It was a beautiful early spring day today and we haven’t been hiking in a couple of weeks, so we decided to go check out Sylvan Glen Park Preserve in Yorktown Heights (Westchester county).
The preserve contains the abandoned Mohegan Quarry, which is where the granite used to build many New York buildings was mined. The quarry contains both pinkish granite and a warmer, yellow tone. The quarry was abandoned abruptly in 1941 just before the start of WWI, so there were lots of artifacts left behind. Everywhere we looked there were giant piles of stones, and lots of them had drilling marks:
We explored the quarry for awhile, then headed up the trail, where we found this cool rock tunnel:
We kept hiking for another few miles, exploring the woods. On our way back towards the car, we ended up descending a rock staircase built by the trail conference. At the bottom was a massive oak tree, 18 feet around:
On our way home, we found a local coffee shop where we treated ourselves to coffee and cookies. A lovely way to end the day.
