Explore the best rated trails in Merrick, NY. Whether you're looking for an easy walking trail or a bike trail like the Edgar Felix Memorial Bikeway and West Hudson Park Path. With more than 73 trails covering 494 miles you’re bound to find a perfect trail for you. Click on any trail below to find trail descriptions, trail maps, photos, and reviews.
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Closure Notice: As of 2021, the city is undertaking a series of construction projects in East River Park, which will result in ongoing closures to sections of the southern segment of the greenway...
The old New York Central rail line that ran from the Bronx to northern bedroom communities in Westchester and Putnam Counties carried commuters during the workweek, but on the weekends tourists...
Like Wantagh State Parkway, Ocean Parkway was built in the postwar 1930s to provide access to the crown jewel of the state park system, Jones Beach State Park. Unlike the former road, however, this...
The Hudson River Waterfront Walkway is a 1.5 mile walkway along the bank of the Hudson River in Jersey City. The walkway offers stunning views of Manhattan as well as access to a number of ferries and...
The two diverse sections of the Shore Parkway Greenway Trail blend urban and scenic, offering views of sights ranging from the Statue of Liberty to wildlife refuges. Following the Belt/Shore Parkway,...
Traveling north-south through Wall Township is the Route 18 Bike Path. The northern terminus is the Municipal Compex, which houses the County Library, the Municipal Court and the Police HQ, as well as...
The Jones Point Path occupies an abandoned motor vehicle route (old US Route 9W). The path provides bicyclists with a relatively safe bypass to a dangerous section of busy US Route 9W near Bear...
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The idea of a greenway along the Elizabeth River was actually put forward in 1912 by the famous Olmsted Architectural Firm. However, continous flooding made building a trail on the riverbank all but...
The Sandy Hook Multi-Use Pathway travels 8.7 miles alongside the picturesque beaches and historical monuments of the Sandy Hook peninsula. The pathway begins in the Gateway National Recreation Area...
Roosevelt Island Greenway, a little-known gem in the Big Apple, was named after President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1973. To reach this scenic pathway, board New York City’s only aerial tram,...
The system of trails in Loantaka Brook Reservation are open to hikers, cyclists and equestrians, although the trails are marked as to which uses are permitted on each segment. Loantaka Brook...
The paved pathway running through West Hudson Park offers a scenic, tree-lined escape between Harrison and Kearny, NJ. The trail provides access to the park’s stocked lake, water park, athletic...
The Harlem River Greenway runs north-south along the Harlem River on the East Side of Upper Manhattan. The northern terminus is Dyckman Street and Harlem River Drive. Going west on Dyckman allows...
While not a "rail-trail," the Hook Mountain/Nyack Beach Bikeway is a very scenic trail along the Hudson River in Rockland County. The southern half of this trail is flat and runs right along the...
The Perth Amboy Harbor Walk offers scenic views of the Raritan Bay and Raritan River as it hugs the shoreline of the City of Perth Amboy, founded in 1683 and home to one of the nation's oldest ports....
The Ramsey Bike Path is a recreational path built on the former Paterson to Suffern trolley line right-of-way. The path extends along a north-south route from one end of Ramsey to the other....
The Saddle River County Park Bike Path is a beautiful suburban trail that winds alongside the Saddle River. Most of the trail runs through moderately dense suburban development, with residential and...
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The Patriots' Path covers roughly 35 miles of terrain and is open to mountain biking, horseback riding, cross-country skiing and hiking. The multi-use trails links parks, open space, recreational...
The Eastern Parkway Trail is a 2-mile route along a tree-lined boulevard in Brooklyn's Crown Heights neighborhood. The path begins at Prospect Park, which houses some of Brooklyn's most popular...
The nicely paved Bethpage Bikeway runs alongside suburban roads for long segments of the route, but it’s much more than a suburban trail. Each on-road suburban stretch is broken up by one of three...
The Perth Amboy Harbor Walk offers scenic views of the Raritan Bay and Raritan River as it hugs the shoreline of the City of Perth Amboy, founded in 1683 and home to one of the nation's oldest ports....
