Prospect Park: The Greatest Hits and the Deep Cuts

Olmsted and Vaux built Central Park first. Then they built Prospect Park, and they thought this one was better.

They had reason to. In Brooklyn they had a freer hand: no rigid rectangle, no reservoir cutting through the middle, no Fifth Avenue looking over their shoulders. They got to shape the land the way they actually wanted.

It’s 526 acres, about two-thirds the size of Central Park, with a fraction of the crowds. That’s the whole appeal.

This guide splits into the greatest hits, for a half day, and the deep cuts, for people who want the real thing. If you’d rather follow a set route with a map and a printable PDF, our walking tours do it stop by stop: Prospect Park: The Greatest Hits and Prospect Park: The Ravine and the Watercourse.

The greatest hits

A half-day loop of about three miles through the park’s signature landmarks. The main drive is a 3.35-mile loop that’s permanently car-free, which makes this the easiest big park in the city to walk or bike.

Where to enter

The best all-around entrance is Grand Army Plaza, at the park’s northern tip. You arrive through the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Memorial Arch, an enormous triumphal arch in the spirit of the Arc de Triomphe, with a bronze chariot on top. It’s a proper grand entrance, and it sets up the route below. Subway: 2, 3 to Grand Army Plaza, or B, Q to Seventh Avenue and walk.

Bonus: the Brooklyn Museum, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and the Central Library are all right here, so you can chain them into one day.

Other good entrances:

• Bartel-Pritchard Square, at Prospect Park West and 15th Street, in the southwest corner. Two tall granite columns mark it. Subway: F, G to 15 St–Prospect Park. Best for the Lake and the LeFrak Center.
• Willink Entrance, at Flatbush and Ocean Avenues, on the east side. Subway: B, Q, S to Prospect Park. It puts you right at the Zoo, the Carousel and Lefferts Historic House, so it’s the entrance to use with kids.
• Park Circle, at the southern tip near Parkside and Coney Island Avenues. Subway: F, G to Fort Hamilton Pkwy, or Q to Parkside Av. Closest to the Parade Ground and the stables.
• Ninth Street, on the west side. Subway: F, G to 7 Av. The quickest way into the Long Meadow.

The route

1. Grand Army Plaza and the Arch

Where: where Flatbush Avenue, Eastern Parkway and Prospect Park West meet.

The Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Memorial Arch was completed in 1892 to honor the Union Army, and it was recently restored. Urban Park Rangers occasionally run special tours inside it, so check the NYC Parks events calendar; if one’s on, go.

The Bailey Fountain sits in the plaza in front of it.

2. Endale Arch

Where: just inside the park from Grand Army Plaza, on the path to the right.

Don’t skip this, and don’t rush through it.

Endale Arch is the original 1860s entrance tunnel, restored to its intended design with a banded wooden ceiling, stone walls and benches set into the sides.

The point is the reveal. You walk into a dark tunnel and come out into the sudden, enormous green of the Long Meadow. Olmsted designed that moment on purpose, and it still works.

Its twin, Meadowport Arch, is a short walk west and does the same trick with a double passage.

3. The Long Meadow

Where: along the park’s western side, from the north end south.

Ninety acres of rolling lawn, nearly a mile long: the longest unbroken meadow in any urban park in the country. Olmsted shaped it so you can never see the whole thing at once. There’s always a rise or a stand of trees hiding the far end, which makes it feel endless.

On a warm weekend it’s picnics, drum circles, soccer, dogs, birthday parties and about fifteen barbecues going at once. It’s the most purely joyful public space in New York.

Dog Beach is a small pond area near the meadow’s south end, where dogs swim during the park’s morning off-leash hours.

4. The Nethermead

Where: the center of the park, south of the Long Meadow.

A second, smaller meadow, more enclosed and quieter. You reach it through the Nethermead Arches, a triple-span bridge carrying a road and a bridle path over the stream below.

The Music Pagoda, an open wooden bandstand near the Nethermead, hosts free concerts in summer.

5. The Boathouse and the Lullwater

Where: the east side of the park, on the Lullwater.

The Prospect Park Boathouse is a white Beaux-Arts building from 1905, modeled on a library in Venice and reflected in the water in front of it. It’s the most photographed building in the park, and it deserves to be.

Inside is the Audubon Center, the first urban Audubon center in the country. It’s free, it’s good for kids, and the staff know the park’s wildlife cold.

The Lullwater is the winding waterway out front, and it’s the best water in the park: weeping willows on the banks, turtles on every log, herons and egrets working the shallows. The cast-iron Lullwater Bridge crosses it, and Terrace Bridge nearby gives you a long view down the water.

6. The Concert Grove and the Oriental Pavilion

Where: the east side, between the Boathouse and the Lake.

