Timp-Torne/Dunderberg Spiral Railway'R-D Trail Loop from Route 9W

Description

From the parking area, walk south on Route 9W for a few hundred feet. Just beyond road signs for Routes 9W and 202, you'll see three blue blazes and three red-on-white blazes on a tree. These mark the start of the Timp-Torne (blue) and Ramapo-Dunderberg (red-on-white) trails.

Follow the blazes into the woods along a level footpath. Soon, the trail bears left and climbs stone steps, and you'll see a stone-arch tunnel to the left. This is a remnant of the Dunderberg Spiral Railway, built in 1890 but never completed. The tunnel was designed to allow the ascending trains to pass over the route of the descending trains.

The trail now bears right and ascends more steeply on switchbacks and stone steps. At the top of the climb, you'll reach a junction. Here, the red-on-white blazes continue ahead, while the blue blazes turn left. Follow the blue blazes of the Timp-Torne Trail, which head southwest, parallel to the river. The trail continues to climb, but on a more moderate grade, with views of the river through the trees.

In another ten minutes, the trail turns right and heads away from the river. After traversing a rocky area on switchbacks, you'll arrive at a graded section of the railway. Follow the blue blazes as they turn left and continue along this level embankment for the next quarter mile. With the railbed ahead blocked off by a fallen tree, the trail turns right and climbs to the next higher level, where it turns left. Just ahead you'll come to the portal of an unfinished tunnel, intended for use by the descending trains.
The trail now returns to the lower level of the graded railway, which it follows around a curved embankment, with excellent views over the Hudson River. The curved roadbed ends at the opposite end of the uncompleted tunnel, but the trail bears left, crosses a stream and reaches a woods road.

Turn right and follow this road, known as the Jones Trail. As of this writing, there are some orange blazes along the route (although the trail is officially unblazed). In about a third of a mile, after once again crossing the stream, you'll reach a junction with another grade of the railway. Turn left and follow the unmarked grade for about a quarter mile to a T-intersection with the red-on-white-blazed Ramapo-Dunderberg Trail.

Turn right onto this trail, which climbs to a high point with a view, descends slightly, then climbs steeply to reach an even better viewpoint. You can see the Hudson River to the right (south), with Bear Mountain and the Bear Mountain Bridge to the left (north). Continue along the ridge of Dunderberg Mountain, passing through thickets of dense birch saplings.
After descending from the ridge, steeply in places, you'll notice a viewpoint from a rock outcrop just to the right of the trail, with Peekskill directly across the river. A short distance beyond, as the trail curves to the right, a short white-blazed trail leads ahead to another viewpoint. The trail soon joins another graded section of the railbed, with several gaps where the grading was never finished.

At a stone abutment (built to carry the cars going up the mountain), the trail turns sharply left and descends steadily along the right-of-way excavated for a cable incline. After about ten minutes, you'll reach a junction with the blue-blazed Timp-Torne Trail. Continue ahead, following both blue and red-on-white blazes back to the parking area where the hike began.