Hiking in the Footsteps of Glaciers at Ringwood Ponds in Ithaca, NY

Ringwood Ponds (formerly known as “Ringwoods Natural Area”) is one of the Ithaca hiking trails near me that I like to check in on a few times a year.

It’s never overrun, the terrain is varied, and the unique topography makes this more of short hike than simply a walk.

It’s a wonderful place to experience with the kids through the seasons as we see all kinds of birds and other wildlife, wildflowers, mosses, old-growth forest, and more cycle through their life stages.

About Ringwood Ponds

Ringwood Ponds is part of Cornell Botanic Gardens and has grown since 1934 through a number of donations and purchases to encompass 230 acres and 1.7 miles of hiking trails.

I just learned that this is considered old-growth forest, since many of the trees are more than 150 years old.

Sadly, as a sign informs us at the entrance, like in so many areas the emerald ash borer, a non-native beetle, is killing all the ash trees in the preserve — so be on the lookout for falling trees.

What sets Ringwood Ponds apart for hiking in Ithaca is its unique topography from glacial activity (more technical details are below in their own section). It left behind a variety of slopes, ridges, kettle holes, vernal ponds, and forested swamps.

There are lots of interesting trees, shrubs, and mosses as well as amphibians, nesting birds associated with the ponds and other creatures such as fairy shrimp to observe.

On a recent spring walk, for example, a friend and I saw lovely wildflowers such as marsh marigolds, trilliums, and wild geraniums, plus groundpines and mayapples. Woodpeckers were hard at work all around. In a little log book by the entrance, people have also noted salamanders, newts, snakes and peepers. 

Finding Ringwood Ponds

Finding the nature preserve may be a little challenging the first time. Honestly, I still drive by the trail head sometimes. There are no huge signs that shout “Ringwood Ponds.” In fact, as of spring 2022, nothing shows up on Google Maps if you plug in that name. You need to write “Ringwood Natural Area,” which is still pretty vague.

So you may want to use the GPS coordinates:

• Latitude: 42.45040131
• Longitude: -76.36340332

According to Ithaca Trails (a great hiking trails website for looking up hiking trails nearby) this is 536 Ringwood Road.

As you draw closer, you’ll start seeing yellow, diamond-shaped “natural area” signs on trees along the road.

To park, pull to the side of the road at the West trail head, where there’s space for a few cars (no real parking lot).

Hiking trails at Ringwood Ponds

The trails may not be very long (1.7 miles total), but they can be a bit challenging (steep and uneven) in places, so put on whatever footwear you prefer to deal with tree roots, rocks, and occasional mud.

You can print and bring along this map, but the trails are pretty straightforward and well marked with red blazes.

This map from Ithaca Trails also gives you a sense of the topography.

Start your hike from either the West or East trail heads right by the side of the road. They’re just a few steps apart.

You’ll soon see a double blaze, which signals that you’ve reached a little connector path between the two trail heads that leads between two ponds. 

Keep going straight to stay on the main loop. This takes maybe half an hour to walk around — or a little longer if you keep stopping to take pictures of wildflowers.

If you want to avoid walking along the road (which isn’t terribly busy most of the time, but cars do drive pretty fast when they come), you can take the connector back to whatever trail head you started at.

For a longer walk, keep an eye out for the two out-and-back paths that depart from the back part of the loop (see map). You’ll see signs and blazes.

Ringwood Ponds topography

If you’re curious about the nature preserve’s unique topography, here’s more information: 

The Cornell Botanic Gardens website states that the “kame-kettle hole-esker glacial features here are rarely found at so high an elevation in our region.” Whew, there was a lot for me to look up in that one sentence.

As it turns out, a kame is “a glacial landform, an irregularly shaped hill or mound composed of sand, gravel and till that accumulates in a depression on a retreating glacier, and is then deposited on the land surface with further melting of the glacier. Kames are often associated with kettles…” 

A kettle, on the other hand, is “a depression/hole in an outwash plain formed by retreating glaciers or draining floodwaters. The kettles are formed as a result of blocks of dead ice left behind by retreating glaciers, which become surrounded by sediment deposited by meltwater streams as there is increased friction.” Thank you, Wikipedia. 

And according to Britannica, an esker is “a long, narrow, winding ridge composed of stratified sand and gravel deposited by a subglacial or englacial meltwater stream.” 

If you’d like to know more, with some great graphs and images to accompany the information, check out this article on kame and kettle topography.

(For another great place to hike with similar topography, plus unique marl pools, check out the Lime Hollow Nature Center in Cortland.)

More information on Ringwood Ponds

• Accessibility: This trail is uneven and contains steep sections and many roots and other obstacles, so it is not suitable for wheelchairs or strollers. If you bring a baby, I recommend a hiking backpack.
• Hunting: Hunting is allowed, so the trail is closed during firearm deer hunting season from November 20 through December 21 and January 8-31. Archery hunting season begins October 1. Details here.
• Dogs: Must be on leash.
• Prohibited: In the Cornell Botanic Gardens natural areas, alcohol, swimming, motorized vehicles, horses, bicycles, camping, and camp fires are prohibited.

Let me know in the comments what you think of Ringwood Ponds! I recommend it as an Ithaca hiking destination.

Things to do nearby

Ringwood Ponds is just one of many beautiful hiking trails in Ithaca.

• The Roy H. Park Preserve south trail offers a loop that’s a little flatter but of a similar length, while the north trail has a nice boardwalk.
• You may also enjoy the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and its Sapsucker Woods trails that loop around a pond.
• Campbell Meadow isn’t too far away either and has a very short, easy loop with nearby water.

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