I’m always on the lookout for new places to walk the dog so I was glad to come across a reference to the romantically named Mystery Point. It’s part of Manitou Park Preserve. Travelling south on route 9d from Garrison towards Peekskill the preserve is on the right a little before you get to the Bear Mountain Bridge. The entrance is labelled as Mystery Point Road, but it’s actually more of a dirt track than it is a road, and it’s easy to miss.

At the far end of the parking lot a trail (white trail) goes off into the woods. I followed this trail for a while , but didn’t have much luck with it. After a while I couldn’t see any markers and it was far from obvious (at least to me) how to continue. So, disappointed, I backtracked to the parking lot and decided to follow mystery point road. It turned out that this was the right thing to do. The “road” winds down, crosses a stone bridge over a brook, and eventually crosses the Metro North tracks (see picture above). From there it was easy: By the mansion follow the blue trail to the left and eventually it splits into a loop. Whichever way you go it will take you to the river. Warning: the path along the river is narrow and rocky and passes quite high above the Hudson with steep (in some places as much as 30ft) dropoffs. Definitely not for those (like my wife) who suffer from a fear of heights.

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