Pelham Bay Park
The Bronx's Pelham Bay Park offers the
Kazimiroff Nature Trail, an approximately 2-mile hike that loops through a section of the park known as Hunter Island. Enter from the northern corner of the Orchard Beach parking lot.
You can choose to hike a shorter 30-minute loop or a slightly longer 45-minute path, both of which wind through a variety of landscapes including meadows, shrubland and forest, with views of the Long Island Sound.
"You're actually winding your way through a lot of different ecosystem types," said Aucoin, who added that scenery includes a stretch of rocky coastline that's reminiscent of what you would expect to see in Maine.
"You won't find it anywhere else in New York City," she said. "It's a little slice of New England popped right down there in the Bronx."
Inwood Hill Park
Inwood Hill Park offers visitors a peek into New York's past: it was once inhabited by Native Americans known as the Lenape, and legend has it that the park was where Peter Minuit purchased the isle of Manhattan from them in 1626.
Marine Park
Marine Park includes the Salt Marsh Nature Trail, also known as the
Gerritsen Creek Nature Trail. It can be accessed behind the park's Nature Center near the intersection of East 33rd Street and Avenue U.
The Greenbelt
A 2,880-acre network of parks and green spaces in the center of Staten Island, the Greenbelt boasts more than 35 miles of marked hiking trails, from short loops to a 12-mile path, many of which can be accessed near the park's nature center at 700 Rockland Ave., where visitors can pick up a trail map and plan their hike.
Alley Pond Park
The landscape of Queens' Alley Pond Park was formed by a glacier some 15,000 years ago — it left boulders in the green space which can still be seen today
"It's a great place to witness the remnants of long ago glacial activity," said Aucoin, who said the great sheet of ice left behind the rocky debris, as well as depressions in the earth that are now kettle ponds.