Prospect Park Trail Loop

Dogs Leashed

Features Birding · Fall Colors

This is a route combining many of the individual trail runs of Prospect Park, running along all its quintessential features: the Ravine (Brooklyn's only "forest"), the historical Quaker cemetery, Lookout Hill, the boathouse and its associated lake, and other park features. (Click here for more information.)

This loop uses as little asphalt as possible and provides a great respite from the summer sun and the winter wind!

There are water fountains throughout (working until early November or so). There's also a number of toilets/port-a-potties on the road intersections, and a lovely cafe at the SE entrance.

Some parts can get a wee muddy without impeding passage.

Prospect Park has a number of trails that can be put together in various ways; this is just a combination that joins most of them into a pleasant loop.

The north third of the park has a number of singletrack trails parallel and usually with a partial view to the streets, but inside the forest.

The trails fully inside the park are either asphalt or covered with mulch to be shared by horses (seldom encountered though); they also tend to go up and down hills.

Finally, the lower third of the park is much less lush, and the trails follow the inner part of the South Lake Drive.

Usual tristate forest teeming with birds, squirrels, and chipmunks. During the winter, the odd raccoon.

Prospect Park, designed by the same architects as Central Park and inaugurated two years later, is the second largest park in Brooklyn.