This Nature Preserve was recommended to us by a local. Not really well advertised and therefore a…read morelittle difficult to locate I resorted to nerdy aerial map searches and drive-by's. Eventually we pinpointed the turnoff to it's gravel parking area! The next morning we brought the "woof-pak" for still on the 1.0 mile looping trail. A daily easy hike. About half mile in there's a cooling break on the east shore of Cayuga Lake. Van Riper is a well maintained wooded nature preserve. The trail clearly marked with blue blazes down and back up the gentle slopes of the protected tract of land. Look for the road sign and pull in for a pleasant wooded stroll.

Really nice area. Not far from the state park that charges you to enjoy…read more A nice early quiet walk for me to keep the bones strong. They re setting up tents in the open area. Transform into a market where you can buy various items they are selling. Wish I had my bike. Seem like the path goes for a good ways. Nothing like an early bike ride. But today is a slow photographer's walk

From the parking lot to the first canal and back will give you 10,000 steps. The trail is flat,…read morestraight, and very well maintained. As of July 9th there is an abundance of ripe Black raspberries that are easily picked and very tasty. Not as many insects as other trails we've done in the finger lakes region.

Such a wonderful place to visit. Always lots of critters to watch and enjoy in their habitat. I…read morewish people would respect it a little more and not leave trash everywhere. I always bring a bag with me to pick up after others that have lost their respect. Maybe someday they'll appreciate the natural beauty of the place

My first time on this trail and it's really pretty. The trail is gravel lined and easy to walk. The…read moredownfall for me is that it's so short about .80 of a mile. I normally walk with my friends 3-4 miles so we had to go back and forth a couple of times. On this hot day it was good to have a tree lined trail. The wild flowers were in bloom and the sound of the water made it feel relaxing. I will be back.

We were looking for something to do not too far from Syracuse. We ended up in Seneca Falls at a…read morebeautiful, well maintained sculpture trail that is on the banks of the Seneca River. It was a sunny day with a few intermittent, light showers. There was enough tree coverage to keep us dry. This trail has a very nice historic background and each sculpture has a plaque. Some went into detailed descriptions which we both loved and appreciated. My favorites were the native American Clan sculptures. We were walking down the path and thought this last picture was the next sculpture.....but it was a real deer, a young one. We figured it's mother was nearby so we didn't disturb it.

I love coming to this trail! The artwork is super cool. It's sad the trail has been closed latelyread more

This is a great place to learn about birds! They also have some nice trails you can check out so…read morethere's a possibility of seeing some in their natural habitat.

So the Terrible Trump administration shut down the government and Montezuma National Wildlife…read moreRefuge was closed (a wise choice, given all the trashing happening to some national parks) when I wanted to visit - so I decided to instead to check out the Northern side of Montezuma Wetlands Complex (north of I-90) run by the NY state and Audubon Center - and boy am I glad I did! Before I came here, I did not know that this whole area was a large wetland complex, and one that's relatively well preserved by patches of federal, state and Audubon Center protections. There are myriads of water ways in the area some even creating an "island" ...and many hiking trails ... Alyssa at the Visitor Center and her cute dog Addie were wonderful in explaining and answering all my questions. It is a flat hike all around; but I realized wetland hiking offers something different from mountain hiking - I saw many birds and traces of wildlife on the trails - and the trails were very, very pretty. Even when I did not see any birds, I could hear them nearby ... a lot of them. Abundance of birds and wildlife reminded me of Everglade National Park in Florida. I visited during the broad daylight, and spend most of the day exploring the area, and I saw trumpeter swans, blue heron, geese flying over .... and also chickadees, golden finches, and woodpeckers near the shrubs with winter berries and feeders near the Visitor Center. I saw interesting scats of coyotes or fox filled with furs of their victim dinners, and lots of goose scats, too! Another highlight of my visit was meeting with a muskrat on the trail! I did not know what it was and I had to ID when I get home - a North American native rodent with powerful tail that propel them in water ... a "cousin of beaver"! Trees standing in water reminded me of Congaree National Park in South Carolina (although there the trees you see there are cypress trees, and the one I saw here was .. I believe mostly oak trees ... please correct me if I'm wrong - I visited in January and leaves were all gone ... what I saw on the ground seemed mostly oak ... ). I felt the whole area should be protected federally and made into a national park or national wildlife refuge, but I imagine there must be a long history of struggles for preservation and public education ... in the nearby town of Savannah, I saw one house with many colorful placards complaining about wetlands ... I think it is truly very sad that some people are not proud of this tremendous natural heritage! The visitor Center was build in 2006 (or around that time - speaking from memory of an exhibit - so not exact) - after nearly a decade in use, I saw some of the exhibit needed updates, dusting, and clean-up - some of the tanks did not have any animals in it but some had live animals and I felt they could be returned to outside .... and instead just have photographs or videos of these animals will be great. Also, the telephone guide for the trails for the Audubon Center was not working! I hope the Center will update and fix them soon. There are many events sponsored by the center such as guided snowshoe hikes and birding tours. It sounds all very interesting. I hope more people will come visit the area and support this amazing conservation initiative!

