Black Creek Preserve is different from other trails in that it begins with a bridge. And not just any bridge but one that is suspended. Think Golden Gate or George Washington. Maybe not as big but it shares the same aesthetic design—the deck hanging below cables suspended on two vertical supports—that evokes pomp and grandeur from the hiker that crosses it.

Well, at least, it did, for me.

After the bridge-crossing the trail goes on an immediate 150-foot climb in the first 5 minutes. Nothing strenuous, though. But that may be because I was still brimming with energy and anticipation at the beginning of the hike.

The intersecting trails totaling 2.1 miles are well-marked with variously colored trailblazers. From the bridge, stairs are carved on the dirt that leads to wooden planks and then rope handrails. The rope handrails flanking both sides of the trail do not seem to be there for safety. The trail looked perfectly safe. More likely they’re there to guide the hiker along.

The noise of traffic disappears as you get farther and farther away from the town of Esopus, deeper and deeper into wooded nature, and closer and closer to the then wide-open banks of the Hudson River.

So, I cannot imagine anything to complain about Black Creek Preserve. It is 150-acres big but AllTrails.com estimates the hike to take only an hour. (My “moving time” was 1 hour and 15 minutes but because I stopped every now and then to take pictures and film, my “total time” was just about 2 and a half hours.) The trails intersect at various points so you can pretty much navigate your own pattern while hiking it.

Search online for “Black Creek Preserve” and you might get the impression that the Suspension Bridge is all there is by the sheer number of photos of it. (Which, incidentally, is also the photo I use for this video’s thumbnail.)

But the bridge is not even the half of it. It is only the beginning of a winding and immersive trek in Mother Nature. Walk five minutes into the trail and you will find yourself looking down (seemingly) from the top of a mountain, captivated by the forestry surrounding you with its attendant sights, sounds, and smells, such that the Suspension Bridge, pompous and grandiose as it was while you were crossing it, is now relegated to being just a distant, fading, and long-forgotten memory.