"The Journey is the Destination" ... NO!
For this run "The Destination is the Journey".

ometimes I just want to go somewhere. A favorite brunch spot, a beautiful park, or maybe the beach. And being a runner, I say to myself, "Hmm .. I wonder if I could run there?" Often times we think "I'm training for a marathon; my schedule says I gotta do 14 miles this weekend." That's called focusing on the mileage. That's not me. I would more likely say "How can I run to that place, get 14 miles (more-or-less) of running in, find a nice place to eat, and have easy subway access to get home?"

That's what these "Runs to Beautiful Places" posts are all about. It's the destination that comes first, not getting there. The New York Botanical Garden is a National Historic Landmark located in the Bronx. The 250-acre garden, lying on the Bronx River, is just north of the Bronx Zoo. And if there's a more beautiful place in New York City, I've not found it yet.

The New York Botanical Garden, or the NYBG for short, is probably most well known for the , which just opened for 2018 a couple of weeks ago. The show is perhaps the most beautiful thing in this beautiful place, but by no means is it the only reason to go there. There is an awesome museum, acres of woods, some of it "old growth", an idyllic portion of the Bronx River, miles of trails, and dozens of outdoor gardens featuring everything from roses to Dawn Redwoods. If you go once, I guarantee you'll be back, probably many times. My running friends and my family have been there in all seasons, probably close to a dozen times.

What You Need to Know

Ways to get there

y friends and I have run to the NYBG over numerous routes, with probably no two runs exactly the same. We always argue whether to go the left or right or straight over that hill in a park, or run on this or that smaller road rather than a bigger, more commercial one. The routes described are idealized versions of our routes and for consistency's sake I've given direction starting at either Carl Schurz Park for East Siders or Central Park for West Siders. You can certainly adapt these to you own favorite starting point and throw in any extra miles to make your desired mileage. Except for the short path between Van Cortlandt Park and the NYBG, they are all in the 8 - 9 miles range.

A note on the maps: each map image below has 2 links embedded on it. The little plus icon "+" on the lower right corner of the map image will bring up the full size image. Clicking the map image itself will bring up the USATF map page which you can zoom in or out to any part of the page (it uses Google Maps). Especially useful is the full page option when you click on the full page icon on the upper right of the USATF map.

Here's the list with details given below next to the maps. They are arranged in order from the easternmost to the westernmost. As noted above, if you click on any map you'll get the on-line version which will allow you to zoom in to any confusing spot. And remember, you can change a route at any time if you feel like it.

 

Route 1: Carl Schurz Park to the NY Botanical Garden via East Bronx parks (8.4 miles).

his is a fun route and one of the earliest we (usually Susan, Melissa, and myself) ran and is described below in my March 2013 report. From Carl Schurz go north on the East River shore path all the way to the Wards/Randalls Island pedestrian bridge (at about 103rd Street). Once on Wards/Randalls Island, hang a left coming off the bridge and go along the shore facing upper Manhattan. The Map shows a slightly different route to the Bronx: in 2013 we went over the Bronx leg of the Triborough Bridge but the map shows the preferred route over the bike path (finished in 2015) to the Bronx under the train tracks. This is a big improvement and keeps you away from the busy and noisy (not to mention smelly) Triborough.

Either way, once in the Bronx, swing west over to St. Ann's Ave and go north to the corner of Saint Mary's Park. Yes, the avenue is "St. Ann's" and the park is "Saint Mary's"! It's a beautiful small park with some impressive rock outcrops and some nice views from the hill in the center. Cross the park and find Caldwell Avenue at 149th Street. Then it's north on Caldwell to Boston Road to a left onto Crotona Avenue to Crotona Park (not to be confused with "Corona Park" in Queens). The map should make this clear. Once in Crotona Park we usually go across the grass to the amphitheater, round the pond at the south end and make our way to Prospect Ave about midway across the north-east side of te Park. Then it's north on Prospect to 187th, east to Southern Blvd, head north and cross Fordham Road and on to the NYBG! On the Southern Blvd. you'll first have the Bronx Zoo and then the NYBG on you right. You made it, that's 8.4 miles!

