Owl’s Head Park

I’m not exaggerating, I would like to live in one of the houses that line the edge of the park. This park is huge, beautiful, and unassuming all at once. It seems like the sort of place where kids make childhood memories. I could stroll here for an hour, two, or more.

Got a nice skate park tucked away in this park.

Fantastic pier, where many Brooklynites go to enjoy the views of the Harbor, fish, or soak up the sun. There’s also a very nice seafaring memorial dedicated to those that lost their lives on ⁹⁄₁₁.
Next to the pier is the park itself. Large, with playgrounds and picnic areas. There’s a skateboard park, too. Popular park for families, and who needs to go to New England to see beautiful fall foliage when we have this park here in Brooklyn?
Have fun, there’s the water and the park grounds. A nice way to spend a day, during any season.

I love coming to this park. No matter if it’s hot, there is plenty of shade. The park is surrounded with huge trees and has great pathways if you have a stroller. There is a water park & a playground. It is also the perfect park for a jog or ride your bike at. The path continues on towards the pier then heads to Verrazano bridge. This park is perfect for almost anything… to enjoy a picnic, watch the sunset, sit on a bench enjoy your coffee and the waterfront view, or just people watch.

Love this hidden park tucked away in quaint Bay Ridge! Has a nice view of the river and is a healthy walking distance from Shore Promenade and its Pier, another lesser known gem in Brooklyn. Personally like it far more than Sunset.

What is there not to love about a park? I often spend my lunch breaks strolling through Owl’s Head before heading down the Promenade on 69^th street, or just sitting of one it’s wooden benches and overlooking the water.
I like to appreciate the park as it changes throughout the four seasons. In the winter, lots of kids will go sledding there since it has big, rolling hills.

Great and wonderful.
Bay ridge was a gorgeous neighborhood. We usually drive there to have dinner, jogging and enjoy the high line of Lower Manhattan. Nice view and spot to witness the sun rise.

It’s a beautiful park. They have separate playgrounds– for the older kids and one for the lil toddlers. Same area off 68 & colonial. There is also a water park with several water features. It’s just awesome for a day out with kids or on your own. Plenty of green space for a picnic or a birthday party.

The weekends are a little hard because it’s packed with people and their family parties. They set up tables and chairs and tents. The noise level is loud but by 10pm it’s nice and peaceful. Week days are good when school starts for now a lot of camps cone here during the summer. Park is nice and clean and they worked hard to keep it that way. The police cruise the park at times.

There are few neighborhood parks as comprehensive and well-​designed as Owl’s Head Park. From the skate park, to the playground (with a tire swing), from the landscape of rolling hills to the superb water park, it’s hard to find a more welcoming, broadly appearing and usable park in just about any borough, or even any city.
Well done, NYC!

If the British were to launch a reconquest of the colonies, the high ground of Owls Head Park would let any freedom loving republican (lower-​case R) spot Her Majesty’s frigates entering the Narrows and warn the body politic.
Given the unlikely redcoat revisit, New Yorkers can instead enjoy the peaceful views of distant Manhattan, where the Freedom Tower looms in the background like a sparkling needle or turn elsewhere and gape at the mid 20^th Century engineering marvel that is the Verrazano Bridge. Whatever way you turn, you are guaranteed a good view.
I only discovered Owls Head Park yesterday after having wanted to visit the grounds for quite some time. Having a car makes the trip easier although the R train isn’t too far away. You’ll be able to meander along various paths and come across families, children and couples making the most of the land. Fly a kite, kick a soccer ball or just gaze at the blue skies.
There is a comfort station in the middle that, by NYC standards, was relatively clean. (Clean meaning the absence of a fecal schmeer along the toilet and no carcass of homeless rot stinking up the room)
Continuing along 68^th street and you will find a walkway that eventually leads to a pier where you’ll find a ⁹⁄₁₁ memorial, people fishing and more amazing views. The walkway joins up with Shore Road Parks so you can continue along, jogging, walking or biking your way to the bridge, past Fort Hamilton. The distance is about 5 miles and well worth the trek, even if the wind will make an early Spring day feel like the depths of winter.
Owls Head Park is a jewel that the good people of Bay Ridge keep well polished and I thank them for sharing it with this non-​resident. Well done.

