New York

I’ve taken the train up to Cold Spring twice now, both times without a car, and both times I came home thinking the same thing. This is one of the easiest nature days you can have if you live in…

Most people walk through Central Park without going to the part where you can feel like you’re in a forest.

They come for the Sheep Meadow or the Bethesda Fountain or the Reservoir track. They see the park, they enjoy the park, and they leave without going anywhere that doesn’t feel like a well-maintained public attraction.

The North Woods is, well, actually woods. Or maybe “woodland” is the right term because it has been curated to simulate the woods. But it still feels like the woods.

It has dirt trails that wind in and out, streams, native vegetation that lives on forest floors.

**If you want to do something that resembles a real hike in Central Park, this is where you go.**

## The Most Accessible “Hike” In New York City

“Hike” may be a strong term, but in terms of transit-accessible hikes, this the

The North Woods is not the wildest outdoor experience available to you in New York City. For that, you want Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx, which has 2,772 acres and real hiking trails. Or Van Cortlandt Park, where the forest gets deep enough to feel remote. Or Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in Queens, a federally protected bird sanctuary with miles of trails through marshland and coastal scrub.

All of those are worth going to. But they’re all further.

The North Woods is close to half a dozen subway lines and Citi Bike docks. It’s, well, in the center of the city.

**For the combination of actual nature and being easy to reach, it’s hard to match.**

### There are Lots of Hills

One aspect I really like about the North Woods is that there’s lots of elevation, if you’re looking for it.

## The Best Way In

Most visitors approach the North Woods from the south, through the Ravine or near the Loch, because those spots show up on the park map and in every “hidden gems of Central Park” article that has ever been published.

The better entrance, if what you want is to feel like you’re in the woods immediately, is the one near St. Nicholas Avenue and West 110th Street. At least, in my opinion.

[Image of this entrance]

You’re in the trees within a few minutes, and you’re much less likely to be walking in with a tour group.

## There Are No Set Trails

There is no official loop through the North Woods. The Central Park Conservancy has a self-guided tour, and AllTrails has a route, but neither of those is how I experience the North Woods, and I think, how most locals experience it.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/assets.centralparknyc.org/media/documents/MonthlyMiles_07NorthWoods_2024.pdf

**If you follow the AllTrails route, it will take you in and out of the woods. If you follow the Central Park Conservancy’s route, you will miss a lot of the small trails that feel most like woods.**

The North Woods is a network of dirt and gravel paths that wind through the terrain, cross the stream, go up and over hills, and loop back on themselves in ways that aren’t always obvious. You’ll find paths on a third visit that you missed twice before. Over time, I’ve learned the trails, but I don’t even know exactly how to explain them, because a lot of them are unmarked. This is a long way of saying that **I think the North Woods are great to just wander around.**

For orientation, use Google Maps to get a rough sense of where the North Woods boundaries are before you go in. **For an ideal experience, stay within these boundaries.**

[Google Maps Screenshots]

The main paved cycling routes that cut through Central Park are the clearest landmark to watch for. If you cross one of them, you’ve left the North Woods.

It’s worth knowing because the AllTrails route for the North Woods crosses this several times, taking you out of the woods and back in again. That makes it a longer, pleasant walk, but it’s not a North Woods hike. Stay inside the boundary and stay in the trees.

## The Tourist Version and the Local Version

The North Woods has a tourist version and a local version, and they exist in the same 40 acres.

The tourist version is the Loch and the Ravine, especially the small waterfall in the Ravine. It’s beautiful, and it’s worth seeing on a first visit. It also shows up on every Central Park list ever written. On a nice weekend afternoon, it’s not a hidden gem. It’s just a popular spot. The good news is that this far north in Central Park, it’s rarely overflowing with people.

The local version is the sections away from the Ravine, toward the interior and northern parts of the North Woods. You may be the only person there who isn’t walking a dog. The noise of the city drops off faster, although you can still hear ambulance sirens. The terrain gets hillier. There are rock outcrops to scramble around on if you want them.

Go see the waterfall. Then keep walking and find somewhere quieter.

## What This Place Says About Cities

Central Park is 843 acres in the middle of Manhattan. That it exists is the result of a 19th-century decision to take an enormous piece of valuable land and not build on it.

The history of how it was created is complicated, including the displacement of thousands of people who had been living there. None of that should be glossed over.

But what the park created, including 40 acres of real woodland in the most visited urban park in the country, is I think, proof that **nature and cities should co-exist**. Most American cities have nothing like it. Not because there’s no land, but because there’s rarely the political will to protect land from development and roads and let it be something other than profitable.

The North Woods exists because, at some point, someone decided it should exist and fought to keep it that way. That’s the story of almost every urban green space, down to the smallest community garden.

We should be making more of those decisions, in more cities, all the time, fighting the tough political fights to turn surface parking lots and excessive car lanes into green spaces.

## The Best Time to Visit The North Woods

There’s no wrong season. Spring and fall are the obvious picks for color. Summer isn’t so bad, because you’re under tree cover **it’s noticeably cooler than on the city streets**. Winter, with the leaves down, you can see the rock formations and the topography of the terrain much more clearly, and the trails are almost entirely locals.