Hook Mountain State Park. Hook Mountain State Park is a 676-acre undeveloped state park located in Rockland County, New York.
The park includes a portion of the Hudson River Palisades on the western shore of the Hudson River, and is part of the Palisades Interstate Park system. Hook Mountain State Park is functionally part of a continuous complex of parks that also includes Rockland Lake State Park, Nyack Beach State Park, and Haverstraw Beach State Park.
A central feature of the park is Hook Mountain, a 689-foot summit overlooking Rockland Lake and the Hudson River. Hook Mountain was known to Dutch settlers of the region as Verdrietige Hook, meaning Tedious Point, which may have been a reference to how long the mountain remained in view while sailing past it along the Hudson River, or for the troublesome winds that sailors encountered near the point.
Hook Mountain has also been known in the past as Diedrick Hook. Like other areas of the Hudson River Palisades, the landscape now included in Hook Mountain State Park was threatened by quarrying in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
To ensure the land's protection, the property was acquired to be a part of the Palisades Interstate Park in 1911. Portions of Hook Mountain State Park and nearby Nyack Beach State Park were designated as a National Natural Landmark in 1980 for their portion of the Palisades Sill. Hook Mountain was designated by the New Yor