 

Route 2: Carl Schurz Park to the NY Botanical Garden along a mid Bronx straight shot Avenue (7.85 miles).

his is the easiest to describe and the most direct route, but esthetically, it's probably last on our list. It's one long slog on crowded sidewalks, along wide, busy, commercial roadways with little of the natural world to see. Call it the quick and dirty route, and yes, we did it (from Central Park) in January of this year (the report is linked below).

From Carl Schurz Park, follow the river path all the way to the pedestrian bridge at 123rd Street. Cross the bridge and make you way over to First Avenue. Cross the Willis Avenue Bridge (left side) and Follow Willis Avenue north to where it meets Third Avenue at 149th Street. Cross the busy intersection diagonally and get on Melrose Avenue. Go north to 165th Street (about a mile) to another busy intersection and get on Webster Avenue. Go all the way up to Bedford Park Blvd., about 3 more miles. On the south-west corner is the Webster Café, our favorite pre-NYBG brunch spot. From this point, cross the tracks on Bedford Park Blvd. and the NYBG will be right across the road. The Bedford Park entrance is right there, but if it's closed, go a short distance left (north-east) to the main entrance. You're done, that's 7.85 miles!

 

Route 3: Carl Schurz Park to the NY Botanical Garden via West Bronx Parks (8.92 miles).

his is a route I had not thought of, even though I had run the lower part of this many times, but always crossed back over to Manhattan over the 155th Street Bridge on the way to getting to High Bridge Park, as an alternate to an all Manhattan Route. But this time Susan was doing a long run and wanted to get to the NYBG, at which the 2018 Orchid Show had just opened. And she wanted this route which she had biked over a number of times.

Take the same directions as in the previous route but instead of heading up Willis Ave, zigzag over to the Grand Concourse. There are a number of ways to do this but the map shows a typical one. Just past 151st Street, you will come to Franz Sigel Park (bathrooms just before this point). Wend your way up through this park but be sure you go over the high point for the views. Exit the park at its north end onto the Grand Concourse. Go north a long block past the Court House, cross 155th and enter Joyce Kilmer Park. Kilmer was an early 20th century poet who died in WWI and is most well known for his poem "". I'm sure you know it, you just forgot who wrote it, and perhaps like me, you didn't know he was a guy!. Although the park is named for Kilmer, the two prominent statues in the park are for the Lorelei and Louis Heintz. Google them if you're curious. No, Heintz is not the Ketchup guy. As for the Lorelei, you will remember who she is from yout high school German class.

Go along the path in the park (crossing a rendering of "Trees" embedded in the pavement) and get onto Walton Avenue. Stay on Walton all the way to East Fordham Road, about 3 miles. Then to avoid running along this busy byway, zigzag north over Morris, 191st, Creston, 192nd, Poe Park, 194th, Marion and lastly Bedford Park Blvd down to Webster Ave. (Did you get that? No? Study the map and you'll see we're just zigzagging.) On the way you will loop part way around Saint James Park and through Poe park (where Poe's house still stands). The point of all this zigzagging is to avoid busy, commercial roads and see a few little corners of New York City you've never seen. Feel free to vary this route as you like — Just keep your smart phone pointed at Bedford Park Blvd & Webster Avenue.

From the corner of Bedford Park and Webster, consider brunch at the Webster Café, then cross the tracks as in the previous route and you're there, 8.92 miles!

 

Route 4: Central Park to the NY Botanical Garden via the High Bridge and the Bronx OCA (8.88 miles).

his route was made possible by the which was opened to the public on June 9th, 2015 after being closed for more than 50 years. Once that happened, running (or walking) routes up though the West Bronx along the Old Croton Aqueduct (OCA() from the High Bridge to Van Cortlandt Park were made possible. This West Bronx section of the OCA is little known or travelled by us Manhattanites and consists largely of a beautiful greenway laid out by none other than Frederick Law Olmsted! (Don't know him? Shame, shame on you.)

