Celebrating Earth Day! Tour of Hudson Heights & Inwood + 2 Spectacular Parks!

RSVPs begin on Saturday, April 6th at 11:00am. Note this event is offered concurrently with my other Meetup group, "Exploring NYC History and Neighborhoods."

This tour is free with welcome donations to your guide at the end.

Restrooms: At the beginning of the tour at the Mother Cabrini Shrine - and later in Fort Tryon and Inwood Hill Parks.

To bring: A picnic lunch, water, and snacks. The shrine honors Frances Cabrini, the patron saint of immigrants and there is a new movie out about her life, "Cabrini."
https://cabrinishrinenyc.org/

Estimated walking distance: 5-6 miles with some uphill and downhill. Wear sturdy shoes and please be reasonably fit.

Overview:
There is indeed abundant nature in Upper Manhattan. We'll visit both Fort Tryon and Inwood Hill Parks and take in the portions of the Hudson Heights and Inwood neighborhoods in the most northern section of Manhattan and learn about the development of these areas for residential use along with the architecture, which includes a lot of art deco.

We'll first explore a good portion of this 67-acre park, which is also a scenic NYC landmark, with its vistas of the Hudson River, spectacular geology and gardens, along with the remnants of the estate of C.G.K Billings estate, completed 1905-07. Our lunch be fairly early in the tour and will have another break prior to our short hike through Inwood Park.

Fort Tryon Park
The landscape design firm was made up of John Charles Olmsted and Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., sons of Frederick Law Olmsted, the man who designed Central Park with Calvert Vaux. The team converted land John D. Rockefeller had acquired from multiple estate owners and made them into Fort Tryon Park in 1935. The genius in the landscape design is a realization of the potential for a rough, almost impenetrable rocky slope. Decorative rocks – walls, boulders, and stone borders – are part of a complex design and compliment the outcroppings of metamorphic Manhattan schist, containing minerals such as quartz, feldspar, mica, and garnet. To top it off, there are a good 1,000 varieties of flowers, plants, trees and shrubs!

About Inwood
Inwood, for a small neighborhood, features a wide variety of activity ranging from bustling Broadway and a restaurant row to quiet streets lined with art deco apartment buildings and Manhattan's last remaining Dutch farmhouse from the 18th century! The main attraction is Inwood Hill Park, which features Manhattan's only old forest and salt marsh, interesting geology, rock shelters used by American Indians and much more! We'll take a nice hike through the park to see some of the features.
Tour ends at 211th Street and Broadway, convenient to both the #1 and A trains. Optional "afterparty" at a local establishment.

Your organizer and guide,

Hank
646-596-3005
hankorenstein@gmail.com