The first Monroe County Park
Ellison Park, Penfield
When I told my husband this morning that I had not yet explored Ellison Park, he was surprised. After all, Ellison Park is another of the jewels in the Monroe County parks system (and the county's first one), it is very large, very popular and less than five miles from our home.
But because it is so large and has so many trails to explore, I wanted to make sure I had plenty of time to devote to it. Today, a vacation day from school for the Thanksgiving holiday, was perfect, especially since Jack could come with me as well.
To be honest, I have been to Ellison Park before. We've certainly driven through it several times on Blossom Road. When the kids were young, we enjoyed the park's sledding hill at least a few times. And I remember including its parking-lot-turned-ice-rink in a column last year or the year before.
Not that there isn't plenty more to do in this park. Ellison Park's 447 acres stretch between Atlantic Avenue on the north and Penfield Road on the South. Blossom Road bisects the park east to west, and most of the amenities can be accessed on or from this road. They include softball diamonds, a multi-use athletic field, a playground, four lodges, six shelters, tennis courts, a disc golf course and a dog park.
But I was there for the trails.
According to the trail map, Ellison Park's trail system measures a tad over five miles. My husband and I decided to hike the longest of those, the Indian Landing Trail, and perhaps connect up with another short one along the way.
We parked near the Roadside shelter and started looking for a trail head, but there really was none. Trusting the map, we basically just walked southwest in the grass along the service road, paralleling Irondequoit Creek, to just beyond the Pavilion Lodge. There we saw an actual trail peel off towards the creek into the woods. Trusting that was the Indian Landing Trail, we forged on, my husband checking his Google Maps frequently to make sure we were on the right track.
It would have been helpful to have trail markings to follow, but we only saw one, at the very beginning of the trail-looking trail. There were a few other signposts along the way, indicating the junction of the Indian Landing and Butler's Gap trails, but not much guidance otherwise.
The Indian Landing Trail strangely is blacktopped for the first hundred feet or so before it turns into a muddy slop which will definitely test your winter boots. Much of the trail was still dry but a good portion was filled with puddles and mud thanks to the recent snowstorm. The trail encircles a tall hilltop, through which the Butler's Gap trails run, but it was a steep climb up and down, so we decided not to tackle it on slippery ground, even though there was promise of an overlook at the top.
On this grey, early winter day, after all of the leaves had left the trees, this was a rather uninspiring hike. But not for the placid Irondequoit Creek meandering through, and the acres and acres of cattails, it would have been rather boring, actually. It didn't help that due to the park's proximity to major roads, you could not only hear but see Blossom Road from the trail as we headed west and Browncroft Road as we headed back east.
On the back side of our hike, I did spy a pagoda-looking structure across the creek, which piqued my interest. We checked the map and decided it could be found on the Bridle Trail, so when we reached that intersection, we doubled back a few hundred yards to check it out. Even with the snow cover it was clearly some kind of garden, and by the looks of it, it has a Japanese theme. The almost-still-blooming rose bushes at its entrance hinted that in warmer weather it is a rose garden, a fact I confirmed only after looking at the map when I got home.
I wish I had thought to really explore that map, and the park's website, before we left today, because they reveal there's a lot of history in this park. The name Indian Landing, for example, refers to a location near the west end of the park used by the indigenous Iroquois as the beginning of a portage route. Also near there is Fort Schuyler, a replica of a trading post.
We only wound up hiking less than half of the trail system, and only through the more heavily used northern half of the park. I think it would be worth a second trip to explore the Coyote Den and Overlook trails in the more undeveloped southern end; perhaps they would be more picturesque.
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