Although there is a route on the map, I'm not going to tell you how to get to the High Bridge from Central Park. There are plenty of descriptions of that on this web site and the NY Flyers web site (such as , , , or .)

After crossing the bridge, follow University Ave north to where it swings around to the right. Cross the bridge over I-95 and the Washington Bridge ramps (no, not the George Washington Bridge) and stay on University Ave to 175th Street. Up to that point the OCA was under University. At this point, cross to the center island which has various lawns, picnic tables etc. The OCA is under this center island. At West Tremont Ave, University turns slightly to the left and you can enter the Morton Playground on the right. There is some nice signage explaining the OCA and at the north end is a stub of the OCA which is unfortunately closed off. Get back on University and go one long block to West Burnside Ave. Cross Burnside and go up the stone steps and you will find yourself on the OCA / Olmstead greenway. This continues about a mile and a half crossing 181st, 183rd, Fordham Road, 190th, 192nd and finally Kingsbridge Road. What you have passed over is a marvelous and beautiful pathway through the West Bronx including some not-so-well-off neighborhoods. Would there were more such greenways in all 5 boroughs.

Go right on Kingsbridge, cross over the Grand Concourse, and go down 194th to Webster. If you like, you can do some zigzagging in the last part, like we did in the previous route — you are in the same spot — you just got there by a different and marvelous route. I put one zig in on Marion Ave and a zag in of Bedford Park Blvd on the map if you care to take it. Have brunch, or not, at the Webster Café and continue over the tracks to the NYBG. Now go check out the orchids, you just did 8.88 miles!

Route 5: Van Cortlandt Park to the NY Botanical Garden (2.72 miles).

oing over to the NYBG after doing some running in Van Cortlandt Park, — say a six miler up along the OCA to Tibbetts Brook Park and then back along the old Putnam line — goes back a long way. We would just go out from the golf house to the south side of the park, on the paved path that follows the Mosholu Parkway. From there we would just cross Gun Hill Road and follow the Mosholu Parkway (which has a pedestrian/bike path on the left side) up to Webster Ave and cross the tracks on the Mosholu Bridge (about quarter mile north of the Bedford Park Bridge), and enter the NYBG from that direction.

Then we would do what we always did, sometimes just sitting on the grass or hitting the Café or the gift shop, or taking the trails over to the old mill, or checking out the conservatory if a special flower show was being shown. We never thought of this as a run to the NYBG, but more of a relaxing aperitif to our run in Vanny. And in those days we usually took the cheap way back and walked up over the hill on Bedford Park Blvd to catch the #4 train.

 

Route 6: Carl Schurz Park to the NY Botanical Garden via the Bronx River (9.01 miles)

Note: We discovered this route after the rest of this article was published, but I thought it would be good to include it for two reasons: 1) it was a new route and 2) it was more "The journey is the destination" than most other visits to this place. You might even say "The journey hijacked the destination".
his route is further east than any other route and we discovered it only after the chance discovery of two relatively new parks along the Bronx River south of the Bronx Zoo. The city has been "greening" this part of the river over the last decade and these two parks were created between the Bruckner Expresway and the Zoo.

Start at Carl Schurz Park and follow the East River shoreline north and cross the Wards/Randall's Island pedestrian bridge and make your way over to the bikeway under the elevated Amtrak tracks and cross to the Bronx on the newish bike/pedestrian bridge under the tracks.

After crossing to the the Bronx and arriving at 132nd Street, go left and then right on Willow Street up to 138th Street and then go left under the Bruckner. The route then follows — at a modest distance — the Bruckner for about 2 miles to where it turns east after it splits off from the Sheridan Expressway. You can see that on the map at around mile 5½. The trick is to stay on the left side of the Bruckner Expressway, but to stay off the Bruckner Boulevard which tends to be rather unattractive.

