The 8 Best Outdoor Oases In NYC
April 10, 2013, 11:31 a.m.
Our sprawling metropolis boasts a wide array of parks, paths, gardens, bridges and boats to explore in the spring and summer months. Here are our favorites.
At last, after a winter that lingered long past its welcome and made us seethe with frozen-toed rage into early April, the "great outdoors" exist as more than just unyielding chambers of torture. And while Prospect Park and the High Line are popular spots to take in high temps and soft breezes, there are also a whole bunch of slightly less well-trodden paths, parks, gardens, bridges and boats to explore that are just as worth a trip. Plus, they're often slightly less packed with Vitamin D-starved New Yorkers and tourists in the spring and summer months. Here are our favorites—as always, leave yours in the comments:
WAVE HILL: 170 years ago, Wave Hill was just another rich lawyer's mansion; but after decades upon decades of landscaping, gardening, greenhousing and curating, it's now a public garden boasting 28 acres of Northeastern flora and fauna. For a small entrance fee ($8, $4 students and seniors, $2 children), you can spend a few hours wandering through flower and wild gardens, winding woodland paths and vistas overlooking the Hudson River, along with plenty of other natural wonders. And although the bike ride up there can be pretty treacherous, it's a solid reward, especially on Target First Saturdays and Tuesdays before noon, when admission's free.
The entrance to Wave Hill is located at 675 West 252nd Street in the Fieldston section of the Bronx (718-549-3200, wavehill.org).
WILLIAMSBURG BRIDGE: Just hear us out. There's nothing quite like spending some time suspended above the East River on a warm day (or night). And though there are more than a few bridges that connect Manhattan to its neighboring Eastern boroughs, the Williamsburg Bridge is a particular favorite. Both the pedestrian path and the separate bike path offer stellar views of Lower Manhattan, the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges and Midtown, without the constant tourist photography congestion the Brooklyn Bridge tends to suffer. And if the views aren't enough for you to look at, the bridge has played home to some pretty great street art, impromptu concerts, and illegal acrobatics over the years, in addition to hundreds of chalk drawings and scattered graffiti tags dotting the pathways. There's also an ideal pot-smoking meeting place in the middle, just sayin'.
The entrance ramp to the Williamsburg Bridge in Brooklyn is located on Bedford Ave near South 6th Street in Williamsburg. The entrance ramp on the Manhattan side is located on Delancey Street near Clinton Street.
SWINDLER COVE AT SHERMAN PARK: This lush little Inwood/Washington Heights park's only a decade old, and when it opened to the public in 2003, it elicited little fanfare. But it's a lovely spot in the spring and summer, nestled right next to the Harlem river and covered in a canopy of trees and filled with colorful plants and tufted bushes. Swindler Cove Park is also home to the Peter Jay Sharp Boathouse, a community spot where locals have the opportunity to explore the area's waterways—soft waves and little-to-no nearby car traffic making it a peaceful place to row, particularly in the early morning hours. And though Swindler Cove Park got hit pretty hard during Hurricane Sandy, suffering damage to wetlands, trees and the shoreline, cleanup efforts spearheaded by the New York Restoration Project have helped since restore some of the park.
Swindler Cove is located at Dyckman Street by the Harlem River in Inwood/Washington Heights (212-333-2552, nyrp.org).
ASTORIA PARK: If you're a fan of bridges, this is your Valhalla. Both the Triborough-RFK Memorial Bridge and the Hells Gate Bridge cross through Astoria's green oasis, and views of both structures, coupled with the Manhattan skyline, are spectacular, particularly along the park's riverfront pathway. And though the park itself isn't as big as, say, Central or Prospect, it's home to one of the best public pools in the city; the 330-foot long Astoria pool's got plenty of space on a hot Queens day, plus it's not half as pukey, poopy and punchy as some other pools we know, and the city's even been transforming the park's abandoned diving pool into a performance space. Oh, the memories...
