Marine Park Salt Marsh Nature Trail

The experience

A flat loop through the last open stretch of Gerritsen Creek, inside 798-acre Marine Park on Jamaica Bay. The trails were cut along the creek in 1984–85 and the Salt Marsh Nature Center opened at the head of the water on Avenue U in 2000. The northern reach of the creek was buried in a storm sewer in 1920 and the whole site was a landfill by mid-century, with rubbish piled 60 feet high in places, until a huge 1990s cleanup brought the marsh back. Free, and staffed by Urban Park Rangers who run birdwatching and kayaking programmes.

Brooklyn's tidal marsh, with the ruins of America's first tidal mill still standing in the water.

What a membership adds.

Everything above is free: the name, the photo, the rating, the exact spot. What members get is the part you can't Google: the sourced insider tip for this place (what to order, when to go, what to skip), every day of your trips unlocked in full with the insider tip on every researched stop, and the concierge at full strength, answering with your own insider tips, no daily meter.