One of the great things that I appreciate about living in Rockland County is the abundance of state parks with their scenic beauty and hiking trails. I am especially attracted to Nyack State Beach Park where you literally walk between the Hudson River and Hook Mountain. It doesn’t get more beautiful .
Nyack Beach State Park is part of the Palisades Interstate Park system.
In the last quarter of the nineteenth century, quarrying, which started on the Jersey Palisades, spread upriver, threatening to deface Hook Mountain on the Tappan Zee and the entire riverfront. There was a bustle of new activity at some landings, such as Snedens, Tappan Slote (Piermont), Rockland Landing, and Waldberg (Snedekers), where ferries plied across the river or steamers docked en route to New York. In 1872, the erection of a stone crusher at Hook Mountain signaled the beginning of large-scale operations. By 1900, this and 31 smaller quarries between Piermont and Nyack were operating. Sentiment was growing to stop this defacement, as had been done on the Jersey Palisades.
George W. Perkins, president of the Palisades Interstate Park Commission, played an instrumental role in influencing the philanthropists of his time as to the importance of preserving the Palisades. He believed the forested Highlands of the Hudson, famous for their scenery and as Revolutionary strongholds, would become a recreational resource for the people of the metropolitan district. The acquisition of Hook Mountain by the Commission was made possible by generous contributions by members of the Harriman, Perkins, and Rockefeller families, who have been adding to park holdings even up to the present time.
Over the years the park has always been a wonderful escape from the noise of contemporary life we all face living in a metropolitan environment. You can barbecue, hike, bicycle, read or just sit at the edge of the Hudson River and relax.