Onondaga Lake Park

Enjoyed my limited time here. The walk was decent, I bet in the summer it is crowded. Decent amount of restaurants lining the area.

I went to lights on the lake which was awesome and beautiful! Definitely a place to visit abs great for kids. Drive slowly and soak in the colors.

A group of us went here one evening after enjoying some franks at Heid’s across the street. We walked along the shore trail and down the dock. It was really beautiful and we all really enjoyed the scenery. After walking down and around the shore, we headed up to the area that rents different bikes and rented a 4-​person bike, which we called a quadcycle. We had a blast riding along the shore in this thing. We passed by the park and waved at some kids, got chased by said kids, and laughed the entire time. I think it has a lot to do with our experience here, but I love this place.

I was driving around the area and came upon this park. It is a very tranquil and beautiful place to spend a couple of hours relaxing, walking, running, kayaking, etc. The only downside to this park is the insane amount of goose droppings. I did see a few park employees walking around, but not one was scooping poop. The water in the lake didn’t look as pristine as it should have, so I wouldn’t recommend swimming in it.

I wanted a place to go for an evening walk and found this place with Unilocal.It was exactly what I was looking for. It has a walking trail with a separate recreation trail (bikers, roller bladers, runners etc) along the lake. It was clean with multiple benches placed to take in the scenery or if you just want to take a break. It’s a beautiful park, and I will definitely go back when I’m in town.

The Onondaga Lake Park is the Central Park of Central New York. There’s so much to do, and on a beautiful day, it feels like half the city is out there doing it!
With the recent expansion of the West Shore Trail, the lake park now offers 7.5 miles of scenic lakeside pathways (and they’re paved, too). Over the years, I’ve used the park’s trails for all kinds of activities: walking, running, biking, skateboarding, and rollerblading (back when it was super-​cool 8-​)). They’re wide, and well maintained. From almost any point along the lakeshore, you can catch a great view of the city skyline to the south (especially from the hills on the West Shore).
There’s so much more to this park than just the trail system: playgrounds, baseball fields, volleyball courts, pavilions, and shuffle boards (my personal favorite). At the south end there’s a skate park, and at the north, one for dogs. In the summer, you can rent a variety of bikes (bicycles, tandems, quadscycles, and yes, septacycles), as well as kayaks. For kiters, there are a few large fields near the head of the East Shore trail that pick up some steady winds off the lake.
In the winter, the park keeps the path cleared for the hearty. Too, you’ll find cross country skiers carving their own lakeside trails.
And the Onondaga County Parks system is the best: they take great care of all of the above.
Needless to say, there’s bound to be something you can do at the Onondaga Lake Park!

Nice park but could be so much nicer if they cleaned the equipment. The swings are filthy to the point where they are black on the outside! The equipment should be wiped down. The bike rentals are old and poorly maintained. I asked if the seat could be adjusted and the employee told me to get a wrench! Nice park but poorly managed.

I go here all the time for various things. Biking, nearby food, corporate challenge, more biking. The parkway is awesome and probably the best place to bring your bike or your dog in the entire syracuse area. The new west lake path is coming along very nicely and adds so much to your visit if you’re biking a good distance (watch the bumps though, they can be pretty rough right now).
Can’t wait until they connect more pathways to allow and easy lake loop on two wheels, that will be so much fun, and convenient. You could easily park in the village of Liverpool and ride your bike into downtown Syracuse without issues.
I also can’t wait to see the amphitheater when it’s complete too, sounds awesome and the plans look great, I’ll definitely be attending some shows when it’s done!
Next step would be adding some food/​beverage stops back into the paths like there used to be down by the bridges. Sell me some snacks, I’ll definitely buy! Maybe someone will put this on a to-​do list at the park offices. Would be great to have even just a hot dog vendor standing behind a cart somewhere.
Oh, and if anyone is into Geocaching there are a handful of good ones at the parkway. If you don’t know what that is look it up, might just be your next hobby!

Nice park, nice play area. Its too bad the trams are not working as it is too far too walk for both older folks or younger kids. We were here last year and enjoyed it but this year it was a downer as they tram has apparently been «down» for and extended period of time… Seems like resources are not being allocated very well.

Relaxing walkway along the water. Don’t go I the water as everyone knows lol. But it’s getting cleaned up since it’s a local landmark. It’s great during the Christmas holiday time for lights on the lake!

Came here for lights on the lake. It was sic a cute little experience. You drive through many different areas that featured medieval lights, wizard of oz, Santas workshop, and 2 – 3 others I cannot remember. After hearing the story of how the townspeople make all of the metal structures and lights, I appreciated it much more.

