Yes, This Really is New York City

When most people think of NYC, they think of tall buildings, traffic, throngs of people and all of the things related to a big crowded urban center. New York certainly has those.

But hidden in the forgotten borough of Staten Island there exist large tracts of woodland in its natural state. This is the Greenbelt. Not the beautiful, manicured spaces of Central or Prospect Parks, but rather what you might have seen here before the arrival of European settlers. You can walk along any of its many trails and completely forget that you are still indeed within the city limits.

Yesterday I took such a walk ... allow me to share with you a little bit of what I saw. (Click on each photo to see it larger. For more information on some of these photos, click here.)