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The route to the summit is past large baronial houses with immaculated maintained grounds. The summit itself is a rock outcropping in an undeveloped woodland behind a chain link and barbed wire fence. Below is the Bronx section of an article by Michael Crewson and Margaret Mittelbach in the New York Times on November 18, 1998 The Bronx Is Up Day 1. Second Ascent: 1 P.M. Feeling pumped up after successfully scaling our first height, we get back on the No. 1 train and head for the Bronx. Two engineers for the Bronx Borough President's office, Dan Donovan and Bill Mouzon, have told us the Bronx's highest point is 284.5 feet above sea level. They've even pinpointed the top spot on Grosvenor Avenue a few feet north of 250th Street. But there is a slight problem. North of 250th Street, Grosvenor Avenue exists only on a map. ''They never extended the street,'' Mr. Donovan explains. When we get off the subway at Broadway and 242d Street next to Van Cortlandt Park, we leave the flat playing fields behind and wander up into the hills to investigate. Ascending 246th Street, we soon pass a sign that informs us we are entering Fieldston, a ''private community'' of ''private streets.'' As we climb farther into the highlands, we notice the houses here are large and eccentric. Some have castlelike turrets; others, with steeply gabled roofs, look like witches' houses. The atmosphere, if not thin, is definitely getting rare. We detour into a web of confusing side streets and make several wrong turns. Finally, we turn on Goodridge Avenue, which sounds promising until it dead-ends. At 2 P.M. we locate 250th Street and mount it to its pinnacle at Grosvenor Avenue. There, we're confronted with the ugly truth: a rusting fence topped with barbed wire. Grosvenor, indeed, does not continue north of this point. Gazing through the chain-link fence into a parcel of privately owned woodlands, we see a promising pile of dark bedrock, almost hidden behind leafy maples. It's tantalizingly close, yet there is no break in the fence that will allow us to reach the summit. We feel like Everest climbers who reach the Hillary
Step, just 200 vertical feet below the roof of the world, and must return
without reaching the summit. We are perhaps 10 vertical feet shy of the
Bronx's top spot. Drat.
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Fieldston Hill, a private residental community, reportedly has the largest and most expensive homes in New York City -- a point underscored the by the private security guards who shadowed me during my entire visit. Up until the subway reached 242nd Street at the turn of the century, the hill was a game preserve. Joseph Delafield then built huge Tudor style houses. He named the area initially "Delafield Woods" but his alternative name "Fieldston" (named for the family estate in England) stuck. Fieldston towering over VanCortland Park very much gives the impression that you are not in New York. George Washington after being routed from Manhattan's highest point in 1776 by the British proved that he deserves the title of the "Father of County High Pointing" by sleeping at Fieldston's base in 1783 before triumphantly re-entering Manhattan. The VanCortland House and museum maintained by the Colonial Dames remain open and a huge open park where I had to dodge Canadian geese and soccer players to take photos of the summit. Turkeys, wood ducks, deer and even an occasional coyote are said to inhabit New York City's third largest park. VanCortland is the last stop on the 1 and 9 (red) subway. Its immediate neighborhood is so suburban that it seems to share more with neighboring Westchester County than New York City. Following computer generated instructions for reaching the summit I initially went too far north the subway stop at 242nd and Broadway as I looked for 246th Street. This did give me a chance to chat with passersby who swore the summit was at the "Russian Mission" at 254th Street. "Oh, you're going to have to go much higher," a woman assured me. I circled back to access 246th Street via Manhattan Street which was just south of a Burger King and immediately north of the subway stop. This led to Post Road and then on up the summit via the computer route. The houses in the neighborhood are huge and the manicured were abloom with azaelas. A neighborhood security car circled about. I was actually breathing a little heavy and my ankle hurt a little. As I reached the summit at 250th and Grosevor, I could see the actual summit would be denied. A rock outcropping in thick wooded grove was hidden behind a rusted chain fence topped by barbed wire and signs proclaiming "Private Grounds." I circled around the summit until I reached the parking lot of a private school (named curiously the Henry Ittleson Center for Child Research) where the rocks seemed to tower the highest over it. A man told me they don't want attention. On the way down, I passed a army of chauffers outside the Horace Mann School (one of numerous schools on the hill). Inside it appeared a PTA meeting was going on. Other hills in the same Riverdale section of the Bronx are more famous -- Wave Hill and Fonthill -- and have spectacular views of the Hudson and the Palisades in Jew Jersey. 
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