Onondaga Lake Park; gorgeous views, running trails — a Salt Museum and a tram that runs here, also home to the Lights on the Lake during the holiday season. Lights on the Lake deserves to be in another review (hint: it would be two stars), so I won’t talk about it here, but as a park — this place is great. With the mountainous looking terrain in the back, you can almost imagine you’re in San Francisco (okay…almost, maybe I’m stretching it).
There’s a shoreline trail where you can run and walk your dog with mile markers up to 3miles. Great place to go running along the water. Running parallel to it, there’s another trail where you can bike and roller blade (but dogs are forbidden). Although it’s beautiful to come here for a romantic walk or picnic or to meditate by yourself, it’s a bit bittersweet if you know the history of this place. It used to be one of the most popular tourist destinations in the US, but as Onondaga Lake is like the second most polluted lake in the US — you can no longer safely swim here and a lot of that tourism vanished. It’s too bad, they’ve made a lot of effort to clean up the lake, but it still has a long way to go.
Extra star will be awarded for when the lake is safely swimmable again. Hopefully in my lifetime.

Not a bad little park on the lake. 2 baseball diamonds, a skate park (pretty nice one) and a playground for the kids. I sense some shenanigans go on here when the sun is gone.
It’s across across the street from Heid’s which means hot dog or ice cream and chilling at the park!
It’s slightly cooler (temperature wise) here than other parts of town. If you come here at any point other than the summer then remember to bring a sweater or jacket!!!

I have a few things to say about Onondaga Lake Park, first thing is that this is the best way to spend a warm summer day with your children. We love going to what they call the «crayon park» because the front of the Wegman’s children’s playground has huge crayons in the front. The playground is definitely parent friendly, no matter where my children go in the park I am able to see them there is nothing obstructing my view. I love the fact that the playground is «padded» with rubber instead of mulch making falls so much easier on the little ones.
We also love feeding the ducks so every time we come to the park we also scrounge around for left over bread and snacks to feed the ducks and we spend what seems like hours feeding them by the water. The benches near the water definitely make it easy for us to enjoy the lake.
The next best thing about the park is the trolley, sometimes when the kids and I get kind of tired we hop on the trolley and ride it around the park from one end to the other and back and I tell the children about when I was a kid where we had family picnics and the restaurant that was open by Long Branch. It’s so much fun to reminisce especially at Onondaga Lake park because I have so many wonderful memories there.
I remember the day before I left for basic training in 2000, I went to Onondaga Lake Park to test my running times and to brush up a little on my exercising. It was a beautiful day so after my running I strapped on my Rollerblades and just skated for hours.
The Salt museum is also a lost gem at the lake. It has so much history in it and it’s fun to see and learn about the olden days at the park and surrounding areas. You know I have been going to that park since the 80’s (when I was born) and had never gone into the Salt Museum until a couple of years ago, I couldn’t wait to bring my children there once I saw the wonder inside and they LOVED it as much as I did.
The one downfall as everyone is well aware the lake is polluted so no sunny days swimming in the water and no fishing out on the pier like when I was a kid, but it’s still a great place for family!

I used to visit this park every weekend when I was in the area. There are two paths running parallel to the lake, one for walkers and another for bicyclists. During the summer, there seems to be a large population of geese and ducks occupying the park. They seem to be used to humans so one can be sitting on a bench viewing the lake and be surrounded by the birds. Of course, with so many birds, one has to be careful of the droppings.

can’t say i ever agreed with tearing down griffin field, but they’ve done a nice job of replacing it with a skate park and a couple of playground areas for kids. the current baseball fields and bike paths are in very good condition and i’ve never had a problem with parking or with crowds here.
the park is absolutely beautiful on a sunny morning (despite onondaga lake being one of the more polluted lakes in the country). my only real complaint is that i wish they would extend the park boundaries south to onondaga creek and into the inner harbor area of syracuse, perhaps by bike paths or walking trails, to connect the city to the park a bit more.

Onondaga Lake Park has a special meaning to me. I spent my high school and college summers working as a grounds keeper at Griffin Field. Griffin Field was a multi-​use (Football, Soccer, Baseball and Softball) sports facility that has since been torn down and replaced by a Skateboard park (I think).
Onondaga Lake Park is a long narrow park that runs along the shores of Onondaga Lake (considered to be the most polluted lake in the US). In spite of the pollution the county has worked hard since the mid 1970s to create a great park.
There is a road that runs the length of the park but it was closed to public traffic a long time ago. This makes it ideal for running and biking. There are several picnic areas.
The residents of the towns near the lake usually make good use of the park.
During the holiday season a light display is created and the road is open to cars paying a fee.
The lake is not nearly as bad as it was when I was young. In fact it has been making a steady comeback. It might never be what it was before the City of Syracuse built and the smoke stack industries that showed up along the shores but that is something we are all going to have to live with.
If you are traveling to the northern suburbs of Syracuse and want to take a run or walk then Onondaga Lake Park might be just the place to go. Check it out.