The Concert Grove is a formal garden with busts of composers, including Beethoven, Mozart and Grieg, plus a statue of Abraham Lincoln.

The Oriental Pavilion is an open, eight-sided shelter on cast-iron columns, with a stained-glass skylight in the center. It burned in 1974 and was faithfully rebuilt. Sit under it and look up.

Nearby is the Camperdown Elm, a small, gnarled tree held up on supports. It looks like nothing much. The poet Marianne Moore wrote about it and campaigned to save it, and now it’s one of the most beloved trees in New York. It was planted in 1872.

7. Prospect Park Lake

Where: the southern part of the park.

Sixty acres, and Brooklyn’s only lake. The shoreline has real variety: coves, the Peninsula reaching into the water, and small islands, including Duck Island and the Three Sisters, that are bird sanctuaries to look at rather than visit.

The Wellhouse on the west shore is a restored 1869 building with public bathrooms.

The LeFrak Center at Lakeside, on the southeast shore, has ice skating in winter and roller skating and a splash pad in summer. It’s genuinely well designed and busy year round.

8. The Zoo, the Carousel and Lefferts House

Where: the east side, near the Willink Entrance at Flatbush and Ocean.

Prospect Park Zoo is small and built for young kids: sea lions, red pandas and a barn.

The Carousel dates from 1912, with 53 hand-carved horses plus a lion, a giraffe and a deer, and it came here from Coney Island. Cheap, seasonal and lovely.

Lefferts Historic House is an 18th-century Dutch farmhouse, moved into the park and restored. It’s a real look at what this land was before Brooklyn.

Drummer’s Grove is just inside this entrance. Drummers have gathered here on Sunday afternoons since the 1960s. Show up on a Sunday and you’ll hear it before you see it.

The short version

If you have two hours: enter at Grand Army Plaza, go through Endale Arch and down the length of the Long Meadow, cut east across the Nethermead to the Boathouse and the Lullwater, and finish at the Concert Grove.

Practical notes for the busy half

• The 3.35-mile loop drive is car-free. Great for a Citi Bike lap, a run or a stroller. The biking guide recommends it as a beginner ride.
• Bathrooms: the Picnic House, the Boathouse, the Wellhouse, the LeFrak Center, the Zoo and near the Carousel. The bathroom guide covers the rest of the city.
• Food: better than Central Park, because you’re surrounded by real neighborhoods. Walk out to Prospect Park West, Seventh Avenue in Park Slope, Flatbush Avenue or Windsor Terrace and you’ll eat well. Smorgasburg also sets up on Breeze Hill, near the Lincoln Road entrance, on Sundays from April through October.
• Weekends are lively and weekdays are quiet. Both are good; they’re just different parks.
• Pair it with the museum and the garden. The Brooklyn Botanic Garden shares the park’s northeast border, and the Brooklyn Museum is next door. The free museums guide covers how to get in for less.

The deep cuts

This is where Prospect Park pulls ahead of Central Park. It has a real forest, a real ravine and a chain of waterfalls, and most of it sees very little foot traffic.

Understand the water first

This is the single best thing to know about Prospect Park, and it changes how you see the whole place.

Every stream, waterfall, pool and lake in the park is artificial, and they’re all connected in one continuous chain. There’s no natural river here. Water from the city supply enters near the top of the park and flows downhill through the whole design before ending in the Lake.

The chain, in order:

Fallkill Falls → Upper Pool → Lower Pool → the Ambergill → Binnen Water → Binnen Falls → the Lullwater → Prospect Park Lake

Olmsted and Vaux engineered a whole watershed from nothing, then hid every pipe. Walk the water from top to bottom and you’re walking the park’s spine, exactly the way its designers intended. It’s the best two hours in Prospect Park.

The Ravine and the Midwood

Where: the north-central part of the park, between the Long Meadow and the Nethermead.

The Ravine is the heart of the deep-cut park: a wooded valley with a stream running through a rock gorge. It was closed for years because of erosion, and a long restoration brought it back. Inside, you can’t see or hear the city.

Next to it is the Midwood, part of Brooklyn’s last remaining forest. It was left largely untouched when the park was built, and it’s dominated by tall tulip trees.

The water features, one by one

Fallkill Falls. The top of the chain. A constructed waterfall dropping into the Upper Pool, tucked into rockwork and easy to walk past. Follow the sound.

Upper and Lower Pool. Two small, still ponds connected by a short run. Quiet and shaded, and good for turtles and herons.

The Ambergill. The stream leaving the Lower Pool and running through the Ravine. Partway along, Ambergill Falls is the most beautiful spot in the park and the hardest to find: mossy stone, deep shade and a real cascade. People stand there in silence.

Rock Arch Bridge crosses the Ambergill, a rough arch built from stacked stone. Esdale Bridge, a wooden span, crosses further along.

