Contact High - Spring on the Highline.

We had some remarkably beautiful weather this past weekend. I took the opportunity to make a trip to the High Line park , here in New York. For those of you who don't know the High Line, it's an old elevated rail way line on the west side of Manhattan that has been derelict for years. It was recently turned into a park that lets you walk from the Meat Packing District up to Chelsea, and eventually all the way up to the mid 30's. It's a brilliant public works project and is beautifully designed to integrate the sorts of wild plants and flowers that grew on the abandoned tracks for so many decades.

The most striking part of the park right now, is the imposing Standard Hotel, that was built to straddle the park. Here it is in the late afternoon sun, surrounded by the throngs of winter weary New Yorkers that joined me in celebrating the weather that day.

So much of the foliage is still dormant. There are lots of remnants of fall still visible.

The park features a meandering walkway, sometimes wood, sometimes concrete and it blends into the gardens with long concrete fingers that incline up from the dirt.

You can get a better sense of the beauty of the design from above. Here's a shot of a section of the park from the 9th floor of the Standard Hotel

Spring is starting to say hello in lots of different ways. Here are some budding leaves on a tree.

Some of the vistas from the park are spectacular. This is one of my favorites. It's a view down the west side highway over the bay to the Statue of Liberty in the distance.

Another hint of spring - a pretty pink flowering bush.

The park ends at 20th street right now, but they have plans to extend it quite a bit further. Here's a shot of the future of the park.

If you get to New York, be sure and see the park. It's a delightful chance to see New York from a totally different angle.