2 & 3. Elms on the Rocks (Rocky Outcrop East of the Mall)
Once you’ve walked through the Mall, find the path that runs alongside it to the east. About midway up, you’ll stumble upon a pair of elms that look like something out of Grimm’s Fairy Tales. These two trees, which appear as one but are classified as two on the Great Trees list, seem to grow out of the bedrock, spreading over it so you can’t tell where rock ends and tree begins.
Although Central Park is man-made, its rocks are not. The rock you see is exposed portions of ancient bedrock, shaped by ice 190 million to 1.1 billion years ago. This scene—the heavy, ancient rocks, the thick trunks of the elms almost engulfing them—feels like a glimpse into the Park’s wilderness past.