One of the best parks in the Bay Ridge area. I came here to shoot some hoops, relax and get my mind off things. Its a great park. Its a huge park. Plenty of basketball courts, a few baseball fields, plenty of room to play football, a great area for little kids to play around. You are also very close to shore road, so walk by and get a great view of the bridge and the water. Certainly a big enough park to just walk around it.

Going to a park really depends on the weather, mood and who you are with.
I was here on a beautiful cloudless afternoon when the temp is mid 70s. Awesome mood and felt like I can do anything in my work out gears. Accompanied with my 2 younger brothers who act like child as usual including rolling down the grassy hill.
First I will have to complain about this organization «
; when they are hosting a party at the location and wants to charge us $ 10 to go into the basketball court which is a joke. We walked away disappointed. I hope the city does something.
We went up the hill in the park instead and it was better than the court section which was loud and crowded. There’s enough room to lay down and enjoy your favorite book or listen to your music while enjoy the shaded area. Try not go over the hill in the morning, it smells like Jersey if you know what i meant.
this is a very populated park in some section and some not. I will suggest up the hill and avoid the volley ball court as it might get dusty. Definitely go by the river side if you want to see some scenery stuff.

The park is so peaceful with friendly people walking their dogs or sweet families having picnics. There is also a dog park, basketball court, skateboard area, park with swings, slides, etc. very nice.
You can also walk down by the water and enjoy the lovely views to both SI and NYC.
Point deducted due to sewage smell from tank plants.

This park provides a nice refuge from the hectic lives we all live now. It is a slice of serenity amid the hustle & bustle of the non-​stop traffic along the avenues. The walking trails are nicely kept & there are many benches to rest on when you tire of walking.

To dispel life’s daily deal of the daily grind, with a friend, Owls Head Park is a premier park in Brooklyn which allows visitors to overlook New York Harbor along Belt Parkway. Children playing on the playground where the laughter and joyous cries resonate a innocent youth for what fate awaits their life. Owls Head Park is also equipped with a dog run, skateboard and bike lanes.
There are many nice walking trails within. The layout fends this park an illusion of great space with lots of greenery.

Something I am in favor of: rich people allowing their estates to become public parkland. Of course, it’s really too bad that, after acquiring the estate, the city couldn’t be bothered to take care of it… apparently there once were some neat historic buildings on the land, but they were gone by before WWII. Now, it’s in pretty good shape. The park is like a raised bed of land, with plenty of trees, lawns and benches, good for strolling through or just relaxing.
From the eastern side of the park there’s a nice view out over the bay, and it connects with Shore Road Park, if you’re in the mood for a longer walk.

