Hikers with dogs: Your dogs MUST be on leash for any of the following hikes. Cornell WILL cite you if you are found on their property with your dogs off leash.
Hikes 4-1 through 4-3: Cayuga Trail Hikes
The trails in this area are part of the Cayuga Trail, first built by the Cayuga Trails Club in the 1960s and maintained by that organization to the current day. The Ithaca Hikers maintain a section of the Cayuga Trail between Freese Road and state Route 13.
The Cayuga Trail is over 10 miles in length and extends from downtown Ithaca to the town of Dryden, where it links to the Dryden Rail Trail.
For these hikes, there are lots of great woods and fields scenery and creek views all along the way. The terrain is lightly strenuous.
For winter hikes of this trail system, it is recommended that you wear reliable foot traction and bring trekking poles, due to the varying trail conditions.
We have three almost totally different hikes that begin at the far side of the suspension bridge. It’s always fun to cross Fall Creek on the suspension bridge because of the way the bridge pitches up and down – makes you feel rubber-legged.
Click here to see the Ithaca Trails map showing the trail network.
Physical maps of the Cayuga Trail system are available from the Finger Lakes Trail Conference. The map sheet there for this trail system is labelled “The Cayuga Trail.”
Meeting point for hikes 4-1, 4-2, and 4-3
These hikes begin at the dirt parking lot on Forest Home Drive, across the street from the Cornell Arboretum’s plant production facility building, and a little west of the Stevens Suspension Bridge. (There are two lots near to each other; ours is on the east.)
Click here to see the Google Maps page showing the location of the parking lot and the suspension bridge.
Hike #4-1: Cayuga Trail North Loop
Walk east along the edge of Fall Creek and then head up the high bluffs to the Cornell horse fields via the Cayuga Trail North Loop. From there, we can cross Freese Road near the community gardens and walk along the top of the sheer bluffs on the north side of the creek. We don’t usually take this particular route.
Hike #4-2: Cayuga Trail South Loop
For this hike, we turn east along Fall Creek but take the Cayuga Trail South Loop. From the north side of the suspension bridge, turn right, and continue bearing right at the next two trail intersections.
This nearly flat route is generally well traveled and makes for a reasonably safe winter hike. The South Loop takes hikers through some short sections of woods along the north side of the Fall Creek shoreline, interspersed with open fields. Blazes along the open fields can be scarce, but if you stay to the edge of the open fields, you’re on the correct path.
At Freese Road, turn right and cross the bridge and then immediately turn left to continue on the orange-blazed Cayuga and red-blazed Monkey Run trails, which follow the south side of Fall Creek. This section of trail offers some nice views of the creek from bluffs at moderate elevations above the creek bed.
The orange-blazed Cayuga Trail meets the red-blazed Monkey Run trail system; the orange-blazed trail turns to the south and skirts the open fields closer to state Route 366 near Varna. The red-blazed Monkey Run trail, which continues east, is the better option to extend this hike; it returns to the woods and closely follows the creek bed.
Our turn-around point for moderately paced hikers on this route is a short side trail that goes to the creek to view the high bluffs on the opposite (north) side of the creek. Faster hikers or those wanting a longer hike can continue their hike toward Monkey Run Road.
Hike #4-3: Golf Course and Horse Barns Loop
After crossing the suspension bridge, walk west along the edge of Fall Creek to the golf course, then on to the Cornell stables and paddocks. This direction of travel along Fall Creek is our more common Stevens Suspension Bridge hike.
There are some stairs along the route that can be a little tricky to navigate, especially in winter. There are some short uphill sections to reach the golf course and downhill sections that loop back from the high bluffs to the trail system at creek level near the end of the hike.
For this hike, we usually return to the south side of the suspension bridge and hike the blue- and red-blazed trails to Park Park to bring our hike time to a full two hours.
Hike #4-4: Mundy Wildflower & Cornell Botanic Gardens – Beebe Lake – Forest Home Neighborhood
This hike begins from a different parking area in Forest Home. This is a nice, mostly level loop through some of the Cornell natural areas, around Beebe Lake, and through the small Forest Home neighborhood.
For this hike, meet in the parking lot of the Mundy Wildflower Gardens located at the corner of Forest Home Drive and Caldwell Rds. Google map pin: Caldwell Rd & Forest Home Dr – Google Maps.
The hike starts with a walk through the Mundy Wildflower Gardens; some of the trails within the wildflower garden follow the shore of Fall Creek before leading elsewhere within the garden.
We exit the garden via stairs to cross Judd Falls Road. From there, we enter the Cornell Botanic Gardens, where we loop through their grounds to arrive at the intersection of Arboretum Road and Forest Home Drive.
We cross the Sackett footbridge and make a slight detour to a nearby observation area in Hemlock Gorge, which overlooks some nice Fall Creek cascades that, according to the Forest Home Improvement Association’s account, are referred to as “Lover’s Falls” by area kayakers.
A quick loop around the Beebe Lake footpath brings us back to the Sackett footbridge, where we cross a couple of rebuilt one-lane bridges (referred to locally as the “downstream” and “upstream” bridges, respectively) to walk through the Forest Home neighborhood to return to our cars.
See additional history of Forest Home here, and try to pick out some of the locations mentioned in the links during the hike!
Last edit 01/2025 JFR