The Best of Bay Ridge: Places - Owl's Head Park

I'm taking a break from our food tour of Bay Ridge (aren't you full yet?) to broaden the scope of Bay Ridge to include some of our favorite places. Today, I'm talking about my favorite park.

P.S. This is our 500th post on the blog!!!

Bay Ridge has several really nice parks but since I can't speak to the quality of the splash pads or how awesome the playground is (since we don't have kids), today I'm just sharing our favorite park to hang out on a summer day, go for a walk, or catch some sunnies.

My most favorite Bay Ridge park of all time is Owls Head. I'm partial because when I first moved to Bay Ridge my beloved 2C was just across the street from this park so it became my home base. I loved sitting on my window sill and watching people in the park, seeing the Mulch Fest every year when people would drag their old Christmas trees to the corner of the park to get mulched, and see all the little kids sledding down the giant hill in the winter. I spied on birthday parties and picnics and rowdy teen fights at that park.

When I first moved I was a pretty regular runner and I would run around the park in the morning and challenge myself to run as fast as I could up the hill (killer) or a I would jump rope by the creepy bathrooms. When I was in graduate school I would take my reading homework up to the terrace area and enjoy the afternoon sun.

We used to have our church picnics at Owls Head and Dan and I used to take the youth group over there for games like capture the flag and kickball. One time I fell in a hole and careened down the hill scrapping up my knee.

When Dan and I started dating we would hang out at my apartment after church on Sunday and then walk over to the park and sit on the back hill overlooking New York Bay and 68th Street Pier. We would play board games or sometimes take our art supplies.

We got our engagement photos taken at Owls Head and our first year married photos as well.

Owls Head is just an all around great park. It has a big field for picnics and running around. It has a giant steep hill for sledding. A playground. A splash pad. Basketball courts. A skate park. A path that runs all the way around. A dog run and a beautiful terrace and wonderful views. It's not a perfect park but it's filled with a huge canopy of shady trees and lots of cherished memories for me. We live farther away from it now but it's still our go-to park for walks in the fall (when I took these pictures in October), sunnies on the hillside in the summer, and strolling around just about any time of year.