The Setauket-Port Jefferson Station Greenway Trail stretches just over 3 miles along Long Island’s north shore. Construction was completed in two phases with the first trail section opening in 2009...
The John Kieran Nature Trail is a short loop that borders Van Cortlandt Lake and its associated wetlands. It is a wonderful site for bird-watching. The trail also passes several sites of significance...
The Hudson River Greenway (HRG) is one of the most popular places to ride, walk, and jog in New York City. It makes up part of the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway loop, the cross-state Empire State...
The Hutchinson River Greenway offers a convenient alternative to the Hutchinson River Parkway, which it closely follows. Although adjacent to the busy thoroughfare, trees have been planted along the...
A former right-of-way of the NY & NJ Railroad. Near historical Mount Ivy which was the center of a Quaker settlement in the 18th century. Hiking along railroad bed and wildlife observation and...
This bike-ped path in Roselle Park, Union County. The bike path is nestled at the bottom of the railroad embankment carrying New Jersey Transit's Raritan Valley Line. Stretching between Galloping Hill...
The Jones Beach Boardwalk traverses Jones Beach State Park, running parallel (and south of) Ocean Parkway. The pleasant pathway offers views of the beach and the ocean. Although bicycles are...
The Kings Park Hike & Bike Trail runs for 1.5 miles between Old Dock Road at Church Street in Kings Park and Nissequogue River State Park. The trail is a town of Smithtown park and follows an...
The Patriots' Path covers roughly 35 miles of terrain and is open to mountain biking, horseback riding, cross-country skiing and hiking. The multi-use trails links parks, open space, recreational...
The Ramsey Bike Path is a recreational path built on the former Paterson to Suffern trolley line right-of-way. The path extends along a north-south route from one end of Ramsey to the other....
The Sandy Hook Multi-Use Pathway travels 8.7 miles alongside the picturesque beaches and historical monuments of the Sandy Hook peninsula. The pathway begins in the Gateway National Recreation Area...
The Fort Washington Park Greenway brings residents and visitors to Washington Heights right up to the edge of the Hudson. The mile-long trail begins near the pier at the end of Dyckman Street and...
Brooklyn's Flatbush Avenue Greenway parallels its namesake roadway for just over a mile from Marine Parkway Bridge to a connection with the Shore Parkway Greenway Trail. The two trails are part of the...
Prepare to be whisked into the past when you take the Edgar Felix Memorial Bikeway. The paved trail follows a short-line railroad corridor from the coastal city of Manasquan to a village at Allaire...
Like Wantagh State Parkway, Ocean Parkway was built in the postwar 1930s to provide access to the crown jewel of the state park system, Jones Beach State Park. Unlike the former road, however, this...
The EPCAL Alternative Transportation Path loops around the 2,900-acre Enterprise Park at Calverton (hence its name: EPCAL) on New York’s Long Island and links to the Town of Riverhead’s 65-acre...
The Saddle River County Park Bike Path is a beautiful suburban trail that winds alongside the Saddle River. Most of the trail runs through moderately dense suburban development, with residential and...
Although just a mile long, the Beach Channel Drive Greenway in Queens offers expansive views of Jamaica Bay and the beautiful Marine Parkway Bridge as it traces the border of Jacob Riis Park. On the...
The Harlem River Greenway runs north-south along the Harlem River on the East Side of Upper Manhattan. The northern terminus is Dyckman Street and Harlem River Drive. Going west on Dyckman allows...
In the early 1830s the Morris Canal opened across northern New Jersey, from Phillipsburg on the Delaware River to Newark, and later to Jersey City on the Hudson River. It provided a thoroughfare for...
The Raymond G. Esposito Memorial Trail travels from one end of the village of South Nyack to the other in 1 mile but greatly expands its reach by connecting with the Old Erie Path and a new shared-use...
The Kings Park Hike & Bike Trail runs for 1.5 miles between Old Dock Road at Church Street in Kings Park and Nissequogue River State Park. The trail is a town of Smithtown park and follows an...
The Laurelton Greenway is a short but well-maintained multiuse path connecting the neighborhoods of Jamaica and Rosedale in southern Queens, NY. The two-lane paved trail starts in Jamaica, and travels...
