Visit to the Heart Wall at the Roy H. Park Preserve (South) in Dryden, NY

We’re lucky to live in a region where we have so many beautiful hiking trails nearby, ranging from spectacular, major hiking destinations — like Buttermilk Falls or Watkins Glen — to wonderful everyday walks in places like the Roy H. Park Preserve in Dryden.

The Park Preserve offers one of our family’s favorite Ithaca hikes, something simple that requires neither much preparation nor convincing with the kids.

About the Roy H. Park Preserve

Set on 241 acres, the preserve is named after the late entrepreneur and media executive Roy H. Park and is maintained by the Finger Lakes Land Trust.

There are two distinct sections, each with its own character and trails. The north parking lot takes you to a boardwalk and a nice stretch of forest, which I covered in this previous post. There you can also read more about Roy H. Park himself.

Here I want to tell you more about the Baldwin Tract of the preserve, which is accessible from the south parking lot.

This part’s easy walking loop is one my favorite kid-friendly trail hikes in the Ithaca area, leading through a meadow that surrounds an evergreen plantation. All of this used to be an agricultural field. 

In 1980, a sixth-grade class from Ithaca planted 1,000 spruces and red pines, which were joined by self-seeded white pines. Now it’s a great bird habitat, so bring your binoculars (we love these) if you like to birdwatch.

In the summer, you’ll find some cool shade in the forest sections of the path, and in the winter, the loop is great for a pleasant round of cross-country skiing.

Trails in the Roy H. Park Preserve (south)

The paths are mostly pretty easy to navigate — varying between grass, soft pine needles, plus some roots thrown in — but there can be some seasonal mud. Plan your footwear accordingly.

Grab one of the hiking trail maps (here’s the digital version) from the info booth near the parking lot, or take a picture of the map on display.

There’s a main, blue trail (0.7 miles), that you could walk in and out. It takes you through the meadow and roughly parallel to a small stream all the way down to Six Mile Creek. I’d say it takes about 15 minutes from the parking lot.

After about 5 minutes from the parking lot, you’ll see the orange path going off to the right (this is where you’ll be coming back onto the blue trail if you do the loop). After another 5ish minutes, you’ll see the other end of that same orange loop trail diverging to the right, while the blue path continues as a spur trail straight into the forest. Look for the double blue blaze on a big tree.

From there the path goes through a mature evergreen forest and slopes down to the creek. You’ll start hearing the water.

As you approach a lean-to, if you have little kids, keep an eye on them — there’s a pretty steep drop into the gorge towards the creek. Keep the lean-to to your left as you descend the last, slightly steeper section of path to the water.

It’s very pretty here, and shady and cool in the summer.

The little creek you’ve been following flows into Six Mile Creek, which makes its way through the shale.

The shale also makes a kind of shelf for the “heart wall,” where a few years ago people started placing (more or less) heart-shaped rocks. The kids always have fun searching the creek bank for some more heart rocks to add to the display.

We always spend at least 15 minutes or more by the creek, and it’s a nice spot for a snack break.

To return to the parking lot, you have choices: head straight back on the blue trail, or turn left onto the orange trail. You can either take it all the way (0.5 miles) to the blue trail or jump across after 0.2 miles via a short red connector.

Additional information

• Phenology Trail: Near the entrance to the hiking trail you’ll see a sign about the Phenology Trail. It explains how you can be a citizen scientist by helping to record the seasonal changes of certain plants. Signs along part of the blue trail identify several different trees to study, including black cherry, white pine, Eastern hemlock, and sugar maple. The box of paper data sheets was empty when we last visited, but you can also enter your observations online.
• Hunting season: The Roy H. Park Preserve is right next to private land. While hunting isn’t permitted on the preserve, it does occur on the neighboring property. We found this out the scary way during hunting season, when we heard a (distant?) gun shot and saw deer fleeing across the path. To be extra safe, we didn’t continue on the orange trail and took the blue trail back instead. Check here for New York State’s hunting seasons, and consider investing in orange vests for the whole family if you do go out during that time.
• Dogs: must be kept on a leash.

Things to do nearby

You could combine walking the loop with a short visit to the boardwalk at the other section of the Roy H. Park Preserve (north parking lot).

You may also enjoy the loops of varying lengths at the Lime Hollow Nature Center in Cortland or in Sapsucker Woods at the Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca.

For a more challenging loop, consider Ringwood Ponds.

Have you been to the Roy H. Park Preserve? Have you added a rock to the heart wall? Let us know in the comments!

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