Hyde Park Trails

There are seven nature trails in Hyde Park. Spread over two visits to New York, I was fortunate to explore them. Probably the most famous are on the grounds of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s home and that of the Vanderbilt’s. My youngest daughter and grandson (in his stroller) accompanied me on all my treks through these beautiful areas. We found an owl along the Roosevelt Woods Trail, providing me with a great photo. We discovered that you could walk these trails from FDR’s estate into the Vanderbilt Loop, though we explored each one separately since we were constrained on time. We had to get my granddaughter from school. We discovered some of the woodsy trails were rough on the stroller.

On another day, we walked the trail at Pinewoods Park. We visited here after school one day, since this trail was much shorter and more like a big loop through the woods. My daughter had taken the children there a number of times. On another day, we walked through Hackett Hill Park trail, which is just about a mile.

Since I like the Hudson River, we also visited the Mills Mansion in Staatsburg. The children, ages 2 and 6, were very well behaved on the tour. I’m sure that some time in their future, memories of this tour will surface. Also, they enjoyed running up and down the expansive rolling green lawn. This property gave us a great view of the Esopus Meadows Lighthouse on the river. We went back there on a separate visit and walked down to the Hudson. My grandson and his mom enjoyed skipping small stones on the water.

The day before I was returning to San Diego, my daughter called me. They had just opened the trail FDR took to visit Eleanor at her estate in Val-Kill. It runs between 9 and 9G. I got some great photos of some interesting old trees.

Hyde Park seems to be inviting us to be healthier by taking nature walks. Right up my alley. Of course, we personalized it by stopping at Dunkin Donuts and getting our coffee and a small amount of Munchkins.