Prospect Park
Frederick Law Olmsted considered Prospect Park — not Central Park — his greatest achievement, and once you walk the Lullwater path past the pale-stone Beaux-Arts Boathouse and out onto the longest uninterrupted meadow in any American urban park, you'll understand why.
A Park That Rewards Slow Exploration
Prospect Park's 585 acres hold an extraordinary range of landscapes for a city park: the vast Long Meadow where locals picnic, play cricket, and walk dogs on weekend mornings; the 60-acre lake — the only natural freshwater lake in all of Brooklyn — where pedal boats drift past herons and turtles; and the Ravine, Brooklyn's only forest, threaded with cascading waterfalls, rustic bridges, and narrow trails designed after Adirondack wilderness.
Autumn is the park's most cinematic season, when golden foliage sweeps the Long Meadow and reflects in the Lullwater. Summer brings free outdoor concerts through the Celebrate Brooklyn! festival at the Bandshell. Winter offers ice skating at the LeFrak Center at Lakeside.
Beyond the Park Gates
The park's eastern edge opens directly onto two of Brooklyn's finest cultural institutions. The Brooklyn Botanic Garden — 52 acres of curated landscapes including a Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden and a spectacular Cherry Esplanade — has been operating since 1911. A combo ticket with the adjacent Brooklyn Museum, one of the largest art museums in the United States, saves around $15.
Every Saturday morning, Grand Army Plaza — the park's triumphal northern entrance, marked by the towering Soldiers' and Sailors' Arch — hosts a beloved greenmarket. It's the ideal place to stock up on provisions before heading into the park for a picnic on the Long Meadow.
Prospect Park on video
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