Thanks in large part to a glacier that passed through about 20,000 years ago, today’s Forest Park is a windy and hilly 538 acres with natural hiking and horse-riding paths through what is called “knob and kettle” terrain. Despite a few years of lumbering and a chestnut blight in 1912, the park is filled with healthy, tall, natural growth, 150-year-old trees (hickories, black cherries, dogwoods) that create canopies. Visitors can explore an abandoned railroad station, a 110-acre, nine-hole golf course, and two carousels. In the summertime, free concerts are offered at the George Seuffert Bandshell.

Inside scoop: In 1911, an independent Queens branch of the Parks Department, the Overlook, was established. Built in a Spanish-Mission style, this building houses administrative offices. Henry Miller, who wrote Tropic of Cancer (1934), was stationed at the Overlook in the 1920s, when he worked as a grave digger.