Outside in Kingsbridge / Riverdale

More than a thousand acres starting at the top of Broadway, with a lake, the oldest public golf course in the country and the cross-country course that most New York high schools have run. The Parade Ground at the Broadway end is the flat open part and it is where everything happens. The Putnam Trail runs north from the lake on an old railway bed.

Open 6am to 1am daily, the standard NYC Parks schedule

Twenty-eight acres of garden on the bluff above the Hudson, looking straight across at the Palisades. It was a private estate that Mark Twain and Theodore Roosevelt both rented at different points, and it became a public garden in 1965. There is a pergola, a glasshouse, wild gardens and a lot of benches pointed at the river.

Tue to Sun, 10am to 5:30pm, last entry 5pm. Closed Monday. Ten dollars adults, six students and seniors, four for children six and up, free on Thursdays