This park is so lovely! And much bigger than I expected it to be…read more Situated along Owasco Lake, there are beach areas, a dog park, sizeable pavilions, a boat launch, and all sorts of spaces (the Merry-Go Round Playhouse Theater is also located in this park). My one complaint? There could certainly be more / better signage. When looking for the bathroom recently, the first closed one (over by Merry-Go Round) directed you to the large pavilion on the main (other) side of the park. When there, you were directed to actually use the bathrooms at the little league field (up near the entrance back on the other side of the park). Also, for newcomers who are trying to find the dog park or whatnot, some extra signage would be helpful (the dog park is kinda tucked away). TL;DR Very much enjoyed my recent visit here - I'll be back! :)

Super interesting to learn about the Erie Canal at this "heritage park" that is also a bit of a…read moremuseum. Nearly eight years to construct, it was completed in 1825 and linked Albany New York with Buffalo, connecting the Atlantic Ocean and the Great Lakes. It was the greatest engineering accomplishment at the time, some 563 miles of canals across the state. But as times changed and canals were no longer the most efficient method of transport, much of the Erie Canal has been abandoned. Steamships and later more modern barges go around New England along the Saint Lawrence Seaway. And then it switched to railroads and later, trucks on superhighways like the one I used to get here. This parking area is for passenger vehicles and RVs only. Trucks are not permitted. There is a four hour parking limit. [Review 1535 of 2024 - 451 in New York - 22558 overall]

"Fifteen Miles on the Erie Canal." Can't get that song out of my head while I'm here. (You can find…read moreit on y'all tube: https://youtu.be/gIIM1mHfJ0U ) The first question that seems to come up when I talk about abandoned locks is "Why was it abandoned and where is the water?" Without going into an elaborate history of the Erie Canal (tough for me to do) the original "Clinton's Ditch" was "4 and 40," that is, 4 feet deep and 40 feet wide, which soon became too small. The Erie Canal was widened to "7 and 70," that is, 7 feet deep and 70 feet wide and in many places was moved. This is one of those cases. This lock was built as a part of the newly widened Erie Canal and used until about 1917 when the canal was widened once again, and also rerouted to the north which bypassed Port Byron entirely. Lock 52 was abandoned, now preserved for your enjoyment. You can access the lock as a rest area on the eastbound New York Thruway at mile marker 309 but if you're not on the superslab, you can access the lock from NY 31 (Rochester Road) in Port Byron. There is a museum and display inside the building you can check out before (or after) you access the lock itself. The museum is not a comprehensive history of the canal system in New York, which is probably fine for those of short attention spans or those who are itching to get back on the Thruway and make time. There is an incredible model of the lock that was created for the 1893 Columbian Exposition (the "White City") in Chicago. For some reason, the model is a mirror image of the prototype. Just the same, viewing the model gives one a mental image of how the locks worked in the halcyon days of the Erie Canal. Just outside the door is a three-sided kiosk with three interpretive panels that describe the lock, tell you about the original canal system and how it is currently configured, and what the canal meant to the town of Port Byron. The lock is an interesting juxtaposition of 19th Century transportation technology with 21st Century communications technology. In other words, you can download an app to your cell phone and access audio descriptions of points in the lock and the historical park. With the app, you can be your own docent and virtual tour guide! As you walk up the trail that was the towpath, you'll find a collection of buildings that were a part of the Port Byron lock environment. You'll find a tavern, a blacksmith shop, and a mule barn. Animals were well cared for on the Erie Canal, the animals were a key component on the canal. From that spot, you can observe the original canal leading up to the locks. Note the ashlar stone lining the canal. There was a dry dock across the way, it was filled in after the canal was relocated in 1917. Incidentally, there was originally only one lock here, the shorter of the two. It was "twinned" with a larger lock so barges coupled together could lock through without the delay and expense of being untied to lock through separately. It also allowed eastbound traffic to lock through while while westbound traffic could lock through at the same time. Don't rush out to see it just yet. First of all, it's open limited hours. The museum is seasonal and I might have been the last guest of 2020. (I was there late in the afternoon on Halloween, the last day of the year.) The museum will reopen on April 1, 2021 and hopefully we won't need masks anymore.