Take the first northbound street, Jackson, north to 143rd Street, then right (east) 3 blocks to Southern Boulevard. Then follow this attractive road all the way to 163rd Street and take 163rd 1 block east to the Bruckner Boulevard. Turn left and after about 3 blocks the overhead expressway (which has now become the Sheridan Expressway) swings to the left, and the Bruckner swings to the right under the expressway and heads east. This is a complicated intersection so make sure you end up on the left (north) side of the Bruckner Expressway which is now at ground level. After crossing a blue bridge over the tracks and passing a used car lot, you will come to the entrance ramp to "Concrete Plant Park" (yes, that is actually the name of the park) on the left.

Now you have 2 parks and the Zoo to go through, and I won't go into much detail — for plenty of details and photos, see the last item in the section below for links to the full report, titled "". "Concrete Plant Park", the first new park starts with the huge Concrete Plant which had been cleaned up and put on display behind a fence. At the north end, the park ends at the Westchester Avenue Bridge. When you get up to the bridge roadway, cross to the north side and go left one block (there's a sign). Then go right on the Sheridan Expressway access road and in about a quarter mile, the entrance to "Starlight Park" will be on the right.

This is a longer and somewhat more interesting park (except it doesn't have an old Concrete Plant ). When you get into the park you'll first pass a kayak pier, a soccer field, and a basketball court. Then you'll pass under the 174th Street Bridge and cross over to the east bank of the Bronx River on a pedestrian bidge. There is a long path to the park's northern exit which, among other things, passes under the Cross Bronx Expressway and finally ends at 177th Street, a short block from East Tremont Avenue. Go left (west) on East Tremont till you get to the elevated tracks and then go right (north) on Boston Road 4 blocks to the Bronx Zoo.

At this point you can either go through the zoo or around it. Click on the detailed map above to see how this works. If you go left and follow the red line, in almost exactly a mile you'll end up at Southern Boulevard and East Fordham Road. If you go through the zoo (yes, there is an admission fee) and take the shortest path to the Fordham Road exit, you'll get to the same spot in 1.13 miles. Ahh, but going through the zoo on the shortest path is very hard with Lions, Tigers and Bears (Oh, my!) beckoning to you, to say nothing of the snow leopards. So enter the zoo at your own risk — take your time, don't get lost, and enjoy your visit.

Once around the zoo, or through the zoo, you are a short half mile from the NY Botanical Garden. The journey is over, now enjoy the destination, one of the most beautiful places in New York City.

A note on the mileage: You may notice this route is about 9 miles whereas the mileage we ran on , our first time on this route, is almost 11 miles. Why is that? 1) half the time we didn't know where we were going, 2) this route is simplified as much as possible, and 3) I eliminated the detour from Carl Schurz Park to 96st Sreet and all side trips and wrong turns in the Zoo.

Some of Our Runs

  have included summaries and links to 6 trip reports below which span over 5 years of runs with friends to the NYBG.
Note: what you see here is a short description or an abstract of the full report for each run. The report and photo album are linked below the short description of each rum. They're in reverse chronological order.

You will notice that not one of them follows exactly any of the 6 idealized routes laid out above. Some come close, some include only half the route and for some you may have trouble figuring out just how we got there. But get there we did, and the lesson to you is to take the routes and mold them to your own running situation. And don't be afraid to go off script when you see something interesting off on some new direction. But most importantly have fun and don't hesitate to stop and smell the flowers.

March 31, 2018 – The Bronx River Run
A Discovery Run of New Places and New Ways to Get There
[ Route 6 ]

Note: We did this run after the rest of this article was published, but I thought it would be good to include it for two reasons: 1) it was a new route and 2) it was more "The journey is the destination" than most other visits to this place. You might even say "The journey hijacked the destination".

My Running partner, Susan. had taken the6train recently for some appointments in the East Bronx and she wondered what was that bike path doing in some kind of park right on the Bronx River that she could see out the window of the subway car.