One of the best parks in the city (Owl’s Head) is found so far off the beaten-​path; so obscured from the hustle-​and-​bustle; so relegated to anonymity in a mediocre backwater of a neighborhood… you get my drift.
Owl’s Head nevertheless, has the most tree diversity in all of New York. Fact. The parks which spin off from this community anchor – along Shore Road – also share in this; and they are also thick with playgrounds; ballfields; water fountains; basketball courts as Owl’s is. But make no mistake: everyone starts their weekend mornings at Owls Head first. Wintertime, too – mecca for sledding enthusiasts.
In Owl’s Head there is real excitement –a sense of discovery – because the terrain itself is unlike any other in New York. It is like a glacial outcrop; it doesn’t feel like something planned or built-​up-​with-​a-​backhoe, or ‘controlled’. Its got variegation; unevenness. You stride up rather a mammoth, sloping, hummock of earth sheltered by a gargantuan canopy of towering sycamore trees; and they reach down their thick, leafy branches to welcome you. Extraordinarily cheerful and homey.
To give you an idea how «forest-​like» this environment is; I can tell you that during a raging thunderstorm I have stood under these dense treetops and not gotten splashed by a single drop of rain. Its fabulous to come here during a storm.
Owl’s Head is – well, of course its not a real woodland – but its one of the few areas I’ve ever seen in New York where that ‘woodland feel’ is even attempted. Its brooding; its serene; its spiritual; its spooky; its unruly. Its a park with something to say to you. The ground is rough, messy; and strewn with branches; its not a nice, neat, ‘golf-​course’. This is not a ‘tree-​museum’. You can wander around just in this grove and –unlike Central Park – truly feel as if you are away from the city.
Should you suddenly feel you’ve had enough of being «in the woods” – stroll over less than a hundred feet and emerge out onto the incredible, sunny, wide-​open view and gaze with wide-​eyed pleasure at the sparkling Hudson River; the city’s bridges; the Statue of Liberty; and all the ships in the harbor. This park is a kind of a secret – it goes completely unrecognized for the superb – even spectacular – vistas it offers. There’s no better way to experience a grand, sweeping view of Upper New York Bay; the Manhattan skyline; and the far-​away smear of the Jersey coast. You can see all the way to the tower at Newark Airport. You can see out to that far distance where freedom – the world outside New York – truly lies, and almost imagine yourself there.
There are other great river viewsheds in NYC, yes (think for example of the boat basin on the UWS) but the problem is (as always) that your experience will be ruined by the presence of too many other jerkoff New Yorkers sharing the railing with you. Invading your space. Talking too loudly; being morons. Owl’s Head HAS NO crowds to contend with. That makes the difference. You can come here and find yourself completely alone. Alone in your own thoughts and daydreams.
Yep. Thanks to its location in sleepy, hum-​drum Bay Ridge; thanks to old Man Bliss who donated the park so long ago – there’s ‘elbow room’ here; room to forget aggravation. It feels intimate, private; ‘personal’. There’s at least one place in New York to enjoy being a human again.

I believe hearing children play is the sound of life!
I know some adults do not like to hear children scream but to me it sounds wonderful! If you love children, and life this is a nice park. If you don’t like children this park may not appeal to you.
There is a nice playground for young children and there are many young children and families playing in this park. Like the neighborhood the park is mixed ethnically. There are small hills to walk on a walking path. You share it with bikes but they are real New Yorkers riding their bikes not hill billies who just moved here from nowheresville who don’t know how to ride their bikes like in Williamsburg.
The park though has a lot of tall weeds and it doesn’t look like the city takes care of it’s upkeep. I know our mayor only puts money into areas he thinks will make money for the city.
In 1994, Borough President Howard Golden and City Councilmember Sal Albanese funded a $ 400,000 restoration that brought new life to the park. Roads were paved, equipment replaced, and amenities added. Since that time, Owl’s Head Park received new concrete basketball courts, and in 2000, the city’s first skateboard park. In 2002, the original gates of the Bliss estate were found in storage, and returned to the entrance of the park. They are beautiful, ornate wrought iron gates, with a large cartouche with the initials «EWB». For older Bay Ridgers especially, this is fitting, as to them, it will always be Bliss Park.
Here is a fascinating article about the parks history and long story short you can trace the invention of artificially flavored soda to this park.
Perhaps that is why the mayor doesn’t put much help into upkeep of the park. We all know he hates soda.
There are community organizations who have organized clean ups of the park.
But it would be much nicer if the city put money into it’s upkeep.
A part of our trip to Brooklyn was diagnostic. I was in too much pain even a month go to go to Brooklyn. Or this far in Brooklyn. I did fine but then I took a fall in an unkempt building. So I may have to start all over with my recovery or get another surgery. UGH!

Called «Bliss Park» by the locals this is a small hilly oasis of a spot and perfect for a beautiful day stroll. My bf brought me here and he being a former Brooklynite and from this hood used to frequent this spot. Myself, also a former Brooklynite have never been and was shocked to see this lovely little patch of green, trees and water views.
This is a peaceful family spot with kids, dogs etc. though tranquil on a weekday. Love to come back for a picnic soon… to enjoy this serene gem.