2.5 miles | 148 ft gain | Difficulty: Easy | Rating ★★★

We spent the July 4th weekend road tripping upstate for our cousin’s covid-delayed graduation party in Rochester. To extend the trip a bit, we stopped by the Finger Lakes for some wine, cider and hiking. Unfortunately, conditioned by the heatwave in the city, we didn’t properly prepare for milder temperatures. Our planned hike to Taughannock Falls would have to wait. Luckily, we found a few hours to check out a local spot in Rochester while there.

Corbett’s Glen Nature Park is essentially a premiere backyard trail system. As we wondered the 2.5 mile trail, there were numerous social trails to get to people’s backyard or a neighborhood. Yet even though homes were at most 50 yards away, it was a near silent forest walk. We started from the main parking lot, intersecting with families and dog walkers. The trail we found on AllTrails seemed to be the longest possible route without much overlap, essentially forming a figure eight lollypop. Not sure if that’s an “official’ trail style, but it worked for us.

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Our destination was the waterfall. Still a bit blue that we missed out hiking Taughannock Falls (we’ve seen the falls before, but never thoroughly explored), I wanted our hike to include water, but also not be over-strenuous that we would be out for hours, away from family for a long time.

The first part of the trail was on a wide walking path in the woods. Soon we met a marsh and grassy area that we circled around before the trail narrowed a bit and wandered back into the woods. The Postcard Overlook Falls were small but very close up with some shoreline to explore.

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Past the falls, we wandered along the Allen Creek, to a stunning Erie Railroad bridge. We explored the underpass a little which would have taken us back out to the suburban neighborhoods, before getting back on our trail. Our final surprise was an old crane or drill of some sort, well rusted and partially toppled.

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As grateful as a I feel to have a park and waterfront walkway across the street from our apartment, there’s something wonderful about stepping outside and immediately being on a trail. Whether it’s the Croton Aqueduct, Appalachian Trail or Corbett’s Glen. I long to be in both places at once.