Manitou Hill
Route 6, Westchester County, NY
Directions:
Saw Mill River Parkway north; get off at the Hawthorn exit; turn left at light
onto Route 9A north; Route 9A flows into Route 9; turn left over the bridge over
Annsville Creek; go part way around the traffic circle; get out of the circle at
Route 6 north; head up hill past the restaurant on the left; park at the
renovated station parking area on the right.
History:
Eastern Tollhouse: The former Bear Mountain Bridge Road Toll House (pictured above and below) along Route 202/6 is at the trailhead to the Camp Smith Trail and was restored and converted into a visitor center in 2002.
Bear Mountain Bridge Road
When the state took over the bridge and access road from the Bear Mountain and Hudson River Bridge Company, the tollhouse was shut down. It is now a visitor center.
(Pp. 434. Williams, Gray. 2003. Picturing Our Past: National Register Sites in Westchester County. Westchester County, NY: Westchester County Historical Society.)
Trails:
Part of the Hudson River Trailway.
Segment 1: Camp Smith Trail in Hudson Highlands State Park (Route 6/202)
RiverWalk begins at the Appalachian Trail intersection at the Putnam County border and heads south along the Camp Smith Trail. This hiking trail was created in the late 1990s through the undeveloped, eastern side of the Camp Smith State Military Reservation. The trail right-of-way was than transferred and converted from the state military to state parkland. This trail traverses some of the most scenic and rugged topography in the county and offers numerous viewpoints of the Hudson River including the Anthony’s Nose peak, situated above the Bear Mountain Bridge at 910-foot elevation. Because of the rugged topography, this section of RiverWalk would be a hiking-only trail. A parking area is conveniently located at the trailhead along Route 6/202 at the Tollhouse Visitor Center, which was completed and opened in 2002.
Source: Hudson River Trailway Plan. http://www.westchestergov.com/planning/docs/RiverWalk/RiverWalkSegments1-7.pdf
11/14/2002. On a cool but sunny day Philip Duckett and I took a trip up Manitou
Hill. The blue trail starts on the western side of the renovated station
building. It heads north uphill and over a rocky part of the trail; walk on a
more level part of the trail near Route 6 heading to Bear Mountain; head up hill
again on a steep part of the trail (some rock scrambling involved); come to a
good viewing point over the southern end of Iona Island with a round plug on
Round Island that I had never noticed before and of the administrative buildings
on Iona Island; we continued on and then had lunch; make a steep ascent; the
trail heads to the western edge of the heights with great views of the northern
end of Iona Island, of Bear Mountain, Bear Mountain Inn, and Bear Mountain
Bridge. This is as far as we went; if we had continued on we would eventually
have come to Anthony's Nose with its views over the Bear Mountain Bridge.
PLANT LIST:
Dr. Patrick L. Cooney, 11/14/02
Trees:
Acer pensylvanicum (goose-foot maple)
Acer rubrum (red maple)
Acer saccharum (sugar maple)
Ailanthus altissima (tree-of-heaven)
Carya sp. (hickory)
Cornus florida (flowering dogwood)
Fraxinus americana (white ash)
Juniperus virginiana (red cedar)
Liriodendron tulipifera (tulip tree)
Ostrya virginiana (American hop hornbeam)
Pinus rigida (pitch pine)
Pinus strobus (white pine)
Populus deltoides (cottonwood)
Populus grandidentata (big-toothed aspen)
Prunus serotina (black cherry)
Quercus alba (white oak)
Quercus prinus (chestnut oak)
Quercus rubra (red oak)
Quercus velutina (black oak)
Robinia pseudoacacia (black locust)
Sassafras albidum (sassafras)
Tsuga canadensis (eastern hemlock)
Shrubs:
Berberis thunbergii (Japanese barberry)
Chimaphila maculata (striped wintergreen)
Comptonia peregrina (sweetfern)
Cunila origanoides (dittany) ?
Gaylussacia baccata (black huckleberry)
Ilex verticillata (winterberry holly)
Kalmia latifolia (mountain laurel)
Lonicera morrowii (Morrow's honeysuckle)
Opuntia humifusa (cactus)
Rhus typhina (staghorn sumac)
Rosa multiflora (multiflora rose)
Rubus sp. (blackberry)
Rubus phoenicolasius (wineberry)
Salix sp. (pussy willow)
Vaccinium pallidum (low bush blueberry)
Viburnum prunifolium (blackhaw viburnum)
Vines:
Celastrus orbiculatus (Asiatic bittersweet)
Parthenocissus quinquefolia (Virginia creeper)
Polygonum scandens (climbing false bindweed)
Smilax rotundifolia (round-leaved greenbrier)
Toxicodendron radicans (poison ivy)
Herbs:
Alliaria petiolata (garlic mustard)
Antennaria sp. (pussytoes)
Artemisia vulgare (common mugwort)
Aster cordifolius (heart-leaved aster)
Aster divaricatus (white wood aster)
Aster sp. (small white aster)
Cirsium vulgare (bull thistle)
Euthamia graminifolia (grass-leaved goldenrod)
Gnaphalium obtusifolium (sweet everlasting)
Hedeoma pulegioides (penny royal)
Hypericum gentianoides (orangeweed)
Lechea sp. (pinweed)
Leonurus cardiaca (motherwort)
Lespedeza rotundifolia (round-headed bush clover) ?
Lespedeza sp. (bush clover)
Paronychia canadensis (forked chickweed)
Plantago lanceolata (English plantain)
Polygonum cespitosum (cespitose smartweed)
Pycnanthemum muticum (short-toothed mountain mint)
Rumex obtusifolius (broad dock)
Solidago bicolor (silverrod)
Solidago caesia (blue-stem goldenrod)
Solidago rugosa (rough-leaved goldenrod)
Verbascum thapsus (common mullein)
Rushes:
Juncus tenuis (path rush)
Sedges:
Carex laxiflora type (loose-flowered type sedge)
Carex pensylvanica (Pennsylvania sedge)
Carex stricta (tussock sedge)
Grasses:
Panicum clandestinum (deer-tongue grass)
Phragmites australis (giant reed grass)
Setaria sp.
Ferns:
Dennstaedtia punctilobula (hay-scented fern)
Dryopteris marginalis (marginal woodfern)
Polystichum acrostichoides (Christmas fern)