The 5 Best Spots For Unparalleled Fall Foliage Viewing In Central Park

In the middle of bustling urban Manhattan is a natural oasis — the impressively large 843-acre Central Park. If you've never been before, it's easy to underestimate just how large that is. Central Park is home to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a zoo, a castle, an ice skating rink, playgrounds, multiple ponds and lakes, and around 18,000 trees. In the fall, those trees transform into a brilliant tapestry of reds, yellows, oranges, and golds. The absolute best places to go for a stroll and admire the fall color are the North Woods, The Mall and Literary Walk, The Ramble, near Bethesda Fountain, and around the Reservoir.

If you're looking for budget-friendly outdoor activities in New York City this fall, you can spend many afternoons wandering Central Park. There are many different landscapes to choose from for your perfect NYC autumn experience, but fortunately, the park is so large that it has multiple microclimates, meaning different areas of the park hit their autumn foliage peak at different times, so you might just get the opportunity to see them all, if you time your visits right. Make sure to keep your eyes on the Central Park Conservancy's interactive foliage map to find out where their expert arborists who maintain the many types of trees in the park are reporting the most incredible fall color.

When you think of Central Park, your first images might be of the manicured meadows of Strawberry Fields or the sweeping stone outcropping Umpire Rock by Heckscher Playground. But if you want a truly breathtaking autumn stroll, you may want to go someplace wilder. Larger than 30 football fields, Central Park's North Woods is a beautiful, shady woodland specifically designed to evoke the lush forests of upstate New York. When you walk across the little bridges and between the tall trees listening to the sound of waterfalls, you might forget that you're just a quick walk from busy Central Harlem.

While the entire park is known for its fantastic fall foliage, the Official Website of the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation specifically recommends walking through the North Woods if you want to see the best of the best of New York City's autumn colors. In the fall, the elms of the North Woods turn a brilliant yellow, while the black cherries, pin oaks, red maples, red oaks, scarlet oaks, and sweetgum trees burst into flaming shades of red.

The Mall is one of the most iconic areas of Central Park, and its deceptively simple design relies heavily on the trees, tall and twisting elms positioned around the wide, flat path lined with benches. There, you can sit and relax, watching the people of New York walk, jog, bike, roller skate, and skateboard by. Although this is an outdoor space with no walls, the leafy canopy above provides shade in the heat of summer. In the fall, the trees turn a warm yellow. This unique walk through the park is one of those most recommended for admiring the fall foliage by the Official Website of the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation.

While in other parts of the park the mixture of different trees makes the landscape burst into a sea of different colors, the fact that there is only one kind of tree along the Mall is part of what makes it so impressive. In the past, American Elms were a common sight lining American streets, but in the 1930s many of these trees were wiped out by Dutch Elm disease — but in Central Park The Central Park Conservancy's arborists worked to care for and protect the park's elms, and this tradition survives. Walking along the leaf-strewn path and looking up at the sunlight streaming through the brightly colored leaves above is one of the most beautiful autumn experiences you can have in Central Park.

The 38 acres of woods that make up the Ramble are made up of many different varieties of trees that turn different colors in the fall. From deep bronze pin oaks and yellow hickory trees to the gorgeous black tupelo in Tupelo Meadow which turns a brilliant red, if you come at peak foliage season, you'll find yourself in a wonderland of autumn color that it's hard to believe could be in the middle of the most highly populated city in the United States.

Crowds are a part of life in Manhattan, but somehow, The Ramble remains a quiet woodland where you can walk winding, secluded paths, climb rocky stairs, and almost get lost in the wilderness a quick 20 minutes subway ride from New York's most glorious tourist trap, Times Square. This place is an important part of New York City's rich LGBTQ+ history, as its privacy made it a favorite meeting place of closeted lovers from the 1920s-1950s. Today, it is still a beautiful place for a romantic date in Central Park, surrounded by birdsong and crisp autumn leaves.

There are plenty of iconic spots to visit in New York City, but the most beautiful one to experience in autumn might just be Bethesda Fountain, also known as Angel of the Waters. While you might not know its names, you would probably recognize it. This is one of the world's most famous fountains – its tall blue-green bronze angel, designed by late mid-1800s sculptor Emma Stebbins, rising above the circular pool below is iconic.

As beautiful as the fountain is, what makes this spot so fantastic for admiring the autumn colors in Central Park is the waters around the angel. The fountain is set against the backdrop of The Central Park Lake, and the reflections double the burning orange, red, and yellow leaves on the shore. As you look out at the scene from the fountain, you might even see swans and ducks floating along the still water surface.

If you're going to be in Manhattan in the fall, there are few places more perfect for spending an afternoon admiring the autumn foliage than at Central Park's enormous Reservoir. If nothing else drives home the size of Central Park, the Reservoir (officially the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir) just might. This incredible manmade lake stretches almost the entire width of the park, is larger than 75 football fields, has more than one billion gallons of water inside, and has a 1.58 mile track around the perimeter. It is a favorite of city joggers and sightseers alike, thanks to the beautiful natural landscape surrounding the water and, in the background, a stellar view of the famous New York City skyline.

In the springtime, this place comes alive with blooming cherry trees, but its fall colors are spectacular, too. While there aren't any pretty pink flowers around the Reservoir, in the autumn, the leaves of the various varieties of cherry trees turn yellow. As you run (or slowly meander) around the Reservoir, you'll also spot oranges, bronzes, and reds in the trees around you.

In order to choose the absolute best spots to see the best of New York City's fall foliage, we looked at recommendations from the Central Park Fall Foliage Map, the Central Park Conservancy, Centralpark.com, and the Official Website of the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation. From there, we narrowed down the long list of beautiful places in the park to those which were recommended multiple times. Finally, to break ties and narrow down our list to just five places, we checked reviews from both local and out of town visitors on Google Reviews, TripAdvisor, and Yelp to see which had the most mentions of excellent fall foliage.