Hike in the footsteps of Walt Whitman
Steps from his birthplace in West Hills, Long Island is the Walt Whitman trail, a 4-mile hike which threads up and down through thick forest and moss-lined paths to reach the highest point on the isle - a whopping 401 ft above sea level (out of the five boroughs only Staten Island is a contender). At the summit hikers are rewarded with a verse from Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, Paumanok (the native name for Long Island), and if that inspires you, the nearby Walt Whitman Birthplace Interpretive Center sells poems and provides tours of the house where Whitman was born.
DIRECTIONS: LIRR to Hicksville, Long Island, then the 79 bus to the Walt Whitman Mall.
