducking behind logs to avoid being seen by us so all I got was a picture of logs and branches. |
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| Back on track on the Highlands Trail which is now joined by blue. |
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| I needed to follow the Highlands Trail to the Hall Road gate to connect up to where I had hiked before. Just in case the day comes where I can say I hiked to entire trail, don't want to me missing a short section. |
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| Retracing from the gate and staying on Hall Road following the tracks of yet another (or the same?) coyote. |
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| Left on the yellow triangle Short Cut Trail. |
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| At the end of yellow triangle, left on the yellow Stillman Trail. |
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| This trail goes uphill then downhill to the end of the Stillman Trail at ... |
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| ... an overlook. |
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| A prefect spot for a break with snacks for Brodie ... |
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| ... and hot tea for me. |
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| Retracing on the Stillman Trail. |
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| Where we had come in from the right on the yellow triangle Short Cut Trail, now staying on the yellow Stillman Trail. |
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| At the next intersection, keeping right on yellow Stillman ... |
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| ... when yellow circle goes to Mine Hill Road parking. |
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| Yellow Stillman turns right on Hall Road. |
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| Just after yellow leaves Hall Road to the left, we turned left on the blue Compartment Trail when yellow turned right. |
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| I am thinking some sort of weasel or a mink. |
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| At the end of blue ... |
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| ... a brief right on yellow then left on Hall Road. |
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| This part of Hall Road doesn't appear to be traveled by humans hardly at all. |
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| Downy woodpecker on the right. |
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| At the intersection we turned right on Continental Road, and followed that to the gate shortly after yellow joins in from the right.. |
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| From the gate, a left on the Highlands Trail then left on Hulse Road when the Highlands Trail leaves to the right. |
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| Now it's all the way to the bottom, sometimes steeply, on Hulse Road. |
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| That is a glimpse of the Hudson River ahead on the horizon. |
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| Coming out at the kiosk on the white trail ... |
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| ... where we turned left on white ... |
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| ... back to the parking lot which was a lot busier than when we started at 7:30 AM. |
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