She looked it up and it was the recently opened ! Say what? Concrete Plant Park? That's the name of a park? So I said, whatever, sounds interesting. And it turns out that just a bit further up the Bronx River we would run through . And further up the river from that is the Bronx Zoo, and lastly the NY Botanical Garden.

So instead of doing "Yet Another Run to the NY Botanical Garden", we decided to forget about the crowds at the NYBG, forget about getting there early, and just agree to explore new neighborhoods and especially new parks. The rehabilitated Bronx River had hijacked our run, now titled the "The Bronx River Run".

So off we went shortly after 8 from Carl Schurz Park on our way for an adventure to unknown places ...

Here's the Link for the complete report:

And here's a link to the photo album:   Bronx River Run Album

March 10th, 2018 – A Run to the NY Botanical Garden via the West Bronx Parks and Walton Ave
Meeting Susan at the Lorelei Statue
[ Route 3 ]

his run was a hybrid in several respects: first: it utlized the West Bronx Parks route (#3 above, in fact it created that route); second: I had run the route a number of times but never to the NYBG; and third: I only ran the second half, meeting Susan, who started at home, at the Lorelei Statue.

Tipically we had run this route starting on the East side, either Carl Schurz Park or Susan's place and headed over to First Avenue and over the Willis Avenue Bridge. We would then make our way over to the Grand Concourse, at which point we would go through Franz Sigel Park, make a quick traverse of the south end of Joyce Kilmer Park and head east on 155th Street past Yankee Stadium, head up through Highbridge Park and end up at some northern Manhattan destination such as The Cloisters or maybe even Wave Hill up in the Bronx.

Not today. We both wanted to visit the NY Botanical Garden even though we had been there just five weeks before. But the annual Orchid Show had opened just the weekend before and we wanted to get a look at that beautiful annual display of nature's beauty.

Here's the Link for the complete report:

And here's the link to the photo album: Run to the NYBG via West Bronx Parks and Walton Ave Photo Album

January 27th, 2018 – A Run from the Dana Discovery Center to the NY Botanical Garden
With an Important Stop at the Webster Café
[ Route 2 ]

anuary 27th's run with Susan and Melissa from Central Park up through the Bronx to the New York Botanical Garden was our first winter visit to the Garden. Fortunately, the weather was relatively mild and we had a great run plus a lovely visit to the Botanical Garden.

The run was built around Susan's 20 miler; Melissa and I merely ran the last 6½ miles with her. So the title might well have read something like "A 20 mile run with 2 friends jumping in at the Dana Discovery Center". For those unfamiliar with our meeting place, the Dana Center is at the very north end of Central Park, near the Fifth Avenue entrance.

Here's the Link for the complete report:

And here's the link to the photo album: Run from the Dana Discovery Center to the NYBG


October 15th & 17th, 2017 – A Run and a Visit to the New York Botanical Garden
Chihuly's Glassworks at the NY Botanical Garden
[ Hybrid of Route 2 & Route 1 ]

his report is actually a conflation of two visits to the NYBG: Susan and I ran from her place up to the NYBG on October 15th and she took photos of many of the museum exhibits and in the Conservatory. About 2 weeks later my wife Joy and I took the train up and we visited many of the same places in the NYBG (the Library/Museum and the Conservatory) and of course we all enjoyed the beautiful landscapes of the place. The feature that brought us there both times was the exhibition of the world-renowned artist .

My running partner Susan and I had planned for a trip to the NYBG at the beginning of October, but that run got hijacked by Oktoberfest. Since that was not a movable date, we went to our favorite German Biergarten on Oktoberfest and the NYBG was put on hold.

But we couldn't wait too long since the NYBG was hosting an exhibition of the world-renowned artist Dale Chihuly's work, whose glass works were shown both in the museum, and in natural the surroundings in the NYBG Conservatory and all about the grounds — and this exhibition would close at the end of October. I didn't know about the exhibit and who Chihuly was and what he did till I got there. But Susan knew it all.

