Waiting for Spring, Greenbrook Nature Sanctuary

About Town spent the better part of Saturday freezing on the baseball field. Lucky for the team, they got our game in before the rain came pouring down. It was so cold that even a double-fisted coffee did little to warm us up.

What a miserable Saturday it was. Most of the outdoor events scheduled were cancelled, so Earth Day plans were pushed aside. Instead, we stocked up on junk food and decided to bunker in and wait out the storm. The winds made us feel like we could take a side trip to Oz as we came out of the A&P and crossed the parking lot to our car. Where, we ask, is spring?

A taste of spring arrived on Sunday, though there was a bit of a chill in the air when the wind picked up. About Town spent this part of Earth Day weekend taking a hike to the Greenbrook Nature Sanctuary offered by the Tenafly Nature Center.

Greenbrook Sanctuary is 165 acres of woodland on top of New Jersey’s magnificent Palisades off 9W. Although part of the Palisade Interstate Park system, it is run by the Palisades Nature Association, founded in 1946 to preserve the natural character of the Palisades Cliffs and develop a wild sanctuary in the Greenbrook section. Greenbrook can only be accessed if you have a key to the gate that leads into the sanctuary, so you must be a member to explore it or take part in one of the hikes offered by the area nature centers that take you through it.

Our hike began at the Tenafly Nature Center, and from there we sloshed through the overflow water (and mud) left behind by the previous day’s storm and trekked through the woods to make our way to 9W, where the tunnel sits that leads to the entrance of Greenbrook Sanctuary.

If you’ve never been to the Tenafly Nature Center, you must go. It’s very different from Flat Rock Brook. There nature center building is located in an old house. As we arrived, the resident owl was there to greet us and size us up from the forearm of one of the volunteers.

Tenafly Nature Center has a gorgeous pond the size of a lake that has an old boat house and dock upon which you can just sit for hours and enjoy the peace and quiet. As we walked past the pond, a catalogue company was photographing models casually walking through the woods in a colorful array of fall clothes.    

We crossed over planks, climbed upon rocks, and when the path was covered in water we walked upon benches and trudged through mud to get to 9W. Crossing 9W was a bit of a trick between the endless stream of cars and bike riders.

Here’s a bit of movie trivia: The double tunnel that marks the entrance to the Greenbrook Sanctuary made a brief cameo appearance in the 2003 Katie Holmes film Pieces of April.  

We were met at the gate of the sanctuary by Greenbrook naturalist and guide Sandy who opened the gate and led us on our hike through Greenbrook. Greenbrook was home to the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) during the 1930s, and there are still some remains of their camps that can be found throughout the grounds.

Shortly after walking in, we were greeted by a family of wild turkeys. Because it is a sanctuary for wildlife, there are red fox, deer, coyotes and even ravens. Because of the rainstorm, Sandy said this was the perfect time to see the Greenbrook Falls that sit right on the edge of the cliffs of the Palisades. A five-acre pond with a small adjoining bog is the centerpiece of the sanctuary. At the end of the trail is the 250-foot Greenbrook Falls—the culmination of the three major streams that drain the area and tumble down the ancient diabase cliffs into the Hudson River. This is one of the waterfalls that you can see when you’re driving along the road that leads to the Alpine Boat Basin. From the Greenbrook waterfall there are views of the Palisades and Highlands to the north and New York City across the Hudson.

The Greenbrook Sanctuary also has trails that lead north to the PIP Headquarters and south all the way to the George Washington Bridge. Greenbrook Sanctuary is absolutely worth checking out when they offer an “open” day or when one of the nature centers offers a hike, because it’s an exclusive piece of the Palisades that can’t be seen just any day. Membership to the Greenbrook Sanctuary is $35 for individuals and $50 for families. You get your own key to the gate with your membership. You can join by visiting them online.