New York City's third-largest park: a 2-mile trail through three kinds of forest at the north end, the paved Putnam Trail that runs the length of the park into Westchester, a 3-mile cross-country course and a 1.25-mile rubber track.
Go on your own and walk, hike or run. The track and the cross-country course start on the Broadway side, from West 240th Street to the city line. NYC Parks has a trail map on its Van Cortlandt trails page.
Free: it's a public park, and NYC Parks lists no fee for the trails or the track.
That's what their own site said on October 21, 2026. Prices change; the booking page has today's.
Year-round
Everything here comes from their own website, checked on the date above. We'll say when we've tried it ourselves. How we pick.
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Public outdoor running tracks · Downtown, Uptown, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx
Public running tracks in city parks, many a quarter mile with all-weather or rubber surfaces, for sprints, endurance runs or speed walking.
Checked today on their own site
Free community run/walk · Uptown, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx
Free weekly community runs and walks in neighborhood parks, led by volunteers from New York Road Runners.
Checked 7 days ago on their own site
Shoreline and forest trails · The Bronx
The city's largest park, more than three times the size of Central Park: miles of trails and bridle paths through old oak woods to a 13-mile shoreline on Long Island Sound, Hunter Island, the Twin Islands, Turtle Cove and Orchard Beach.
Checked today on their own site