ALPINE, N.J.—Throughout the year, the staff of the Palisades Interstate Park in New Jersey offers guided hiking tours for varied interests and ability levels.
On Saturday, Feb. 1, historical interpreter Eric Nelsen will lead another tour into the park’s past, this time to explore part of the riverfront settlement known in the 19th century as Closter Landing.
Hikers will meet at 10 a.m. at the Park Headquarters in Alpine, accessible from the Alpine park entrance. (The facilities at park headquarters are closed, however, due to a fire.)
Nelsen will lead the group down a trail that was once a steep wagon road used by the farmers of nearby Closter to bring their farm goods down to the Hudson River for shipment by sailboat to New York City’s markets. After they arrive at the river, the group will continue along another former wagon road to what was once a fishermen’s hamlet known as “Cape Fly Away,” and then on to a former “excursion grove,” where New Yorkers came to picnic in the decades after the Civil War.
This hike, about 3 miles round-trip and taking about 2 hours, traverses some steep slopes and is rated moderate.
To confirm if weather is questionable on the evening of this hike, or if trails may be too icy to conduct the hike, call (201) 768-1360, ext. 108.