Astoria Park runs along 19th Street between Astoria Park Street and Ditmars Blvd. in Astoria, Queens (nycgovparks.org).
SCHOONER ADIRONDACK: It's somehow easy to forget how much tantalizing water beckons us in this crazy city. But as Herman Melville so eloquently put in Moby-Dick, one of the best ways to get over your penchant for "methodically knocking people's hats off" in the street is to take to the water. There are many ways for New Yorkers to do this, from kayaking to submarines to the East River Ferry, but one of the most salubrious is to book a seat on the atavistic Schooner Adirondack, an 80-foot, 1890s-style sailboat that gives small groups passengers intimate tours of the harbor.
A serene spell takes over the schooner as it glides through the harbor away from Chelsea Piers, with you sitting low and close to the water's surface. When the crew isn't attending to the rigging and following the captain's orders, they're taking drink orders, which are included with the cost of the tour. The sunset sail, offered from April through the end of November is particularly peaceful, and delivers you up to the feet of the Statue of Liberty and back again. The engines are shut off for much of this 90 minute trip, and the effect of all that silence and space is well-nigh sublime. That sunset cruise costs $65, drinks included, and there's also a "full moon" cruise, which is just the thing for "driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation." (John "Ishmael" Del Signore)
The Schooner Adirondack boards at Chelsea Piers, Pier 62 at West 22nd St near the Hudson River in Chelsea. (Details here).
FRESHKILLS PARK: One man's trash is another man's 2,200 acre refurbished landfill site, and even though Staten Island's Freshkills Park was built atop a portion of the borough's famed dump, don't think for a second that means the park is just a trash heap. When completed, this enormous park—three times the size of Central Park!—will span a large section of the Island's middle and give visitors access to a variety of ecosystems within the park. It's already a big hit with urban bird watchers who flock to the William T. Davis Wildlife Refuge to see the more than 117 bird species that have been spotted there. For everyone else, it's just a tranquil retreat and another reason the forgotten borough is worth a visit. If you're lucky, maybe you'll spot one of the park's hungry mascots. (Nell Casey)
Freshkills Park is located on Staten Island. Its confines are Victory Boulvard, W. Shore Expressway, Richmond Avenue between Sign Road, Travis Avenue and Arthur Kill Road. Book a free private tour to check out parts of the park not open yet to the public.
CENTRAL PARK'S NORTH WOODS: Avoid the throngs of half-naked sunbathers on the Sheep Meadow and venture into this wooded oasis in the park's upper quadrant. Modeled after the Adirondack Mountains, the North Woods offers a serene and picturesque respite from the mobbed grassy knolls and also provides welcome shade during the hotter months. The central part of the North Woods, known was the Ravine, is allowed run wild by the Parks Department; unless it's a hazard of some kind, fallen trees and branches are left to "provide nutrients to surrounding plants, homes to wildlife and a natural look to the landscape." As if the section could be any more tranquil, running through the center of the woodland is The Loch, a quaint stream that flows between the trees and over scenic waterfalls. (Nell Casey)
The North Woods are located within the Northern section of Central Park. Enter through the Glen Span Arch on the West Side at 102nd Street, just east of The Pool.
THE CLOISTERS: The beautiful artifacts inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art's branch dedicated to European medieval art and architecture are certainly worth a visit but the gorgeous gardens, cloisters and views will keep you coming back for more. Take a seat in one of the interior courtyards—aka cloisters—to soak up the sunshine and admire the beautiful flowers the shrubs planted within, which are meant to mimic gardens from the period. There's also a fragrant herb garden, which contains over 250 species of herbs that were cultivated in the Middle Ages. But perhaps most spectacular of all is the unspoiled view from the parapets of the Palisades, a stretch of greenbelt along the Hudson River in New Jersey that was bequeathed to the city of New York by the Rockefeller family. (Nell Casey)
The Cloisters is located at 99 Margaret Corbin Drive in Fort Tryon Park; 212-923-3700. Open Tuesday through Sunday 9:30 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. Open Mondays beginning in July.