The Best View From Todt Hill Is From a Hill Somebody Built

Todt Hill rises 410 feet. The Landmarks Preservation Commission calls it "the highest natural point on the Eastern Seaboard between Cape Cod and Florida." The view people climb for this fall comes from a smaller, man-made hill nearby, and most of the hill's October calendar is the same kind of thing. Volunteers keep the woods clear. The Greenbelt Nature Center schedules the hikes. Historical interpreters run Historic Richmond Town after dark. The only part of this geography that nobody made is the summit itself.

That changes how to plan a fall here. Every date below is set by an organization: NYC Parks, the Greenbelt Conservancy, Protectors of Pine Oak Woods, Historic Richmond Town. Almost all of it is free, and most of it is on foot. The busiest Saturday of the month is Oct. 17, when a trail workshop and a village festival share the day and a third program stops for the night.

The Peak Made of Road Fill

The hill that used to be called Moses Mountain has been Paulo's Peak since NYC Parks renamed it in 2022. Parks describes it as a 200-foot artificial hill built from material dug out for a highway project. In 2017, the Staten Island Advance reported that the fill is serpentine rock and soil. It was stored for a section of the Richmond Parkway that was never finished. The same report says the viewpoint reaches west to New Jersey and calls it a Greenbelt highlight for hikers and birders.

The 2017 article gives the height as 260 feet. Parks' current page, which uses the new name, says 200.

The Greenbelt Conservancy places the peak off the Yellow Trail, off Rockland Avenue near High Rock Park. It is not on the Blue Trail. That matters for anyone planning a loop from the top of the hill. Protectors of Pine Oak Woods has described a small parking area at the Yellow Trailhead near Manor Road and Rockland Avenue.

Parks has a guided route on the calendar. The Greenbelt Nature Center's free adult hike to Paulo's Peak runs Thursday, Oct. 22, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., starting at 700 Rockland Avenue at Brielle Avenue. Because it falls on a weekday, it misses the weekend crowd that October brings to the farm and village down the road.

The Trail That Carries the Hill's Name

Paulo's Peak gives the view. The Blue Trail gives the hill its connection to the rest of the Greenbelt. In its Deere Park history, NYC Parks says the trail begins at the bottom of Staten Island Boulevard and climbs Todt Hill near the top of Todt Hill Road and Ocean Terrace. Parks' current hiking page describes a route that starts on Brielle Avenue, runs alongside Manor Road, crosses Rockland Avenue and continues through High Rock Park to Walker Pond. The two official sources give different total lengths for the trail, so the map at the trailhead is the safest guide on the day.

The Todt Hill Blue Trail section through High Rock Park stays walkable partly because volunteers come back to it year after year. On Saturday, Oct. 17, from 10 a.m. to noon, the Greenbelt Conservancy and Protectors of Pine Oak Woods hold a free forest restoration workshop starting at 1 Helena Road. Volunteers cut and pull out Devil's Walking Stick, an invasive plant, and cut woody vines off the trees. The group then walks back to the parking lot along the St. Francis Woodlands boardwalk. Protectors bring tools, gloves and refreshments, and registration is on Eventbrite.

The groups ran a nearly identical workshop on Oct. 18, 2025: the same invasive plant, the same vines, the same walk back over the boardwalk. Doing the same work two Octobers in a row shows the kind of ongoing upkeep this trail gets. The Parks listing gives the St. Francis Woodlands lot as the end of Helena Road, off Todt Hill Road, on the first street north of Whitlock Avenue. For anyone living on the hill, the lot is a short drive or a walk.

Oct. 17, Two Events by Day and None After Dark

The restoration workshop ends at noon. Historic Richmond Town's Old Home Day runs that same Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. It is free and open to the public, with demonstrations of historic trades, crafts and Staten Island heritage programs. A volunteer can finish on the Blue Trail and still have most of the afternoon in the village.

The village's evening program takes that night off. Historic Richmond Town's Village Ghost Tours run Friday and Saturday evenings at 7 and 8:30 p.m. through Oct. 31, and the site lists Oct. 17 as the one night with no tours. The tours last about an hour and go inside historic buildings after hours by lantern light. Interpreters tell the stories of Staten Islanders from the past, including people accused and tried at the Third County Courthouse. Richmond Town describes the program as storytelling, not paranormal ghost hunting. It recommends the tours for ages 8 and up, with an adult, and runs them rain or shine unless the weather is severe.

For a household that wants all three, the order matters. Do the woods in the morning and the village in the afternoon, and book a ghost tour for the Friday before or any Friday or Saturday after.

The Rest of the Season, in Order

Decker Farm pumpkin picking opened today, Oct. 3. It runs on October weekends plus the second Monday, Oct. 12, from noon to 5 p.m. through Oct. 25, at 435 Richmond Hill Road. The other dates around the hill:

The Haunted Trail also has a pumpkin patch and crafts, so younger children can go early and the 6 p.m. portion can be left to older ones. Hearth & Harvest will include Native dance, storytelling and crafts, historic hearth-cooking demonstrations and vendors. Richmond Town's page still lists tickets as "coming soon," so check before the weekend. Sanderson's Oct. 10 talk, about what the land looked like before New York, pairs well with a walk up a hill where some of the ground was moved by people and some was not.

Down the Hill, the Restaurants Changed Too

The restaurants below the hill have been turning over this year. Casita of Brooklyn, a women-owned café blending Latin, Spanish and Greek influences, opened a Dongan Hills location in November 2025. SILive's story on the opening gives the address as 1456 Richmond Road, while the paper's year-end roundup lists a Hylan Boulevard address, so check before heading over. Baci Ristorante at 1657 Richmond Road came under new leadership in January 2026. SILive reported that it kept its Italian menu, rooftop seating and private rooms.

On Hylan Boulevard, Little Kitchen opened by June 2026 at 1724 Hylan, in the former Bai Wei space, serving Shanghainese and Chinese food. CD Burger took over the former Kuzina space at 1458 Hylan, serving burgers, chicken sandwiches and hot dogs.

A few addresses closed in the same stretch. Fine Fare, the 9,000-square-foot market at 1689 Richmond Road, closed in November 2025, before its first anniversary. SILive's July 2026 list of closings includes Dedem Mediterranean at 1755 Richmond Road, which closed in April, and Hikaru Ramen House at 1679 Hylan Boulevard, which closed in the spring.

What's Scheduled at High Rock After the Leaves Fall

NYC Parks' capital project tracker lists a $300,000 water main reconstruction in High Rock Park, with construction scheduled from July 2026 to January 2027. The tracker still shows construction at 0 percent and says only that a start date has been set. The project page says nothing about trail closures, detours or changes to access. Through January, the safest source for conditions on any High Rock trail is the signage at the trailhead.

Todt Hill's woods, its peak and the restaurants below all depend on people keeping them going, and Jillian Abbadessa follows those details the same way she follows the market on Staten Island. If you would like to talk about what this season of change on the hill means for your own plans, Let's Connect.