Hiking to Popolopen Torne

Popolopen Torne is a nice alternative to the crowds at Bear Mountain, particularly on a nice fall day when half the city descends upon the park. It may not be as easy as I had told my friend D (a somewhat regular hiker) and his friends (not hikers), though.



From the Bear Mountain Inn, you hike past the lake and get to the tricky part of the hike. In their infinite wisdom, the trail designers started the Popolopen Gorge trail right by the side of the road - not near any place to park - requiring hikers to cross over some busy highways. The only reason this is doable is that the highways are all converging on a traffic circle here.



The trail itself roughly follows a creek. I had described it to my hiking companions as "mostly flat," but that turned out to be not as true as I remembered. (Plus, "flat" to a non-hiker is flatter than to me.) But it's a very pretty trail with views of the water and the Torne.



After crossing the creek, the trail starts to gain elevation. You have two potential routes up that, put together, make a nice loop. We opted to take the western side of the loop both up and down, however. Either way, the hill turns into a scramble.



At the top, there are great views of the Bear Mountain Bridge over the Hudson and Anthony's Nose behind it. There is also a West Point soldier's memorial.



We retraced our route, getting to the Inn about ten minutes before the bus was to arrive. When it did, there were too many passengers and a second bus had to be called, which arrive about 90 minutes later. This part was not delightful.

However, it was a beautiful fall day with great views!