Harriman Hiker: Harriman State Park and Beyond: High Tor Mountain

High Tor Mountain State Park,
Palisades Ridge
Rockland County, NY

High Tor is the highest peak of the Palisades. Although its not a tall mountain by any standards, its peak sharply juts out from the surrounding level area and is very prominent. The top part of the mountain is a sharp jumble of solid diabase, and requires three challenging scrambles.

I started out on the Long Path by South Mountain Road, and climbed up the Long Path. The entire Long Path has been shifted ascending this mountain. The path used to start by Scratchup Road, and was rerouted because the Tilcon Mining Corp selfishly closed off the trail. And the top part where the scramble was also rerouted, and my guess is that there are some loose rocks there and some idiot who didn't know what they were doing got hurt or killed climbing so they rerouted the trail. The old scramble route still has the old trail markers painted over and easily visible, and this is the route I took to the top. The summit affords an excellent panoramic view, especially of Haverstraw directly below but also of the Stony Point, the Hudson Highlands, New City, Lake DeForest and Manhattan, and the Haverstraw Bay (which is the widest part of the Hudson River.)

From the summit turned around and took the official route which skirts the scramble. At the bottom of the scramble took the old Long Path before its other reroute onto the Tilcon Property. Took this all the way down back to the road. So essentially I did an "8" hike, without going on the same trail twice.

The first scramble.
Note the covered over blazes.