After several errands on Saturday morning, we finally made it to the car and started our drive towards the George Washington Bridge. Before reaching Harriman State Park, we saw a sign for the oldest lighthouse along the Hudson River and decided to make a detour. The Stony Point lighthouse was built in 1826 to warn ships coming in due to increased river traffic after the opening of Erie Canal.
Stony Point lighthouse, the oldest along the Hudson River
For $5, we entered the Stony Point Battlefield State Historic Site and walked around the grounds where the Americans beat the British during a midnight surprise assault. The view of the Haverstraw Bay was beautiful.
The boats on Haverstraw Bay
We then proceeded to the second largest state park in New York. We read that there are over 200 miles of hiking trails but we couldn’t find trail marks except for a gate towards the smaller Bear Mountain State Park.
We walked along the concrete road until we reached an electric tower and found yellow trail marks on the surrounding trees. We followed those up to the fire tower which we climbed to get a glimpse of the man-made Lake Welch Beach down the hill.
It reminded us of the old radio tower we climbed in Sagada. That was the first time I found out the Dr. has some fear of heights. I was ahead of him ascending this tower, too, and he stopped right below me because his “balls were tingling.” I had to stop laughing to keep the the tower still. He stayed where he was and we enjoyed the view from up above separately.
The Dr. stopped here
Man-made Lake Welch Beach dotted with people
The electric tower from the fire tower
Green, green, green!
Through the forest, we skipped over huge rocks and climbed small hills and made our way up to a stone house. We sat there for a while to catch our breaths and enjoy the view of the river. It was the perfect day for a hike because it was breezy and it wasn’t too humid.
Stone house on top
It took another hour to make it back to our car where we ate a Oaxaqueñan sandwich we bought in the morning. We felt that we didn’t really do anything strenuous but that we got enough exercise because of the ups and downs.
George Washington Bridge before sunset
Still, though, we rewarded ourselves by driving to Flushing and eating Malaysian fare at Sentosa.
