Central Park, Oct 17–23: Making Strides takes the Bandshell for two days, then the quietest week of the autumn

        A busy weekend and then the park empties out. Making Strides Against Breast Cancer holds Bandshell Plaza, Mineral Springs and Rumsey Playfield from midnight to 6 PM on both Saturday and Sunday — thirty-six hours across the Mall — with a second Making Strides walk at Cedar Hill on Sunday morning. After that, the calendar is nearly bare until Halloween.

Weather this week

Tonight brings storms at 90%, then Saturday clears to a cool 53° after an early shower, 39° overnight, and Sunday is sunny and 55°. The week warms gently — 57°, 64°, 63°, 61°, 65° — and stays mostly dry. Proper jacket weather now, and the light is doing the thing it does in late October.

Sat Oct 17 — Making Strides on the Mall, and Open House New York

Making Strides Against Breast Cancer of Central Park holds Bandshell Plaza, Mineral Springs and Rumsey Playfield, midnight to 6 PM. Eighteen hours. The Mall and the 72nd Street approaches will carry crowds all day; the drives are not closed, but walkers and cyclists should expect to pick their way through the middle of the park.

Also on, 53° and clearing:

  Open House New York Weekend at Grand Army Plaza, 10 AM–6 PM — the city’s architecture weekend.
  Conservatory Garden Tour at 11 AM. Mid-October is that garden’s moment.
  CPC Yoga on East Meadow, 11 AM–12 PM.
  Model Yacht Racing at Kerbs, 9 AM–3 PM; UnityMarketsNY at Farmers’ Gate, 9–7.
  That Guitar Man from Central Park at Hernshead, noon–6 PM.

East Meadow closed; 27 private ceremony bookings.

Sun Oct 18 — the Ramble, on a sunny 55° morning

Central Park Woodland Walk: The Ramble meets at Belvedere Castle at 10 AM — Conservancy guides through the Ramble in full autumn colour. On a clear, cold, sunny Sunday in late October this is the best thing the park does all year.

Two Making Strides walks run the same day: the Bandshell permit continues midnight to 6 PM, and the WICT New York Chapter walk takes Cedar Hill 8 AM–12 PM. Between them the Mall and the east side are both busy in the morning.

Also: International Folkdancers at King Jagiello Plaza 11 AM–6 PM, and the Iconic Views tour at 2 PM.

Mon Oct 19 – Thu Oct 22 — the quietest stretch of the autumn

There are no public events in the park Monday through Thursday. What is booked is soccer training, school programmes and lawn maintenance — routine, invisible, and none of it in anybody’s way.

Two things worth knowing:

  Tuesday, 4–5 PM: a bench dedication for Bruce Rosenfeld at the Central Park Zoo. Small, public, and the kind of thing the park quietly does all the time.
  Birding Bob is rotating meeting points this week — Strawberry Fields Monday, Loeb Boathouse Thursday, the Conservatory Garden Friday. Worth checking which before you set out.

Tuesday is the warmest day at 64°, Wednesday 63° and mostly sunny. Nothing on any drive all week — if you have been waiting for an empty loop, this is it.

Fri Oct 23 — the North Woods

Central Park Woodland Walk: The North Woods meets at the Dana Discovery Center at 10 AM — the park’s wildest and least-visited end, with a guide. The second woodland walk of the week and the one fewer people know about.

Iconic Views tour at 2 PM. 65° and mostly dry.

Looking ahead — two weeks out

Worth putting in the diary now: Abbott Dash to the Finish Line 5K on Saturday Oct 31, 8:45–11 AM, and the TCS New York City Marathon on Sunday Nov 1, 8 AM–5 PM with 55,000 runners finishing in the park. That weekend the loop is gone, and it is the biggest two days of the park’s year.

Steady all week

  NYC Parks’ 44th Annual Wreath Interpretations Open Call at the Arsenal all seven days — submissions for the winter wreath show.
  Bethesda Terrace and Fountain — closed all day, every day. The permits now run to November 16.
  New Dendrology at the Arsenal Gallery, weekdays 9–5, free.
  102 field permits — 73 at North Meadow, 21 on the tennis courts, 8 at Heckscher. North Meadow is carrying the league calendar almost alone now.
  East Meadow closed both weekend days; East 106th Street lawn out Monday–Thursday.

Quick recap

  Making Strides holds the Bandshell midnight–6 PM Saturday AND Sunday, plus a second walk at Cedar Hill Sunday morning.
  Sunday 10 AM: the Ramble woodland walk — the best walk of the year, on a sunny 55° morning.
  Monday to Thursday has no public events at all and nothing on the drives.
  Friday 10 AM: the North Woods woodland walk from Dana Discovery Center.
  Open House New York, Saturday at Grand Army Plaza.
  Diary it: Dash to the Finish Line Oct 31, the Marathon Nov 1.

Have a good week in the park,
Central Park Guide