But the show turned out to be so excellent that I went again with my wife Joy on the last day of the exhibit. How's that for cutting it close!

Here's the Link for the complete report:

And here's the link to the photo album: Chihuly at the NYBG Album

March 12th, 2017 – A 5K Race Followed by a Run to the NYBG
A Riverside Park 5K plus a Run to the Orchid Show
[ Route 4 ]

n Sunday March 12th I did a "Double". It was a frigid cold day (single digit wind-chills) compounded by the change to Daylight Saving Time (which means I had to wake up at what the day before would have been 5:30 AM). But the results show that it was a very good, frigid cold day. My finish time was 30 minutes flat and that was good enough for me. And what is more I was the first in the 70+ age group.

Meanwhile Susan joined the Flyers Little Red Lighthouse Long Training Run and broke from the group at 155th Street and made her way to our rendezvous with surgical precision and split second timing! I was a couple of minutes early so I got a coffee and was sipping it when in walks Susan, EXACTLY at 10:30 and ZERO minutes late!! (She told me "Put that in").

We made our way through Highbridge Park, over High Bridge and got to the NYBG via the Bronx OCA and Kingsbridge Road.

Here's the Link for the complete report:

April 16, 2016 – A Run from Highbridge Park to the NY Botanical Garden
Terry and I Decide to Go Short
[ Route 4 ]

n Saturday, April 16th I did a short (short as in 4.5 miles) long run with my friend Terry. We both had been very busy lately and wanted to keep it short. For my part I had just decided the day before to go up to Boston the following Monday to watch the Boston Marathon. We both wanted to go to the New York Botanical Garden to take in the Orchid Show which was closing the next day. I also wanted to take Terry over the recently restored and reopened High Bridge (see this: ) which she had not yet been over.

We took the C train to 155th Street and ran along the OCA through Highbridge Park, crossed over to the Bronx over bridge and then got onto the West Bronx OCA which largely follows a long and narrow urban linear greenway to Kingsbridge Road. Then east on Kingsbridge road and 194th Street to Webster Ave, and Webster to Bedford Park Boulevard. Then across the tracks and we were there.

Here's the Link for the complete report:

And here are the links to the photo albums:
  Part 1: Our Route from Highbridge Park to the NY Botanical Garden
  Part 2: The Orchid Show at the New York Botanical Garden

March 30, 2013 – Carl Schurz Park to the NY Botanical Garden
Great Run, Great Orchid Show
[ Route 1 ]

  had been sidelined with a pesky injury for most of a month so it was great to finally get back to running! Well, not just running, we also saw some pretty flowers. But a couple of good things — running wise — happened this week. On Monday night my running partner Susan came back from a 10 day vacation in St. Petersburg, Russia. So Wednesday morning we did an easy 4 mile run in Central park ending with breakfast at the Boathouse Café. Good weather for running and for watching the pond with a fire going in the fireplace as we sipped our coffee. Then on Saturday, I joined both Susan and Melissa for a run from Carl Schurz Park to the NY Botanical Garden to check out the Orchid Show.

Ordinarily, we would have worked our way up along the East River to 125th Street and crossed to the Bronx on the Willis Avenue Bridge. Then we would have headed north on Willis Avenue, thence to 3rd Avenue and thence to Boston Road. Thence through Crotona Park, and then finally we would find our way to Southern Boulevard and ultimately to the Botanical Garden.

But today, when we got to the pedestrian bridge to Randall's Island, I innocently said, "Hey why don't we cross over, run around the island and then cross over to the Bronx on the walkway on the Triboro Bridge". So they said, "OK, whatever." Of course this obsoleted the maps we had taken for the route, mine, in my head, and Susan's, on her iPhone. And I do recommend you know the route if you do this run. The map and the directions in the text should suffice. You don't want to get lost!

Here's the Link for the complete report:  

And here's a link to the photo album:   Carl Schurz Park to the NY Botanical Garden - Photo Album