Inwood Hill Park has Manhattan’s only remaining old-growth forest — actual mature tulip-poplars, sycamores, and red oaks that predate the grid. Combined with Fort Tryon’s schist outcroppings and the Cloisters cloister walls, the upper-tip of Manhattan stays 6 to 8 degrees cooler than midtown on August afternoons.
These picks descend the ridge in three directions. The Cloisters approach via the cool ravine is the most reliable; the Inwood Hill loop is the best walk on weekends; the Dyckman Street shaded side keeps you in the canyon all the way to the river.