Naturalists' Walk

Across from the American Museum of Natural History, this landscape was restored in 1996 with an educational connection in mind. Amid a large boulder outcrop, the Conservancy created a rustic outdoor “classroom” where students can gather with their teachers and sit on split-log benches.

A network of soft-surface paths radiates outward from rustic benches at the Central Park West entrance. Parkgoers can follow one pathway north, leading past massive royal paulownia trees that bear large, grapelike leaves and impressive outcrops of Manhattan schist. Head south into a valley landscape with a broad, grassy meadow. With a small stream running across its far eastern edge, the lawn is a popular spot for picnicking and reading. The stream is a vestige of the Ladies’ Pond, a long-gone area of the Lake that was filled in during the 1930s.

At the southern border of Naturalists’ Walk is Eaglevale Arch. The massive gneiss and ashalr structure leads to Azalea Walk, with its colorful springtime variety of azaleas and rhododendrons.