Hiking Wonder Lake State Park in New York
On this particular adventure we ventured off to Wonder Lake State Park in New York. Like many parks we visit, we hadn’t heard a ton about this park so we were looking to explore and find something new.
We definitely were not disappointed in the snowy adventure that led us up a fairly large hill and partially around a half-frozen lake. The snow was so beautiful and made the hike a bit more…interesting and challenging.
–> Wonder Lake State Park Trail Map <–
As mentioned earlier, the first part of this park is really just making your way up a decently steep hill. It is somewhere between moderate and difficult in areas, but overall I would say its a moderate hike. However, going in the winter time with a foot of snow will definitely add a bit more of a difficulty factor.
SNOWY PATHS
If you take the same route as us (the Blue to the Yellow trail), you will cross a very small creek along the way. There is always something soothing about a creek trickling by as you are hiking down a trail. There are plenty of rocks around this area that gives it that unique bubbling sound that I love so much.
SPRING?!
This was quite a beautiful Spring (yes Spring) day in New York with a good 6-7 inches of snow on the ground. Luckily for us, others had already plowed the way through for us so most of our hike was relatively easy. It did get a bit tricky later on where it was obvious not quite as many people had went down the trail.
WONDERFUL WONDER LAKE
After we got over the main hill we started heading down towards Wonder Lake itself. It is great destination if that is all you did at this park. It was a lot larger than I had originally anticipated and was a beautiful deep blue color.
This part of the trail is where I believe quite a few people had turned around as the footprints were becoming more and more sporadic. At that point in time we were still bound and determined to make it all the way around the lake.
However, after getting to the intersection of the blue and yellow trails, we realized we were getting quite tired without snow shoes (bring snow shoes in you hike in the thick snow) :).
DEEP SNOW MADE US TURN AROUND
We were glad we did hike all the way to the yellow trail even though slightly disappointed in turning around early. Near the blue/yellow trail intersections we made our way down the untouched snow for a little ways to get the above photos of the partially frozen lake and just to see how deep it was.
There were some areas that drifted over more than a foot and unfortunately we were not prepared for that. This is one of those parks that we definitely want to get back to when all the snow is melted and the vegetation is popping back up.
OTHER NEARBY HIKES
NOTE FROM WRITER
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Adventure On!
