Adventure America! Hiking Central Park in NYC is not your typical hiking destination.

I travel often to New York City for work and I am usually craving the outdoors after just a few days. You probably don’t have Central Park at the top of your list of hikes to do this year, but it’s a very scenic alternative to the city when in New York. There is virtually no altitude or even dirt to hike on as most of the park is paved and very well trafficked trails, but there are some very cool parts of this very well known park. 
I was staying on the upper east side of Manhattan when I decided that I needed some “outdoors” and to get a bit of a workout in before dinner. I hiked the 5 blocks over to the east entrance of the park near 90th and 5th Ave. There is a slight climb heading west in this part of town and it was a decent warm-up. It’s pretty easy to jump on the running trail that navigates around the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir at this part of the park. The view is pretty great as the park is virtually surrounded by city in every direction. My basic goal was to head south and stay to the outside of the park to get roughly 5 or 6 miles in before it got dark. There are some very cool sections to this park and I had no idea most of it even existed. Of course, I’m not a native New Yorker and it’s probably pretty obvious to everyone that lives there. 
As I was heading south I passed several statues and historic markers that lend themselves to the great city surrounding them. The Central Park Model Boat Sailing was really cool. A bunch of miniature sailboats floating around in this pond with spectators looking on and probably thinking the same thing that I was, This is a thing? I made it all the way down to the backside of the Central Park Zoo and headed west around the big loop where the ‘bike highway” comes and you see several horse carriages carrying tourists around the park.
Making my way back north on the west side of the park was definitely the coolest part. This felt more like a hike as I passed Strawberry Fields and The Lake. The Lake was actually a bit of a surprise as it was really scenic and the boats and kayaks paddling around looked like any lake you would see in the lower peninsula of Michigan. I took some great photos of this section as the skyscrapers in the city made for a nice backdrop.
The Ramble to the north of The Lake was my favorite part. The trails were much more narrow with rocks, dense woods and vegetation all around. I am pretty sure that I saw a very large rat playing with a drunk raccoon as the sun started to go down. I can’t prove any of that, but I guess that would qualify as a wildlife sighting. 
I crossed 79th as I made my way north and as I was rounding a corner I saw Belvedere Castle across Turtle Pond. It’s literally a castle. I had no idea there was so much going on in that park! I passed all the baseball and softball fields and made my way back to the Reservoir that would get me back to 90th st. I was impressed and managed to carve out a great 5.5 miles of ‘hiking”. I only scratched the surface, because when I looked at my GPS compared to the map I only saw about half the park.
So the next time you’re in New York, head over to Central Park and get some miles in! 
Here are the photos I took on my pilgrimage: https://www.instagram.com/p/BylmbcLlQ6f/