The Harlem River Greenway runs north-south along the Harlem River on the East Side of Upper Manhattan. The northern terminus is Dyckman Street and Harlem River Drive. Going west on Dyckman allows...
The Saddle River County Park Bike Path is a beautiful suburban trail that winds alongside the Saddle River. Most of the trail runs through moderately dense suburban development, with residential and...
The Ramsey Bike Path is a recreational path built on the former Paterson to Suffern trolley line right-of-way. The path extends along a north-south route from one end of Ramsey to the other....
Brooklyn's Flatbush Avenue Greenway parallels its namesake roadway for just over a mile from Marine Parkway Bridge to a connection with the Shore Parkway Greenway Trail. The two trails are part of the...
The West Essex Trail follows a short distance (just under 3 miles) of the former rail bed of the Caldwell Branch on the old Erie-Lackawanna Railroad. The trail runs between the EssexPassiac county...
The Eastern Parkway Trail is a 2-mile route along a tree-lined boulevard in Brooklyn's Crown Heights neighborhood. The path begins at Prospect Park, which houses some of Brooklyn's most popular...
Tallman Mountain State Park Bike Path is partially paved and bisects the Tallman Mountain State Park. The route provides a motor-vehicle-free way for bicyclists using US Route 9W to connect with...
The nicely paved Bethpage Bikeway runs alongside suburban roads for long segments of the route, but it’s much more than a suburban trail. Each on-road suburban stretch is broken up by one of three...
The Manasquan Reservoir Trail is located in the Howell Township and provides a great natural destination in the heart of the town. The trail forms a perimeter loop around the 770 acre reservoir...
The New Springville Greenway stretches just over 3 miles, primarily paralleling Richmond Avenue on New York's Staten Island. A highlight of the paved pathway is its proximity to Freshkills Park, a...
When Jones Beach State Park opened on Long Island’s South Shore in the late 1920s, a series of scenic parkways was built on infill dredged from nearby towns to connect New Yorkers to the new public...
The Jones Beach Boardwalk traverses Jones Beach State Park, running parallel (and south of) Ocean Parkway. The pleasant pathway offers views of the beach and the ocean. Although bicycles are...
The Cross Island Parkway Trail closely follows its namesake thoroughfare through northeastern Queens. From its northern end, you will soon enter Little Bay Park, which offers lovely views of the...
Although just a mile long, the Beach Channel Drive Greenway in Queens offers expansive views of Jamaica Bay and the beautiful Marine Parkway Bridge as it traces the border of Jacob Riis Park. On the...
The Briarcliff-Peekskill Trailway is a 12-mile linear park that runs from the town of Ossining north to Westchester County's Blue Mountain Reservation in Peekskill. The trail is built on land...
The Battery Bikeway is a only a half a mile long but it is an important link in the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway system, connecting the East River Greenway with the Hudson River Greenway to form a...
I began in Massapequa with the intention of finishing at Woodbury Road. I made it to Trail View Park at mile marker 8 and turned around. Picture perfect biking weather , but first ride of the season. I’ll definitely finish the trail next outing. The trail is well maintained, filled with walkers, joggers and bikers. I’d definitely recommend for walking and biking
I did this trail a few days ago from Freehold to Highlands and back on my hybrid. I don't recommend a road bike b/c of the countless crossing streets along the way which would necessitate clipping in and out every other minute. The scenery is varied and nice. However the signage is not adequate so you MUST bring phone with maps app. If you're planning to do most or all of this trail, give yourself plenty of time and be patient. It took me almost 5 hours to go 57 miles. Don't plan on setting any Strava pacing records lol...
The Kennedy Catholic School is private property. Do not enter or depart the trail from the southern endpoint at Kennedy Catholic.
The Kennedy Catholic High School parking lot is private property and they have not given anyone walking the trail permission to access the trail via their parking lot . As with any school they are very protective of the student body and control who has access to the school and parking lot. DO NOT PARK IN THE SCHOOL PARKING LOT. Do not access the trail from the Kennedy Catholic High School.
