Carpenter's Trail Stairs Video: Palisades Interstate Park Hike in Fort Lee, NJ

If you want to know what Carpenter's Trail in Fort Lee actually feels like before you go, this video gives you a realistic look at the climb, the pace, and the views on the way up.

Carpenter's Trail in the Fort Lee section of Palisades Interstate Park is a short but serious stone stair climb that takes you from Shore Trail along the Hudson River up roughly 300 feet to the top of the Palisades, where it connects with the Long Path.

For me, stair climbing is one of the best low-impact cardio options around. At a solid pace it can push my heart rate into the same range I see while jogging, but without the same joint stress that usually comes with running.

So if you're curious whether this trail is worth doing, or just want to preview the climb before heading out, the video below should help.

Carpenter's Trail video

On this trip I had already been out for more than 80 minutes on a 6-plus-mile hike/run in the park, so I took the stairs at a controlled pace and tried to keep my heart rate under 160 bpm, which is near the top of my Zone 3 range. I was using my Timex heart rate monitor to track the effort.

The video is simple and unfiltered. It is basically a real look at the climb, the breathing, the stair rhythm, and a few of the views you get on the way up. At the end, I also spotted a deer in a clearing along the Long Path, which was unusual for this far south in the park.

Why I like this climb for cardio

I've been busy the past few months, and like a lot of people I tend to get a little out of shape during the winter. I am not in the same shape I was in this time last year, so this hike was part of easing back into more regular cardio and running.

One reason I like stair climbs like this is that they let me work hard without the same pounding I get from running. When I keep up with cardio for a couple of weeks, I usually feel much more comfortable pushing the pace harder on climbs like this.

Carpenter's Trail history

The steps were originally tied to the Carpenter Brothers' quarry in the late nineteenth century. At that time, quarrying for stone and gravel was actively damaging the Palisades, and preservation advocates began raising money to protect the cliffs and turn the land into parkland.

In 1900, the Palisades Interstate Park Commission was formed by New York Governor Theodore Roosevelt and New Jersey Governor Foster M. Voorhees to preserve the cliffs. By 1902, $178,210.62 had been used to buy land from sixteen quarry owners, and $122,500 of that went to the Carpenter Brothers, who owned the largest quarry. The money used for that purchase was donated by John Pierpont Morgan.

For more background, this September 29, 1895 New York Times article covers preservation ideas being discussed at the time and some of the damage caused by quarrying.

Today, the same route that once supported blasting and quarry work gives hikers one of the most direct and memorable ways to experience the cliffs.

Trail renovation and repairs

At the end of one year a 3- to 4-foot section of the stairs about two-thirds of the way up had collapsed. I posted a picture of the damage from a December Carpenter's Loop I hike. It was dark, but you could still see the boards the trail crew placed over the collapsed area to allow safe passage.

The section has since been repaired. In fact, the repair blended in so well that I was not completely sure where the damaged spot had been when I went back. In the video, the point where I look down over the left side of the stairs and then back up toward the bridge is the area I believe had failed.

By June of that year, Trail Crew Supervisor Christina Fehre and seven volunteers had moved 15,000 pounds of stone to repair walls and stairs with help from a $21,000 grant from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection's Recreational Trails Program.

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