3.7 miles | 62 ft gain | Difficulty: Easy | Rating ★★★★

It was a lazy weekend and we wanted to stay close to home. The idea of driving an hour or so up to the Hudson Valley, again, felt daunting. Little did we know that the 19 mile drive to Queens would still take us nearly as long, thanks to horrendous traffic. But with the temperatures in the 70s on the first day of May, it felt like a good time to head to the beach.

Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge is part of the larger Gateway National Recreation Area that spans Queens, Staten Island and Sandy Hook, New Jersey. It’s also, apparently, one of the best bird watch spots in the northeast.

The trail is mostly flat, a combination of gravel, sand and dirt. There’s a lovely 1.7 mile loop right from the visitors center, but of course we extended the trail a bit. Starting clockwise, you walk along the bay, with marsh on both sides and skyline far in the distance. The humidity amplified the brininess in the air. As we continued around, moving away from the shoreline, we intermittently got scents of trees and wildflowers, while the salty air still pushed through.

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Instead of continuing right on our loop, we ventured left when inland to take the north spur. This goes up for a few miles, to a believe a marshy, muddy area, particularly during the spring, but we only stayed on half a mile or so until we found a loop to take us back.

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Back at the parking area, we crossed the street to explore the East Pond Loop. Drastically different, this trail was more grass and mud with thick trees and branches surrounding us, and little peeks out to the marsh and finally the pond.

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Not in any way challenging, but it was nice to stay local and explore what felt like our own backyard.