Happy (City Park) Campers

City-Kid Review:

I really being in the park at night and in the woods and in the park.

I did not expect  camping in a New York City park to be much fun, but it is thrilling. I am very happy we won a lottery spot and were able to do it.

New York City Department of Parks and Recreation offers free camping in various parks throughout the five boroughs. You camp alongside other residents and lovely park rangers who provide tents, nature walks, bird-watching, endless information, games, S’mores (in our case, live music, too). It is really fun. And the park rangers stay up all night to take care of us.

We got to camp in Inwood Park, which is at the very north tip of Manhattan and has a wonderful view of the Henry Hudson bridge crossing Spuyten Duyvil creek into the Bronx. It is a marvelous steel construction and truly beautiful as the sun sets, crossing the tip of the island where the Hudson River meets the Harlem River, seeping into a large tidal marsh.

Inwood park is filled with New York history, real and otherwise. Legend has it that the infamous purchase of Manhattan by the Dutch from the Lenape happened here. Of course, the Lenape had a completely different relationship to the land; the idea of land ownership in the European sense being incomprehensible to them – but Mr. Minuit gave them 60 guilders for it, anyway. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Inwood park is wilder, friendlier and more relaxed than some of the more manicured Manhattan parks. It has within it an enormous swathe of original New York woodland. We went for a sunset nature walk up into these woods to attempt to listen to owls and other night creatures.  We were, also, shown cave formations within the rocks, caused by the original glaciers. Unfortunately, the wise owls stayed away from our groups’ tromping feet, but one did respond to our rangers recording of the same bird. We walked up the steep hill and overlooked the river (and road) to the hills on the other side of the Hudson. It was a magical experience.

On our return, the remaining Rangers had set up a campfire, over which we cooked S’mores. City Kid was thrilled. The supervisory ranger is, also, a professional musician and he played guitar into the small hours, serenading us to sleep.

Everyone must be packed up and out of the park early- before 8am. It is quite relaxed. We were awoken at 6.30am by gentle drumming, and were originally offered a nature bird walk from 7-8am. However, the birds came to us, including a Heron, a mama duck and her seven ducklings and a young Hawk.

After packing up, we wandered over to the nearby Indian Road Cafe, on the corner of Indian Road and the park, to enjoy fresh pastries, juice, Cappucinnos and Matcha lattes.

A truly fun adventure.  It feels good to sleep outside under the stars in Manhattan. We highly recommend.F or City Kid it meant hours of fresh air, nature walks, plenty of vitamin D and a uniquely New York experience.

Need to Knows:

Campers are chosen by lottery. You have to apply on the park ranger website, here, and wait and see. Each park seems to take about ten campers so, if you are like me, you will be wait listed. We got this spot after being wait listed, so spaces do become available.

They provide the tent, activities, forest walks and late night ‘smores. Oh, and bug spray! (Even though they ask you to bring your own, they have extra in case your forget!)

In the morning, they gave out ‘junior ranger’ stars to the kids.

Top-Tip

Bring something to put under your sleeping bag, such as a yoga mat or inflatable lilo as the ground can be quite compacted and hard. Also, check the ground before you set up your tent. I chose our first spot based on the beautiful view, then looked down to discover healthy helpings of goose poop.

If you are lucky enough to camp out at Inwood Hill Park, there is a great cafe right by the entrance, which opens at 7am. You can, also, get there early – as we did – and have a delicious farm-to-table dinner before heading into the park. It is called the Indian Road Cafe and you can read more about it, here.

We recommend getting to your designated park as early as possible to maximize the experience.

Any questions, thoughts or experiences you can share about camping out in  NYC parks? Please post in the comments section.

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