On Wednesday, April 26th, the MTA Outdoors Club hiked the "Giant Stairs," part of a strenuous hike in Palisades Interstate Park. The park, located along the Palisades cliffs on the west (New Jersey) side of the Hudson River, features interesting historical sites, tough rock scrambles, and several beautiful vistas overlooking the Hudson. The hike is named for the huge boulders that a hiker needs to surmount in order to hike along the base of the Palisades cliffs. These boulders are actually pieces of the cliff that occasionally break off. The last such break was in 2012, but there had not been one for many years prior to that, so the area is considered safe for walking. It is easy to see the spot on the cliff that most recently broke off, because it is a lighter colored than the surrounding cliff face. At the southernmost part of the trail is the Women's Federation Monument, built in 1929 to honor various women's clubs that collected money and enabled the Sstate of New Jersey to buy this piece of land and turn it into a park. Until then the land was owned by various private quarries, which blasted the rock from the Palisades to use as gravel for roadbeds. But when the New Jersey State Federation of Women's Clubs got involved, they managed to get New York and New Jersey to establish the Palisades Interstate Park Commission and they raised the money to buy the land and turn it into a park. The monument, built as a mini German castle, is designed to symbolize the women guarding over the Palisades. The Mountain Lions will be hiking once more this year, on Friday, May 27th. Stay tuned for details!