Great Kills Crooke's Point Labyrinth

Calling all sun worshippers! You don?t need to bake yourself on the beach, not while the fun, easy trails of this expansive park are so gloriously sun-struck. The Crooke's Point circuit lobs you from one shore area to another, with the agreeable mix of vegetation (including black cherry, bayberry, and yucca) lending a labyrinth-like feel to the jaunt. A sensational range of birds twitter and cluck from within that overgrowth, too, adding to the appeal of a fun, easy walk. Great Kills Park, a unit of Gateway National Recreation Area, is not the place to go if you have a hankering to mosey meditatively deep in the wilds, with no sound to hector your ears but the buzzing of bugs and chirping of birds. Even if the weather is only halfway decent, people flock to Great Kills like pigeons to breadcrumbs. They come to jog, they come to swim, they come to roller-skate on the park's long paved road. You?ve got the sportsmen after saltwater fish, boaters out for pleasure cruises, model airplane hobbyists, baseball and softball players, soccer teams, kite-flyers, and seniors shuffling along the harbor-side promenade. Great Kills also has three easy, level hiking trails, and while you are hardly likely to find yourself alone on any of them, they do draw fewer feet than most of the rest of Staten Island's most popular park. Scenery: Thickly wooded peninsula offers small labyrinth of trails, sandy beaches, and a view of Raritan Bay and Great Kills Harbor.