LaTourette Park is a part of the Staten Island
Greenbelt system, situated right in the heart of the island and named after LaTourette family who had a farm on the place where the park is now.
There are several ways to get here - by car, by bus S74 from the
Staten Island Ferry (40 minutes), or if you are coming with a bike you can take a train from Staten Island Ferry Terminal to Eltingville station (25 minutes) and go west on a sidewalk or road almost up to the Staten Island Mall (10-15 minutes by bicycle), where the LaTourette bike path starts.
The bike path in most of its part is covered by gravel, so the wider the bicycle tires are - the better. The road goes throughout the entire park, splitting into three sections. Sometimes it goes uphill, sometimes - downhill and is not always straight, so it might be a good idea not to speed up too much and slow down before the turns.
The first section goes from the Mall through wet- and woodlands.
The forest part of the Park is pierced by two Greenbelt paths: blue and yellow. The blue trail goes uphill and provides a panoramic view overlooking Richmond Creek.
The second part of the bike path goes through the forest and by the city owned golf field, open to the public.
And the third section of the bike path goes to the St Andrew Church next to the Historic Richmondtown, a reconstructed village, an example of how people used to live centuries ago.
