New York City is a Gold Mine

jaschmidt | Jan 15, 2010 |

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New York City's image has always been depicted as a crowded place of high rise buildings, shopping malls, sleazy night life and troubled residential neighborhoods but never as the greenest city in all of America. Although Central Park provides a good backdrop of New York's claim to greenery, Central park ranks only the fifth in the top 10 large parks that makes New York City a gold mine for the nature lover. New York City has about 28,000 acres of parkland and 23 kilometers of beaches.

This is something that most New York visitors realize only if they set their hearts and mind in visiting New York as travel tour websites will provide information that New York City is a gold mine for the nature lover. In fact, New York is quite diversified since every traveler can have his own kind of vacation entertainment while in New York, from educational, cultural, musical to nature tripping genre.

There are about 1,700 parks and playgrounds that can uphold New York City as a gold mine for the nature lover. In fact, outdoor activities are without let up since even seasonal activities also come into fore in New York City. Cycling and hiking nature trails, rowing boats, skate boarding, inline and ice skating, basketball, soccer, tennis are just a few of the activities here. New York City as gold mine for the nature lover will make a visitor feel at home in the greenest parks ever. He or she can just spread out a blanket and enjoy his entire surroundings by just simply lying back and do some bird watching.

Visit the New Botanical Garden through the guided tours where you can find the most diverse collection of flowers in 250 acres of natural terrain, waterfalls, ponds, rolling hills and rock outcroppings. There are about 50 gardens that house collections of more than 1 million beautiful flora. There are trees that date back as far back as 200 years and over 8,000 in orchid collection making New York City a gold mine for the nature lover. If flowers and diverse plants abound in New York City Botanical Gardens then so do birds that make the gardens their home. Make sure to bring your binoculars with you and join the tours conducted by the National Audubon Society.

Now if you want to see more of the birds in their wildlife sanctuary, visit the Blue Heron Park at New York's Staten Island. The sanctuary was once a landfill site for abandoned cars until concerned citizens made the move to save the area and reveal its meadows, ponds, streams, nature trails and woodland. Since then other residents and Park officials gave them the support they needed as their contribution in making New York City a gold mine for the nature lover.

Today, the park has two observation decks where people bird watch intently. It is equipped with picnic tables for their use and pleasure. Park Rangers and the Friend of Blue Heron include educational tours, instructional classes, some storytelling and holiday festivities. Everything fell according to plan which all the more enhances New York City as gold mine for the nature lover.

Clove Lakes Park will thrill even the tour members who would prefer to combine nature tripping with getting into some sports activities. The park is a wide meadow with four lakes connected by streams. Visitors will truly find New York City as gold mine for the nature lover as they can explore its refreshing nature by taking rowboat rides to for some fishing or simply just for cruising. Picnic grounds give support to different activities like ice skating or running /hiking in some nature trail, cross country square and birdie paths. There's also a restaurant for those who didn't bring along picnic baskets.

If you still hanker for more fishing activities, you can visit Central Park's Charles A. Dana Discovery Center or Willowbrook Park. New York City is a gold mine for the nature lover and everyone who simply wants to be surrounded by natural beauty.

Belvedere Castle is said to weave the most magic in making New York City a gold mine for the nature lover because its setting is at the top of Vista Rock. It provides the most scenic view of New York and its combined wealth of metropolitan resources and natural greenery. It was designed as an 1865 fantasy building and provides an overview of the land's natural reservoir. By New York's reputation as a gold mine for nature lover, this will surely be justified because this where bird watching visitors often see hawks and kestrels nesting.

New York City is a gold mine for the nature lover who always emerges with the best of smiles in photos where he or she is surrounded with unbelievable beauty.