Binnen Falls and Binnen Bridge. The stream drops again and opens into the Binnen Water. This is where the wild ravine turns into open park, and from Binnen Bridge you can see both worlds at once.

The Lullwater and Prospect Park Lake are the end of the line, covered in the greatest hits above.

Walk the whole sequence, top to bottom. It’s about a mile and a half, and it’s the reason the park exists.

Lookout Hill

Where: the south-central park, above the Lake’s north shore.

One of the highest points in the park, and a real climb, with winding paths and stone steps.

At the top is the Maryland Monument, a small column designed by Stanford White. It marks where roughly 400 Maryland soldiers made a stand during the Battle of Long Island in August 1776, the largest battle of the Revolutionary War. They were cut down holding the line so Washington’s army could escape.

You’re standing on a Revolutionary War battlefield. Most of the people picnicking below have no idea.

Battle Pass

Where: along the East Drive, near the Nethermead.

The park’s other battlefield site. On August 27, 1776, British troops forced their way through this gap in the ridge. There’s a marker, and the Dongan Oak Monument nearby remembers the tree Americans felled across the road to slow the advance.

The ridge running through the park was left behind by the last ice sheet, which is why the north of the park is hilly and the south is flat. It’s also why the battle was fought here.

The Vale of Cashmere

Where: the northeast corner of the park, near the old Rose Garden.

A sunken, overgrown former water garden with stone basins and a lot of atmosphere, and one of Brooklyn’s best spots for migrating birds. It’s closed right now: a $37.5 million restoration began in 2026 and is expected to finish in 2027, bringing back its pools and garden with new paths and a pavilion. Check the Prospect Park Alliance’s website for when it reopens.

The Quaker Cemetery

Where: a fenced area on the park’s west side, south of the Long Meadow.

A Quaker burial ground that was here before the park. The Friends wouldn’t sell, so Olmsted and Vaux designed around it. It’s still active and generally closed to the public, so you look at it through the fence.

The actor Montgomery Clift is buried there. That’s the trivia everyone repeats, and it happens to be true.

Other deep cuts worth finding

• Cleft Ridge Span, near the Concert Grove. One of the earliest concrete structures in the country, with a patterned, colorful interior. Historic and beautiful.
• The Peninsula, reaching into the Lake. Paths loop around it. Good birding, few people.
• The Parade Ground, at the far south end outside the main loop. Once a military drill field, now ball fields.
• The Ravine’s side paths. The main trail is signed; the spurs off it aren’t. Take them.
• The Bridle Path, a soft dirt track through the middle of the park. There are still working stables nearby, and you’ll see riders.
• Duck Island and the Three Sisters, off the Lake’s shore. Look-only bird sanctuaries, with plenty of waterfowl around them in winter.

A full-day deep-cut route

Start at Grand Army Plaza early. Head west to pick up Fallkill Falls, then walk the water: the Upper Pool and Lower Pool, the Ambergill and Ambergill Falls, and Rock Arch Bridge, through the Ravine and the Midwood, and out at Binnen Falls.

Cross the Nethermead Arches, then climb Lookout Hill to the Maryland Monument for the view and the history. Come down to the Lake, loop the Peninsula, and finish at the Boathouse and the Lullwater in late light.

It’s about five miles with the hill. You’ll have walked a whole engineered watershed, a Revolutionary War battlefield and Brooklyn’s last forest.

Practical notes for the deep cuts

• Wear real shoes. The Ravine is dirt, rock and roots, and it’s muddy after rain.
• The Ravine is easy to get turned around in. It’s small enough that you’ll find your way out, but download an offline map anyway.
• Stay on the trails in the Ravine and Midwood. The soil erodes fast, and signs mark where not to walk. Respect them: this is a recovering forest.
• Go early for birds. Prospect Park is one of the best birding spots in the state, with close to 300 species recorded. Spring migration, in late April and May, is the peak.
• Best seasons: late April and May for migration and blooms, late October into early November for color (see NYC fall foliage 2026), and winter for waterfowl on the Lake and total silence in the Midwood.
• The park is open from 5am to 1am.
• Check the Prospect Park Alliance’s website before you go. Sections close for restoration regularly.

Central Park or Prospect Park?

If you have one day and it’s your first time in New York, do Central Park. It’s the icon, and it earns it. Our Central Park guide has the greatest hits and the deep cuts.

If you have two days, or you’ve already done Central Park, or you want a real forest and a real ravine without standing in a crowd, come to Prospect Park.

Its designers thought this was their better work. Go see whether you agree.

Questions about anything in this guide? Reach MUSEENYC at museenyc.art@gmail.com or @museenyc on Instagram.

Brooklyn’s park, and the one Olmsted preferred → museenyc.com