Wouldn't it be a great idea to take a family day trip to New York's newest and biggest state park? Yes I'm talking about Shirley Chisholm State Park in New York City. I have to say since opening to the public in 2019, it's quickly become one of my family's favorite places for weekend outdoor activities. We always travel going in excited and return home stress free.
Shirley Chisholm State Park is a 407-acre state park in southeastern Brooklyn, New York City. It's located immediately off the Belt Parkway and Spring Creek Park to the north and Jamaica Bay to the south. Not as world famous as New York's Central Park, but it's building a reputation as a nice NYC travel destination for a day visit. Looking at the panoramic view of the terrain, It's hard to believe the layout used to be a landfill. However some forward thinking people at New York State figured out how to re-engineer, restore, redesigned, and repurpose this landspace into an eco-friendly scenic and picturesque park.
The view's great with a backdrop of the Manhattan, New York City skyline to the northwest and southeast Brooklyn and Queens inland open bays channeled in from the Atlantic Ocean. Plus you and family will enjoy the cooler sea breeze flowing in from the Jamaica Bay waters even on a hot NYC summer day.
Bike Rental (Bike Riding) & Information Booths
Let's talk about the first fun family physical activity, bike Riding!! If you don't have or forgot to bring your own bikes, that's OK. The park offer a bike rental program for individuals or multiple people in a group. The best and fastest way to get ahead of the rental line is pre-registration. The bikes are offered on a forst come first serve basis, so you'd do your family a favor by registering online through the park's website before you get there. Bike sizes range from adult size to a tricycles for the older toddler in your family, and all are adjustable for height.
But enough about the process of getting the bicycles. Let's talk about the nice bike trails and experience riding along. FYI, Chisholm Park personel give you a helmet and two hour time limit with your rental reservation so with that said, hold on, plant your legs firmly on your virtual pedals and ride along with me.
The Park provide three nice bike riding trails. Fountain Ring, Penn Ring, and Hendrix Creek Loop. All three trails combined stretch for about 4.8 to 5 miles, and can take between an hour to an hour and a half to complete depending on the strength and stamina of the rider. I personally enjoy cycling around the whole path, as I'm a mom of three and like to burn those calories while I'm having fun.
Even though at peek visiting hours you can see several park goers road biking, jogging, and walking, you can still find some peace and quiet on slower days. My husband and I have been here during opening hour and late in the evening and spotted quite a few active and playful cotton-tail rabbits strolling in and out of the bushes onto the trails. They hop skip in the open until you get too close, then they retreat to the bushes. The walking/biking route is lovely to explore at any time of year and is open year-round, so if you travel to this area of New York City with your family, take full advantage of it.
Hiking Trails
So you'll discover that visitors traveling to Shirley Chisholm Park use the trails interchangeably between hiking/walking and bike riding. The first time I visited here with my husband, we walked the entire riding trail (no riding). We simply wanted to take in the refreshing scene. It's an incredibly enjoyable urban nature stroll. There is plenty of birdlife and a pleasant diversity of vegetation, without completely feeling like you are leaving the city.
The next time we came it was with our kids for the full family local travel experience. They get pretty excited about this park because it reminds us of our days living in the open communities of South Florida by the ocean, where there's lots of water, fishing, and nature to see and explore.
They experience the hiking trails a little different than my husband and I do, since they move faster than we do. They love these slopes primarily made of gravel or pavement. As I walk along the north side of the trail, there is som enoise on the trai, because it runs alongside the highway in a few places places, and JFK Airport to the southeast frequently has inbound planes overhead.
Very important to note while hiking: Pay close attention to the tick warning signs. They're posted along the entire trail for health safety reasons. It's tempting when you see a pretty bird or cute bunny off trail in the shrubs, but DO NOT stray off the path, it's possible to contract Limes disease from these ticks. The park is difficult to reach by public transportation but it is available, and you can still get here nonetheless if not by your own car, then by taxi. It's worth it for the excellent bird watching and the clean, pure air near the creek and open bay.
Bird and Animal Watching
Oh yeah so I just mentioned a couple of lovely birds and bunny rabbits for great animal watching. Well there's even more. We personally spotted muskrats, canada geese, swans, ducks, egret wading birds, sparrows, and various other sea birds roaming or flying throughout the park by the waters edge or directly in it. A nice slice of nature right in the neighborhood of Brooklyn and Queens.
Shaded Fishing Piers
Fishing is another cool activity available for travelers to Shirley Chisholm State Park. Both catch and release and catch and keep fishing is allowed on Penn Pier jetting out into the open Bay, and the inner creek. Penn pier is about 0.5 miles from the Pennsylvania Avenue Parking Lot. it follows a paved path, and you will have to walk along Hendrix Creek Road to get their. 30 years ago in high school, I'd never dream that I'd have a husband and sons fishing in this area. It was all landfill then, now it's super clean and transformed. Great job New York State!!
You can bring your fishing rod and tackle box, sit comfortably and cast your reel for herrings, porgies, blue fish, and black sea bass all right here. Even the occasional not so loved sea robbin fish will pop up on your line. Bring a long reel for the pier, there is a good couple of feet of pier still in front of you, so there's a slight reachover when you cast. Any size rod will do if you're fishing in the inner creek, there's no extra space jutting out in front of you.
From time to time, there's even Sessions held here to teach beginners how to fish. These free programs takes place at Penn Pier. Look out announcements on the park's website about the sessions.
Picnicking Along the Bay and Trails
If you want to just visit and sit down with family to eat and chat, there are quite a few picnick tables stationed right off the trails. They're easily labled and located on the official Shirley Chisholm State Park map here.
Fun Fact About Shirley Chisholm State Park
it's now the largest state park to visit in all of New York state. The site was covered with up to four feet of clean soil, that's enough to fill roughly 100,000 dump trucks. After that, more than 35,000 natural grassland species and trees and shrubs were planted on the property. A variety of birds and other local species were naturally drawn to the newly created ecosystem of coastal meadows, marshes, and forests that have grown by the addition of prairie grass and native plants.
There's no playground, no basketball courts, no tennis courts, no baseball diamond field. It's not that kind of local city park, so don't be disappointed if you don't see that here. This is a nature-centric walking and site-seeing state park.
When is Shirly Chisholm State Park Open?
Shirley Chisholm State Park is open 365 days per year, 8 a.m. to dusk (7pm). Pets are not allowed at the park. The park hours are clearly posted on the website and the entrance of the park for visitors.
