For as long as I’ve known people who live in Syracuse, I’ve heard the complaints about Onondaga Lake, filled with all sorts of toxic waste and such. In fact, look at this Google Map and you can see one of the reasons why people joke that you can predict the day’s high temperature based on just how bad the lake’s stench is on a given morning. But just off the water, there’s one place well worth raving about: Onondaga Lake Park. There’s plenty to see and do, and the admission is the best in town: free.
Until I started working in Syracuse, I had only been to Onondaga Lake Park for Lights on the Lake, which is basically a 3-mile long drive-thru Christmas lighting display (and it’s not free, despite what I just said). But once I had a chance to visit during a summer day (instead of a winter night), I was very impressed. During the non-winter months, the road from Lights on the Lake is actually a recreational trail, intended for running, rollerblading, or — my preferred use — biking.
From the “main area” that includes a playground, rental shop and other facilities, the East Shore trail about 5 or 6 miles, northwest along the shore, then beyond the lake. Crossing underneath the Thruway and a few other roads, the trail parallels the boat channel that connects the lake (and Syracuse’s Inner Harbor) to the Erie Canal. Where the two meet, the trail ends. But about a mile before that, you have the option of crossing the channel, to access the West Shore trail. As the name implies, it runs along the “other” side of the lake for a few miles. Right now, it comes to a dead-end (save for a pedestrian bridge across I-690 into some random neighborhood near the State Fairgrounds) but there are plans to extend the trail in the future, with the eventual goal of making it possible for people to make a complete lap around the lake.
If you click either of the photos in this post, you’ll be taken to the entire “album” of my pictures from the trail. You’ll see that the East Shore trail affords some decent pictures of the Syracuse skyline (if only it weren’t so damn cloudy that day), while the West Shore trail offers more shots of the lake itself (as seen above) and some wooded areas along the trail (as seen at left).
As I said in the opening paragraph — one of the nicest things about the park, is that it’s free. There’s no admission to the park, and no charge to park the car. The only “real” expense for me is the fact that I live about 25 miles away, so there’s always gas, tolls and the time it takes to get there and back. Even if you’re not into biking, you can walk, jog, rollerblade… and there are a few different playgrounds, picnic areas and fields suitable for softball, kickball, and so on. (They even run kickball leagues — a great idea, except I’m at work in the evenings.) Even if you do need to rent a bike (as my sister and her boyfriend did when they visited recently) or rollerblades or something else, the prices aren’t that horrible.
Probably one of the things that makes Onondaga Lake Park look so good to me is that there’s nothing like it back in the Utica/Rome area. “Back home,” the definition of a park is just a city block with grass, a baseball field, maybe a tennis court, and some swings. There aren’t any “large” parks with long, maintained trails. Delta Lake State Park is probably the closest comparison, but it’s $7/car to get in, and the trails are pretty crappy. (Hopefully that could change if this idea comes to fruition.)
Well, before I go even further onto my tangent about the bike trails in the area, I’ll get back to my original focus: a pat on the back for the folks who made Onondaga Lake Park what it is. I don’t live in Onondaga County, and therefore can’t vote on anything to do with the county… but I hope whoever becomes County Executive just allows the parks department to keep on doing what it’s been doing. Don’t cheap out, and don’t change things just for the sake of change.
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