Day 3 of 2022 Independence Day Trip, Palisades

by admin

Third day of my 2022 Independence Day trip. The theme of this trip so far had been rocks, so for this last day I would visit Palisades Interstate Park, hike its Giant Stairs trail before driving back home.

Giant Stairs Palisades

Hotel Nyack

Since for the previous two nights I arrived at the hotel late and tired, this morning before I set off for Palisades I did a quick tour of the hotel. Combining photos from previous nights, here was a quick review.

For this trip, I chose to stay at Hotel Nyack, as a JdV hotel under Hyatt. This was a Cat 2 hotel, costing 8000 Hyatt points per night as standard redemption. However, Hyatt mysteriously treated my first night (July 3-4) as off-peak, requiring only 6500 points. This turned out to be a big blunder as the hotel was rather fully booked that night. In addition, Hyatt was running a promotion for its credit card holders, of 20% back on award stays for the summer. This promotion was based on checkout date and started on July 5 which was my checkout date. So in the end, I only spent 11600 Hyatt points for such a 2-night stay, which was really a bargain.

As for the hotel itself, it had a unique, or, ghostly style of decorations. (Its location next to a cemetery would probably implicate the latter.) It’s certainly a refreshing departure from the chain hotels. It’s far away from New York city that its rooms were spacious, by New York city standards. Overall, I enjoyed my stay, except that its restaurant was horrendously under-staffed.

Facade
Large glass windows for the lobby.
Exterior
Pretty recognizable sign along the driveway
Guestroom

The guest rooms were decent, except that sound isolation was really lacking between rooms. And since my room was facing the highway, I still needed ear plugs to shield the traffic noises. The hotel used extensive motifs as decorations, which gave it an exotic feeling.
Work Desk
A minor complaint about this workstation, that it offered no power outlets.
Corridor
The same motif decorations could be felt everywhere in the hotel.
Lobby

Spacious and tidy with lots of room to sit around, but I didn’t see a lot of guests at the lobby during my stay.
Parking Garage

The hotel offered free parking for guests. Apart from surface parking, it also featured this small parking garage, which would shield cars from the baking sun. A downside was that quite a few birds were making nests inside this garage.

Breakfast

My biggest disappointment about the stay was the hotel’s breakfast.

Since I was Hyatt’s Globalist elite, I was entitled to free breakfast (a curse in disguise). The photo here was from the second morning of my stay (Tuesday July 5), which I ordered from the menu. There weren’t any issues with the food, just that the hotel was terribly understaffed. There were only one (or maybe two) waiters, and they were always busy. So while it took me about 5 minutes to consume this food (or maybe 10 if I’m on my phone at the same time), it took about half an hour between ordering and waiting to be served.

They probably knew about this, so during the first morning of my stay (Monday July 4) when the hotel was fully booked, they changed it to a buffet format, which was essentially the same food in buffet trays, minus cosmetic effects like the sugar dressings and blueberries on top. I thought this was better, since I preferred looking at actual food than descriptions on the menu. But the restaurant was designed to be full service, not buffet, thus the selections and experience were far below peer brands like Hyatt Place. In addition, the drinks were still ordered from the menu/waiter, so it still took forever long waiting to be seated and settling the checks. In hindsight, I was probably better off grabbing breakfast on the road.

Originally, I planned to enjoy its pool before checking out of the hotel. The slow-serving breakfast meant I no longer had time for that. But just as I was having my breakfast, I noticed that Wimbledon Open was live. So after breakfast I watched it in my room while slowly packing up my stuff during commercial breaks. Thus, it’s noon by the time I left the hotel for Palisades Interstate Park.

Palisades Interstate Park

The Palisades are the cliffs on the west bank of the Hudson River. The interstate park was set up in 1900 to protect Palisades from quarrying.

Giant Stairs

The highlight of my day would be hiking the Giant Stairs loop. Before the establishment of the park, blasting from quarries created piles of rocks along the bank of the Hudson River. Nowadays, these rocks were a famous place for entry-level rock scrambling that was close to New York city.

Trailhead for this loop was called “State Line Lookout” on Google Maps, probably for its proximity to the state line between New York and New Jersey. Probably because it’s far enough from New York City, parking was free and plenty.

