WHERE: West 214 Street stairs and Inwood Hill Park, upper Manhattan
START: 207 Street subway station (A train, fully accessible)
FINISH: Dyckman Street subway station (A train)
DISTANCE: 2.6 miles (4.2 kilometers)
Photographs by Michael Cairl
There was one stair street in Inwood (upper Manhattan) that I had yet to climb up or down: West 214 Street between Seaman Avenue and Park Terrace West. I also wanted to walk through Inwood Hill Park, a rugged, forested place at the northern tip of Manhattan. So this was the perfect occasion to put these two destinations together.
Route of today’s walk, courtesy Google Maps,
Starting at 207 Street, the northern terminus of the A train, I walked to West 214 Street and Seaman Avenue for today’s sole stair street, 65 steps up. Scaffolding covered the entire stairway, and as there are no handrails I had to grip the scaffolding where i could and climb very carefully where there was nothing to hold on to. I made it, and a gentleman who saw me do it gave me a “well done.” I appreciate expressions of kindness to a total stranger and have been at the receiving end of many such gestures. From the top of these stairs I walked north to West 215 Street and then carefully down a steep slope back to Seaman Avenue, then to West 218 Street and west to the park entrance.
Left to right: the West 214 Street stairs looking up from Seaman Avenue and down from Park Terrace West. The concrete curbs flanking the stairs need repair, and ADA-compliant handrails are needed.
Profile of today’s walk, courtesy Google Maps.
Inwood Hill Park has lowlands and marshes in the northeast corner. Columbia University’s boathouse is here and Columbia’s football stadium, Wien Stadium, is just to the east. Beyond these lowlands are the rugged hills the park is known for, and three hiking paths: in ascending order of difficulty, white, blue, and red. Today’s walk was a mix of red and blue trails, the routes marked by colored blazes on tree trunks. At the beginning of the upland trails is a historical marker on the spot believed to be where, in 1626, Peter Minuit of the Dutch West India Company bought Manhattan Island from the local Native Americans for trinkets and beads worth about 60 guilders (commonly translated to 24 dollars). The park offers a glimpse of what Manhattan Island must have looked like before European settlement: forests, hills, marshes, and much more, nearly obliterated in the past 400 years. For more information on this park go to https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/inwood-hill-park.
Left to right: “C” for Columbia University, painted on Snake Hill across Spuyten Duyvil Creek; view toward the Henry Hudson Bridge from the Inwood Hill Park lowlands; Shorakkopoch marker (for more context see my earlier post “Over Hill and Through Riverdale”).
My destination was a scenic overlook at the top of the ridge in the park. I had not been in the park since at least 2012, and while I followed marked trails these were steep in places and required walking with care whether going uphill or downhill. After a good workout of a walk a splendid view over the Hudson River, from a spot I have visited several times but not recently, was my reward.
Left to right: wild flowers along the trail; two views from the overlook across the Hudson River to the Palisades.
From the overlook I walked downhill on the blue and red trails to Payson Avenue and then to Dyckman Street. This descent required some care due to the steep grade and the condition of the pavement.
I had been wanting to challenge myself with this walk, to go back to a place where I used to go for a good hike and to tackle one more stair street. I did all that with a feeling of exhilaration once I got to the overlook. I’ll go back there and perhaps re-trace the route I would take to the overlook in the 1990s, up to the Henry Hudson Bridge and then to the overlook, but the route I took today was a very good workout. Onward!