Its short and steep ascent offers hikers 360° views of the Hudson River, West Point, Bear Mountain, and Harriman State Park.

The lake comprises the largest body of water at West Point, and is used for aquatic training such as scuba diving and amphibious assault.

[4] In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, cadets from West Point traditionally had a three-day war game dubbed "the Battle of Popolopen" each August.

The creek's watershed, or drainage basin, covers about 30 square miles (77 km²) It runs mainly through lands occupied by the US Military Academy, to a gorge between Bear Mountain and Popolopen Torne, and drains to the Hudson River at Fort Clinton, New York.

Lowe wrote that the gorge known as Hell Hole is the result of a fault within a regional intrusion of crystalline rock called Storm King granite.

A badly weathered, unhealed zone of crushed Storm King granite is exposed in the south wall of upper Hell Hole.

These run along the north side of the creek from Hell Hole to the bridge, with the Timp-Torne detouring over the summit of Popolopen Torne.

[16] Much later, the road north from Hessian Lake to Fort Montgomery once crossed the lower part of the gorge by an iron bridge.

The footbridge was designed as a suspended rope truss, which results in a very stiff bridge due to its diagonal braces.

The fiber composite deck adds lightness, long term durability and reduced maintenance requirements.

The Forest of Dean Mine produced iron ore from the Revolutionary era into the twentieth century, and operated a narrow gauge railroad along the creek as far as the eastern slopes of Popolopen Torne.

[20] An aqueduct was built on the north side of the gorge in 1906 to bring water from Queensboro Brook and Popolopen Creek to West Point.

[21] Another was built on the south side in 1929–30 to supply Bear Mountain State Park with water from Queensboro Lake.