Distance: 2 3/4 miles
My Photos: [www.mohiking.com]
Official Site: [mostateparks.com]

Well, in every other trail report I’ve given so far, I’ve raved about what lovely little trail it was. Well, this place is not going to get such a rave review. Poor place, it’s not it’s fault I decided to go in November, but yesterdays trails were a tough act to follow!

Yesterday I was at Rockwoods Reserve and Babler, and was treated to a stunning display of eye searing yellow, and at Babler, a yellow canopy with thick red underbrush. So I get out to Onandaga and have to confess I found it quite dreary and colorless! All the leaves were down! And the all the leaves on the ground were brown. I guess they were all Oak and Elm.

The trail is mentioned in a book as “scenic” and I guess it was ok. It must have earned the name because the last part of the trail does give you a bluff view of the Merimac which is kind of nice. There were some nice views down into some steep valleys. There was a small glade with some pine trees in it.

The glade area was kind of interesting because along the path the left side of the path you were on top of a 4 foot mini bluff. But you were not on a ridge at the top of the hill, it was like a mini bluff part way down the hill, where you still have more hill going up on your right side. I took a photo of this area. You see these little bluffs in the woods all over, but what made this interesting to me the length of it.

This trail is probably prettier in summer and spring. It was probably pretty today in it’s own way, but since I was expecting a lot of color I wasn’t really in the mood for the barrenness of it.

This is a perfectly fine little trail. I would say if you already happened to be out that way, camping or stopping by to see the caves, this would be a nice trail to do while you are out there. But I wouldn’t recommend driving all the way out there just to hike, not while there is fall color in other places.

THE CAVES

Onandaga State Park contains both Cathedral Cave (which I do not believe I’ve been to), and the Onandoga cave. I’ve toured the Onandoga cave in the past and it’s a pretty cool cave. They close it for the winter and it does not open again until March. They said they just don’t get enough tourist out there in the Winter, plus it gives the bats a rest.

“Gives the bats a rest?” I asked, I didn’t know if they were just joking around or serious. They were serious. The 2 people working at the visitors center explained that bats are true hibernators. They shut down almost completely for about 3 months or so. If they wake up, then their heart rate goes way up and they use energy. They said if they are woken up several times, some of the bats actually do not survive that because they used to much energy.





Edited 2 times. Last edit at 11/16/05 08:12AM by Nick Kasoff.