Leaf Peeping in Prospect Park

An early afternoon walk in Brooklyn's Prospect Park reveals twirling leaves, rolling and dancing down the path ahead of me, urging me further and further in to the park.  

The tall trees bend and sway and creak and moan as the wind curls around their trunks and branches. The air is cool, not yet see-your-own-breath cool, but it nips at exposed flesh, hinting at the bite to come.

A brochure in the visitor center of this 585 acre  park in the heart of Brooklyn reveals that there are more than 30,00 trees in Prospect Park and over 150 species.  These species include Red Oak, Sycamore Maple, Sweet Gum, Cutleaf Beech, White Oak, Lacebark Pine, London Planetree, Pignut Hickory, Camperdown Elm, Tulip Trees, Weeping Mulberry, and Black Cherry, to name just a few.

It's believed that some of these trees are upwards of 200 years old and the tallest trees here are the Tulip Trees, standing at over 100 feet.  One tree, an Elm, boasts the largest girth, 75" in diameter.

As I walk among these sentinels, I'm humbled by their beauty and their grace.  These trees stand tall, deeply rooted in their ancient soil, as the autumn breeze sweeps through their branches, leaving them naked, and they await their cloaks of winter white.