For those not into rock scrambling, there were a few overlooks right next to the parking lot, with views of the Hudson River and portions of the “Giant Stairs”. I spent a few minutes for the scenery before setting off.

Palisades Cliffs
Palisades Cliffs
Original Palisades Highway
State Line Cafe
A small restaurant that also partly served as a visitor information center.
Giant Stairs Palisades
A section of fallen rocks along the river that offered scrambling opportunities.
Yonkers
Distant Tappan Zee Bridge
Waterfront Apartments in Greystone

Hudson River from State Line Lookout

So it’s 12:50pm by the time I left the parking lot and onto the trail, which started as a gentle stroll in the woods.
Here’s GPS tracking:

Trail
Initial part of the trail, which was very wide by a trail’s standards. A casual walk in the woods.
Trail
Initial part of the trail, which was very wide by a trail’s standards. A casual walk in the woods.
Trail
The rocks were arranged to resemble stairs, so this part wasn’t that difficult.
Trail
The rocks were arranged to resemble stairs, so this part wasn’t that difficult.
Trail
Crossing a creek that’s dry.
Trail

The final few steps down to the Hudson River was very steep. The few wooden pieces used to stabilize the soil certainly helped.

Boundary Monument between New Jersey and New York
Just before the trail started its descent down to the Hudson River.

Overlooking Hudson River
At a small overlook along the trail.

After entering New York, the trail went on a steep descent down to the Hudson River. However, with many improvements, the descent was easy to tackle.

Peanut Leap Cascade
A small waterfall near Hudson River, marking the end of the steep descent.

After getting down to the bank of Hudson River, the trail continued south for about 0.8km along the river. The “Giant Stairs” scrambling sections that I long anticipated started not long after entering New Jersey.

Trail
I wasn’t sure what this door was for. Maybe to close the trail when water levels were high?
Trail
Along the Hudson River.
Trail

At the boundary of New York and New Jersey. A warning sign about the difficulties of the scramblings to come.
Trail
Parts of the trail were still in woods like this, just much narrower than before.
Trail
A rocky part.
Trail
After leaving the scrambling section.

I recorded the few scrambling sections with my chest-mounted GoPro. Here were the videos:

Overall, I would say clockwise was the better direction to go along this loop trail, so that the path was going uphill during the most intense scrambling. I would rate the scrambling as YDS class 2, but the rocks that formed the trail had been artificially rearranged, so that they were more even than the rocks off-trail, letting people navigate around them more easily. While I’m totally fine with them in their pristine shape, this rearrangement meant traversing along them was like a dance to their rhythm, get it right and it’s uninterrupted enjoyment.

After the exposed “Giant Stairs”, the trailed entered the woods but stayed rocky. Despite an abundance of white markers, embarrassingly I still lost the trail once, probably because I was too enthralled by the rocks.

The scrambling sections lasted about 1.8km from start to finish (though it’s not on rocks all the time). I left the scrambling sections at around 2:40pm. After that, the trail continued along the river for about 500m before heading back up the cliffs.

Trail
Back uphill.
Trail
A small encore of the scrambling.
Trail
Back uphill.
Trail
Back uphill, towards the top there were some proper stairs.
Trail
Back uphill, towards the top there were some proper stairs.

The uphill was a bit intense at times, but by no means as steep or technical as the descent down to the river. I was back on the cliffs at around 3pm. Before I left, I took a few final photos of the cliffs at Palisades.

Palisades Cliffs

Giant Stairs Palisades
Looking back at the scrambling section.

The weather forecast indicated chances of storm for the afternoon. Luckily, while I experienced a few rain drops towards the end of the scrambling section, it never developed into proper rain.

Ross Dock Picnic Area

The Palisades Interstate Park extended for quite some distance along the Hudson River. Before heading back home, I decided to pay its Ross Dock Picnic Area a visit. Right next to George Washington Bridge, it’s a perfect place to view the bridge and the New York City skyline in the background.

Another reason to make such a stop was that I wanted to leave early enough to beat New York’s traffic, but late enough that I wouldn’t run into Philadelphia’s traffic. So with such a move, I killed off 45 minutes at Ross Dock.