Nature within New York City: The High Line + Central Park

UPDATED: 2/4/2023

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I have traveled to New York City a lot for business travel, more times than I can count, and often spending an entire week or more, right in the congested, touristy center where my office is in Times Square.

A major factor in how I approach a place is whether it is a work trip or a vacation. New York has always been a work trip for me. When I’m on vacation, I’m not too concerned with how long something takes and want to take my sweet time enjoying the sites and taking it all in. But Times Square on a work day – hauling a laptop, sometimes a suitcase – through the throbbing masses of all-the-time-in-the-world tourists, in awe of (in my opinion creepy) characters (e.g., Minnie Mouse, Toy Story characters) who, by the way, expect you to tip them for a photo; mesmerized by the cops astride horses; befuddled by the people who paint themselves up as statues (bronze and marble); clustered around the window for 30 seconds of non-famous fame for Good Morning, America – is not exactly an enjoyable place to be.

So you’ll excuse me for pretty much hating NYC for years. (Except, I’ll say, for the food. I’ve eaten at amazing restaurants.)

But. Of course there is a but. I finally, over the course of two separate trips that encompassed working weekends (oh, the joy!), managed to get out of Times Square and see what else NYC has to offer.

After visiting Central Park on one trip and the High Line on another, I decided there’s more to NYC than Times Square. I fell in love with both places for their uniqueness, liveliness, and unexpectedness. In turn, I re-evaluated NYC itself.

I first read about it in a magazine article. I have a personal interest in environmentally-friendly efforts and was intrigued by the concept of taking an old raised railroad track and making it into an elevated park and path. The High Line is about 1.5 miles in each direction, so walking the length of it, which I did, is a solid 3 mile trek. It can get crowded on nice days but I picked a sticky midsummer day in the morning and didn’t find it too populated.

Everything about it is cool. You see artistic sculptures along the way, various miniature gardens of all varieties but very natural – grasses and other mostly native plants, unique views of the city from a story up, an auditorium seating view onto traffic below (which when I saw it, I realized it’s something that has been in several movies), and eventually there are even some food and art vendors. From Times Square, it was about 5.5 miles round trip, including walking the High Line. It was a totally doable walk and a nice way to see the city. I know more cities are using their space creatively and hope to see more projects like this.

central park

Central Park is a place pretty much everyone has heard of, but I didn’t fully comprehend its sheer size (843 acres) and all the sub-parts to it: the tree-line avenues, the baseball and sports fields, the zoo, the multiple lakes, the boathouse and restaurant, carousels, tables for chess, the theater stage, the European-styled archways, mosaics, and wooded areas that seem like they could be miles from any humanity. At 2.5 miles long and 0.5 miles wide from a city block perspective, what’s deceiving is that walking within the park on meandering pathways is much, much longer. According to their site, a person can walk 6.1 miles within the park on a loop without repeating any paths. I believe it.

I visited on a day in July that was ridiculously hot and humid and walked from Times Square (about a mile away). I loved all the surprising worlds contained within the park – both aesthetic and the variety of people. I found people grouped around tables in the Bethesda Terrace listening to musicians playing, people sunbathing and reading on towels on grassy hills, magicians performing, sport teams competing at baseball, and – most surprising – people having dance-offs with boomboxes and on their roller blades. They may have been time travelers from the 1980s. Anything is possible. I even saw a plane sky-write “Will you marry me?” (a photo of that is below).

I now think of NYC as a more interesting place with more surprises and more to offer. The people watching and photography opportunities at both of these spots are amazing.

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