#15 Fischer Old Growth Forest, Newfield
Meet-up: State Route 13 northbound a little north of the former “Stellas” restaurant which is on the other side of the highway at 1346 Elmira Road.
Click here to see the Google Maps page showing the location of the trail head (the little photo to the left shows where we meet). The trail head is 5.2 miles south of Wegmans.
Be sure when you park that your car is fully out of the travel lane so you don’t disrupt traffic. Don’t park next to the little bridge just south of the trail head – the highway shoulder is narrower there and you can’t get your car fully off the pavement. This causes a traffic hazard because big trucks heading north will swing wide to avoid your car.
Click here to see a page of info about the forest from Cornell, which owns it.
More information on the Forest here:
Fischer Old-Growth Forest — Old-Growth Forest Network (oldgrowthforest.net)
Old-growth forest preserve gains acreage through local partnership | Cornell Chronicle
and here:
Ithaca Trails – Fischer Old-growth Forest Natural Area
Click here to see a PDF trail map of the forest.
A Youtube video on the forest:
(322) Hiking in Fischer Old Growth Natural Area ~ Ithaca, New York – YouTube
As you can read on the Cornell page, this is a very unusual place. We walk too fast for anyone to focus on individual trees, but the overall effect of so many huge trees massed together is extremely pleasing and picturesque. The terrain is quite choppy so there’s lots of short steep ups and downs – in general it’s a strenuous walk. The extent of the forest is small, and it used to be impossible to consume two hours walking around in it. But fairly recently, new trails were added and now we’re able to spend more time in the dramatic woods.
The preserve has continued to add additional acreage as recently as the summer of 2023; the additional acreage means that we now can extend our hike through what was originally a much shorter trail network and take a side trip into a field to kill some time while looking at some different habitat for a little while.
Last edit: 06-2023 JFR