Green Lakes State Park

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Green Lakes State Park is a New York State Park located east of Syracuse in the Town of Manlius. The park is strikingly scenic, and has a “masterpiece” golf course designed by Robert Trent Jones very early in his career. Green Lake itself is perhaps the most studied meromictic lake – one in which layers of water do not mix – in the world. The park preserves the largest stand of old growth forest in Central New York, and Round Lake has been designated as a National Natural Landmark by the U.S. Department of the Interior.

The park is centered on two small lakes, Green Lake and Round Lake, which have an unusual blue-green color. These lakes lie at the base of a gorge that is somewhat longer than a mile in length. The lakes and the gorge are remnants of the ice ages, and exemplify some of the unusual geology of upstate New York.

The park’s area is 1,955 acres, and it logs about 800,000 visitors each year. Nearly half the park’s area is old-growth forest, which includes many very large specimens of tuliptrees, sugar maples, beech, basswood, hemlocks, and white cedars. One particularly impressive grove of trees, lying immediately to the southwest of Round Lake, has been called the Tuliptree Cathedral.

http://nysparks.com/parks/172/details.aspx

The most popular hike in the park is walking around Green Lake or adding a trip around Round Lake as well. The distance around Green Lake is 2.3 miles and Round Lake is 0.8 miles. Total around both lakes is 3.1 miles. There are nearly twenty miles of trails you can explore in the park. The hidden gem of the park is the surprising views from the Vista Trail that stretches all the way to the Tug Hill Plateau as well as Oneida Lake and Lake Ontario. There is a nice northeasterly view from the Rolling Hills Trail. The Overlook Trail features a pleasant view to the west toward the Erie Village area.

You can create your own loop hike utilizing the trails on the west side of the park. There is a new parking area on the campground road on the way to the Rolling Hills area of the campground. This allows easier access to the trails in the western side of the state park. The GPS coordinates of the parking area are N43 03.081 W75 58.490 for those who have a GPS devise. There is an unmarked small parking area off NY 290 near the Erie Canal in the small hamlet of Manlius Center. The parking area is the trailhead for the Deer Run Trail. This remote trailhead gives hikers FREE access to the western side of Green Lakes State Park. The GPS coordinates for this trailhead are N43 03.240 W75 59.845 for those who have a GPS devise.

via Green Lakes State Park.