Parks and Trails New York: The Hiker’s Paradise

The parks and trails New York City has to offer are magnificent, deceptively vast, and most often, the last thought running through people’s minds. A densely packed megalopolis seems to speak in the common language of busy midtown sidewalks rather than the soaring prose of hiking trails and outdoor adventure. Yet, New York is a surprising place in many ways.

Created by the legislature in 1991, the Hudson River Valley Greenway was envisioned as a continuous series of hiking, biking, and small watercraft trails up both banks of the Hudson River—a sort of all-New York version of the Appalachian Trail. The city serves as the southern anchor for this ambitious undertaking. Many of NYC’s own greenway projects have been integrated into the larger framework of the overall Hudson Valley initiative.

The city’s Manhattan Waterfront Greenway runs for approximately 32 miles along the west side from Battery Park up through Riverside Park and past the George Washington Bridge. This is the most heavily used bike trail in the country! On the other side of the city, the East River Greenway also runs from Battery Park north into Harlem and then zigzags across the island to join its western link at Dyckman Street.

The other New York boroughs also have large parks with multiple trails available for use. Brooklynites have many scenic, but rather short trails in Prospect and Marine Parks. In Queens, Alley Pond Park and Forest Park offer trails that range from a short walk to a longer 3-mile hike. In the Bronx, Van Cortlandt Park has multiple trails 1 to 1.5 miles in length. The Blue Trail on Staten Island is a more challenging 12 miles.

With such a wide variety of lengths and difficulties to choose from, the parks and trails New York offers to the public contain something for everybody. They have options from an easy nature hike or interactive environmental learning experience to a full-length trek up the valley of the Hudson. Whatever trail one chooses, a surprising peek into the natural world waits beneath the shadow of the skyscrapers.