First half of the trail was overcome with traffic noise from the highway running parallel. Most of the path was uncomfortable gravel with very little scenery. 2.5 miles round trip but not inspiring.
Beautiful flat paved trail that continues for 5 miles
Uninteresting trail under power lines that actually does not welcome bikes.
The map here shows the Little Falls section and that does not match the description. Trail head is in Little Falls NJ near the intersection of Reiners Rd & Cedar Grove Rd and ends near the corner of Lynn Pl. and Stewart Ave from there it converts to a painted Bike path on a very busy Browertown Rd. tto a bumpy
If your only exposure to New Jersey has been a stressful and decidedly UN-scenic drive along the Turnpike, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by this picturesque waterside trail.
We decided to “put in” just outside of Princeton; we parked at a Homewood Suites a super-short ride from the Canal at the southern tip of Carnegie Lake. The lake actually seemed more like a wide river that bordered the trail on the left as we headed north, while the canal flowed on our right. So, there were several stretches where we had water views on both sides.
Like a lot of canal trails (maybe all of them on the East Coast?), the D&R was unpaved with varying degrees of gray cinder or yellow pea gravel surfaces. In some places, however, both had been worn away and it appeared to have rained recently, so there were occasional puddles and deep muddy ruts left by bikers before us.
We initially headed about ten miles north passing canal locks, stone tender houses, cobblestone spillways (that required us to walk out bikes over), a tunnel, and several wooden bridges. At many of the locks, the water rushed through, but on the long stretches in between, the water was placid and only the sound of wildlife could be heard. Heading south, where the trail was slightly more rustic and grass grew between the two crushed gravel lanes, we came across a number of families canoeing on the canal.
When we erroneously thought we’d reached the end of the trail, a delightful pair of bikers corrected us, one of whom was a Brit who serves as a trustee on the West Windsor Bicycle and Pedestrian Alliance. (Cheers to this org for advocating for trail access and safety on behalf of users!)
We rode and chatted with them for a few miles, learning interesting facts about the area (e.g., in 1938, Orson Welles based the landing of space aliens in a nearby farm during his infamous radio broadcast of H.G. Wells’ “War of the Worlds,” and New Jersey was once the telecom capital of the country as home to Thomas Edison, Bell Atlantic and shortwave radio farms during the World Wars). Who knew?
We headed into Princeton after our ride to visit NJ’s first brewery.
We loved this trail! The combination of parks and water views on one side and the vibrancy of New York City on the other made this one of our favorite rides. After biking through city traffic from the brewery where we parked and, of course, later patronized, to the shores of the Hudson River (not for the faint-hearted, but not that scary, really), we began our trek north on the two-lane, almost 13-mile, paved trail.
The Hudson River Greenway starts at the bottom of Manhattan in Battery Park, meandering among the promenades of tall apartment buildings with spectacular views of the river and the steep embankments of New Jersey. The busy Westside Highway separates the trail from the residential towers and commercial warehouses, and when we crossed it, the sound of horns and rumbling trucks seemed to be absorbed by the river.
While the trail is said to be the most heavily used bikeway in America, we pedaled easily around the bikeshare-riding tourists and occasional rollerbladers as we passed Chelsea Pier, the new Little Island, the Intrepid aircraft carrier, and other well-known tourist attractions. There are numerous intersections along the trail, but more are for pedestrian crossings than cars.
Around 100th street, the traffic on the Greenway started to wane as the trail wound under the highway, up some short hills and down below the embankments now rose on the New York side of the Hudson, too. With no view of the city — just the sight of sailboats moored on the wide river — our only reminder that we were still in Manhattan was the far-off expanse of the George Washington Bridge. Eventually, we made it there but had to turn around before the trail’s steep rise, as it continued well past the Bridge to the northern trailhead.
We’ve been walking this trail for years. If you enter at the corner of Cedar and Dobbs, and walk to Paulding, through that gated patch where you pass over the small bridge, which is what we most often do, it’s about 7.5 miles and takes ~2.5 hours at a decent pace. Today we walked from Dows Lane to that gate by the cottage and back around. An hour and fifteen. And if you want a snack or drinks, you can detour down Main St, Irvington. We like to walk to MP Taverna.
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