Sylvan Glen Park Preserve
Directions
From the Taconic Parkway, take Exit 17A for US 202/NY 35 (Yorktown Heights) and turn west at the bottom of the ramp onto US 202/NY 35 (Crompond Road). Continue for 1.8 miles and turn right at a traffic light onto Lexington Avenue. In 0.5 mile, turn right onto Morris Lane and head downhill. It is 0.2 mile to the parking area at the bottom of the hill.
From the Taconic Parkway, take the Exit17B for Bear Mountain Parkway (Yorktown Heights) and turn north on Stony Street. At the top of the hill watch for an unmarked gravel driveway on the left (opposite 2820 Stony St and shortly before reaching Winding Court).
Park Overview
Old cables, discarded slabs of granite, and an shed which reportedly stored explosives are a few of the remnants along the trails in Sylvan Glen Park Preserve, the site of a former quarry.
Trail Overview
The trails traverse a variety of terrain, from steep climbs to gentle woods roads. Interpretive signs, near the quarry operations that ceased at the beginning of World War II, provide an insight into the Town of Yorktown's largest employer at the time. The trails through the former farmland offer a different perpective of land use, including a 0.25 mile riding ring and large ditches dug to drain wetlands.
Trails
- Deer Hollow Trail (orange) 0.25 mile
- Easy Way (purple) 0.1 mile
- Grant Lookout Trail (red) 0.3 mile
- High Quarry Trail (blue) 0.8 miles
- Hillside Trail (purple) 0.25 miles
- Old Farm Trail (green) 0.7
- Ring Trail (yellow) 0.25
- Quarry Drive Trail (orange) 0.08
- Quarry Oak Trail (orange) 0.05
- Seminary Ridge (white) 0.4
- Snake Hill Trail (yelow) 1.3
- Sylvan Glen Trail (red) 1.35
- Taconic Bridge Trail (pink) 0.8 mile
- Turtle Pond Trail (white) 0.9
- Co-aligned trails -
- High Quarry and Sylvan Glen for 0.25 mile
- Taconic Bridge and Turtle Pond 0.25 mile
Park Description
Tucked away on a hillside in northern Westchester County, NY, Sylvan Glen Nature Preserve is the site of a former quarry which supplied a honey-colored granite for the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York City. Some of the property was purchased in 1981 and was opened as a park when additional adjoining properties were acquired. Quarries of various sizes and remnents of the operations are located throughout the western portion of the park. Subsequent acquisition of adjacent land extended the park onto former farmland and provided another entrance to the park.
See more about the history of the park.
Brief video of the park made by Samantha Silverman, 2018 Yorktown High School graduate as part of a civic internship program.