If you're too short on time for Nyack and don't feel like Piermont, turn right into the Columbia Observatory entrance just before State Line Hill, hang a Uey and go through the obstacle rocks onto the abandoned road. After about a quarter-mile slight downhill & about a half-mile easy uphill you'll see State Line Lookout. You get a restaurant, bathrooms & a SPECTACULAR view from over 500 feet above the Hudson, with red-tailed hawks circling overhead. The restaurant food is park-service quality (no Runcible Spoon, alas) but edible, and Gatorade, Vitaminwater, Snapple, soda & bottled water are available from machines. The road to the Lookout is not maintained but is still fully paved, with no broken glass, only leaves & an occasional broken branch. Totally worth it.
State Line Lookout
Is there a way cross over to 9W from the rest stop at the end or do you need to back track the way you came in to get back onto 9W?
No there isn't. the other exits are by foot down the cliffs or onto Palisades parkway. However, we're talking a backtrack of less than a mile mostly downhill, so it's not a big deal.
It involves riding on grass for a hundred yards or so, and walking over a footbridge, but no biggie.
Do you actually have to go into the columbia u facility or is the entrance just before you go through their gate?
I was hasseled by guards with dogs when I rode into the columbia u facility once. They seemed excessively evil for a geological research facility. Me thinks andromeda strain is down there.
I rode up to the State Line Lookout yesterday and can't believe I've been cycling past it all these years. It is beautiful up there. You don't have to enter the Columbia U entrance, just follow Ingrid's advice in the original message above.
The 'easy' hill up to the lookout has a bit more bite in it than I thought but it's a great abandoned road with forest all around. The views are amazing and they even sell Gatorade.
