Hudson Ice Floes

After picking Charlie up from school yesterday, we went on a drive to photograph the ice floes on the Hudson River. One of my favorite things when we lived on the Yonkers Waterfront was seeing the ice floes in the middle of winter. We haven’t had much ice the last couple years, so I was glad to see some form during this cold snap.

Looking across at West Point from Cold Spring.

Storm King.

This brought to mind the scene in Mark Helprin’s Winter’s Tale where Virginia Gamely skates down the frozen-over Hudson from Lake of the Coheeries to New York City with her infant on her back. She paused for a rest at the bend near Constitution Island, right behind me when I took this photo.

I should reread Winter’s Tale next winter.

Looking north to the Bear Mountain Bridge as the sun dips low in the sky.

We enjoyed hearing the ice chunks smash together as they floated down the river.

We couldn’t get the view we really wanted from up on Bear Mountain Bridge. We parked and tried to walk across, but the walkway on the north side still had a foot and a half of snow on it. Charlie suggested we could just walk on top of the snow, but that would have put dangerously high relative to the guard rails, which didn’t feel safe. We settled for this obstructed view instead, and vowed to return during the next cold snap.

A view from the scenic turnout on the goat path coming down from Bear Mountain Bridge.

We had a great view of Iona Island.

The Peekskill waterfront from Charles Point. All of Peekskill Bay is solid ice. Only the navigation channel on the west side of the river by Jones point is open.

Charlie brought his camera, too.

He was mad I wouldn’t let him walk down the railroad tracks around the bend. It is an active freight route, and a mile-long train rolled through about 15 minutes later!

It feels good to be taking photos again, and it was neat to see these parts of the river covered in ice. I’ll try to remember how cold we were today when I’m out there sweating in the guideboat this summer.