Home \ Sports \

Sports Baseball and Softball - Field Finder Basketball Bicycle Riding Bird Watching Boating Bouldering Chess & Checkers Cross-Country Skiing Fishing Football Frisbee Handball Horseback Riding Ice Skating In-line Skating Lawn Sports Model Sailboats Paddleball Running - NYC Marathon Sledding Soccer Swimming Tennis Volleyball Walking Wall Climbing Yoga

Sledding in Central Park

John B. Moore Sledding in Central Park.

Wintertime in Central Park conjures up a rich variety of seasonal images. The classic Currier and Ives painting of turn of Nineteenth Century New Yorkers sailing smoothly around the frozen Lake comes to mind or perhaps it’s the more recent turn of the century skaters on either Lasker or Wollman Rinks. Then there are always the timeless pictures of the horse drawn carriages that ply the drive around the lower park, bells jangling; the top hated driver huddled up on top of his bench with his patrons snuggled warmly underneath a blanket in back. But perhaps the images that most fill the daydreams of the younger inhabitants of Manhattan between 50th and 120th St.’s are those of speeding now a snow covered slope, enjoying the (foggy) breathtaking chills and feet freezing thrills of sledding in Central Park.

Whether it’s on a high-tech toboggan, a patched up inner tube or a purloined garbage can lid when it comes to sledding it’s location, location, location. And the best place, by overwhelming consensus, to ride the snowy slopes is Pilgrim Hill. Just north of the 72nd St. entrance at Fifth Ave., Pilgrim Hill offers a steep slope that levels out to a gentle finish, giving the sledder’s dream ride – maximum velocity, minimum bruises. Runner up, in Case Pilgrim Hill is looking like rush hour on the BQE is Cedar Hill between 76th and 79th st. just south of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Best Slopes
Manhattan’s greatest slope is in Central Park at Pilgrim Hill. Enter the park at 72nd Street on the East Side. Runner up: Cedar Hill, also in Central Park, between 76th and 79th Streets.

In (the unlikely) case of a crash Lenox Hill Hospital is the closest ER to Central Park’s Pilgrim Hill (100 E. 77th St., at Park Ave.).

Join Our Newsletter Want to keep up with what's going on in Central Park? Sign up for one or all of our newsletters! We will NEVER share your address.	Weekly Newsletter (?) Special Edition (?) Monthly Newsletter (?)