The Finger Lakes Region
14 individual counties in West Central NY, identified by the 11 linear lakes resembing the fingers of a hand. There are 26 State Parks in the Finger Lakes Region.
These parks are composed of lakes, rivers, waterfalls, gorges, and many other interesting geological features that were shaped by the same glaciers that formed the famous Finger Lakes.
Chimney Bluffs State Park
Geological Wonderland - Largest Cluster of Drumlins
Elliptical hills of debris left behind by glaciers eroded into Spires
Green Lakes State Park
2 Deep, Green, Glacial, and Meromictic Lakes
High potential for evidence of ancient plant/animal life
About 2 million years ago, North America was in it's Ice Age - with glaciers covering over a third of the land. At it's peak 21,750 years ago, the glaciers extended south from Canada to cover a majority of New York. 10,000 years ago, the glaciers retreated from New York, leaving behind huge volumes of meltwater. During the retreat, the glaciers met the steep north-facing slopes of the Finger Lakes region. Glaciers by nature have a rough underside that ground, polish and scoure the rock surface in its path. This glacial action wears away bedrock and gouges river valleys into deep troughs. The meltwater from the receding glaciers will flow into the deepened valleys and become trapped.
| 1800s | Location for Freedom Seekers on the Underground Railroad to board sailing vessels headed for Canada |
| Prohibition (1920-1933) | Liquor drop-off site for rum-runners transporting alcohol from Canada across Lake Ontario to the shores of New York State |
| 1962 | New York State acquired 597 acres of what was to become Chimney Bluffs State Park. The residents were allowed to stay and continue farming for 5 years before they had to leave |
| 1999 | New York State developed Chimney Bluffs State Park |
| Great Depression (1929–1939) | Created as a part of the New Deal. Its sandy beach and park buildings built by the hands of veterans of the Spanish-American war |
| 1928 | New York State purchased land for State Park |
| 1944 | Construction Camps reopened to host migrant workers from Newfoundland during WWII |
| 1945 | Transformed into a P.O.W. camp for German captives — all of whom were repatriated when the camp closed in 1946 and the park turned over to the public’s enjoyment once more |
| 1973 | Round Lake’s designation as a National Natural Landmark |
| 2018 | Maple-basswood rich mesic forest and the meromictic lakes at Green Lakes State Park have also been recognized as being of statewide significance by the NY Natural Heritage Program |
Drumlines
Drumlins are elliptical hills that are blunt on the upglacier end and taper into an elongated tail on the downglacier end, similar in shape to a teardrop. Drumlins form parallel the direction the movement of the ice. These hills usually form in clusters; the exposed upglacier end of the drumlin at Chimney Bluffs State Park is one of roughly 10,000 drumlins located South&East of Lake Ontario. Some drumlins are solid rock and some are composed of glacial till. Till is a mixture of different sized rock fragments and sediment deposited as glacial ice melts.
The northern end of the drumlins has been eroded by thousands of year of wind and water and the exposed material is carved into magnificent and ever changing formations.
Meromictic Lakes
A Meromictic Lake is a lake that does not have complete mixing of the surface and bottom waters due to the lake being very deep without a large surface area.
Round Lake, one of the lakes in Green Lakes State Park, is over 163 ft deep with a diameter of about 700 ft. It's this deepness that causes the so-called 'green' color of the lakes. Deep lakes tend to appear bluish because the wavelengths of light that can penetrate (and be dispersed at) great depths are those closer to the blue end of the spectrum. Only about a dozen meromictic lakes are in the U.S. and just over 50 in the entire world.
Due to Chemical Stratification, a lack of oxygen in lower layers and higher salt density, species diversity is very low and most only live in the top layers.Anything that sinks to the the depths of these lakes stays there in a state of near-suspended animation, protected from the tick of time. This allows the lakes to become a portal to the past to glimpse evidence of ancient plant & animal life.
Virgin Mesophytic Forest
Around Round Lake, there is 20 acres of “virgin mesophytic forest” - or a uncut/minimal cut site with vegetation characteristic of rich, moist, well-drained soils. The forest supports trees ranging in age from 100 - 400 years old.
The NY Natural Heritage Program describes this forest as a maple-basswood rich mesic forest where there are some particularly old (and very tall) specimens of tuliptrees, bitternut hickory, sugar maple, hemlock and basswood within the Tuliptree Cathedral SouthWest of Round Lake. The largest tree measured there was 147 ft in 2011, one of the many tuliptrees to be found in this forest.
Hiking the Bluff Trail at Chimney Bluffs State Park
One of the more popular things to do is to hike one of the many trails to see the towering - up to 150ft tall - drumlins. The Bluff Trail and the Drumlin Trail being the longest and most popular ones to hike.
Green Lakes State Park Golf Course
This scenic 18-hole course is one of the first golf courses designed by Robert Trent Jones, one of the game's most innovative golf course architects. The course features 6212 yards of golf from the longest tees for a par of 71.