That makes this a place to look at the Palisades rather than ride on them, and it is a good view. The cliffs are a wall of dark basalt, more than five hundred feet at their highest, formed when molten rock pushed into softer sandstone about two hundred million years ago and cooled into tall columns.
On this side of the river, the road to know is the Henry Hudson Parkway, a Robert Moses design of the 1930s that follows the river north from Manhattan with landscaped slopes and graceful stone bridges. It is a rider's road in its own way, with curving lanes, tree canopies in summer and good views of the George Washington Bridge and the Little Red Lighthouse tucked underneath it. Beyond Riverdale, the road becomes the Saw Mill and then enters Yonkers, a city of two hundred thousand people with a long history on the waterfront and a revived downtown. Wave Hill, a public garden and cultural center in Riverdale, has a view across the Hudson to the Palisades that is hard to beat, especially in the late afternoon.
For motorcycles, the nuances are real. The parkways ban trucks and have low stone bridges, which make them calmer. They also have short on-ramps, tight curves and heavy rush-hour traffic. Potholes after winter can be severe, and speed enforcement is active, so a steady pace beats a hurry. Crossing the Hudson on the George Washington Bridge puts you on the Palisades Parkway at its southern end, from where it runs north along the cliff tops with stone walls and tall oaks.
Fuel and food are plentiful on this side. Riverdale and Yonkers have gas stations on the main avenues, delis, Greek diners and an increasing number of good bakeries, and the old downtown Yonkers waterfront has restaurants with views across the river. Parking is much easier than in Manhattan.
The best time to be here is early evening, when the sun drops behind the Palisades and the cliffs go from gold to purple. The river holds the light a long time.