Top 5 Parks on Staten Island
5. Willowbrook P ark
This 164 acres park include tennis courts, playgrounds, ball fields, hiking, and an archery range, which provides a perfect opportunity for those wishing to reenact their favorite scenes from The Hunger Games. One of its most precious gems is the Carousel, a handicap-accessible merry-go-round on which 51 hand-carved wooden animals circle panels depicting Staten Island scenes.
4. Great Kills Park
Great Kills Park is known for its four beaches: New Dorp Beach; Cedar Grove Beach; Oakwood Beach; and Fox Beach. One of the four, New Dorp Beach, was once the home of the second permanent European settlement in Staten Island. Today, these beaches and wetlands help fight against erosion and flooding in nearby neighborhood.
3. Silver Lake Park
Originally created as Staten Island’s response to Manhattan’s Central Park and Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, Silver Lake Park provides abundant recreational activities amidst plenty of trails and open space to wander. It was at the turn of the last century when Staten Island secured funds and began developing the park, and it continues to flourish more than a century later, complete with an 18-hole golf course, tennis courts, sports fields, and many other facilities.
2. Wolf Pond Park
As one of Staten Island's largest parks, Wolfe's Pond Park wears many different hats. To some, it is a beautiful beach. To others, it is a wildlife and plant preserve. To still others, it is a recreation area with space to run, jump, and climb.
1. Clove Lakes Park
Besides strolling down trails and paddling on its bodies of water to appreciate its beauty, visitors can also experience the park as a more modern recreation zone. Several baseball diamonds, a soccer field, basketball court, playgrounds, and football field dot the park's landscape. Then, of course, there's the Staten Island War Memorial Ice Skating Rink, an outdoor rink located in what could be called the "active" part of the park, close to its other fields and courts.
