Leon Levy Preserve

While well-known regional nature preserves like Minnewaska State Park, Harriman Park, and other popular destinations can offer amazing scenery to take in, they also often come with overcrowded parking lots and lots of people on the trails.  Sometimes it can be nice to explore in more local preserves that while smaller can still contain unique sights worth exploring.  One such local preserve I visit periodically is the Leon Levy Preserve in South Salem, NY.  While the trails are not lengthy they are very runnable and allow for the easy planning of routes that form a loop.  It’s a great place for a 5K or 10K length training run. 

I’ve also always been partial to trails that contain a bit of history and the preserve checks that box as well with the ruins that are now known as the Black Mansion – a summer home built by the renowned organic chemist James Mason Crafts (discovered the Friedel-Crafts reaction) that burned down in 1979.  The Freidel-Crafts reaction is a key component of processes used to make certain pharmaceuticals, many polymers and resins, as well as industrial chemicals.  While that particular reaction predates the building of the Black Mansion, one can’t help but wonder what chemical breakthroughs were made as Crafts traversed many of the very same trails. 

It’s a great local preserve that also contains a small gorge and stone bridge that spans it.