Hiked the Coyote Den and Overlook trails in Ellison Park over the weekend, parking at the trailhead on Old Penfield Rd.
It is hard to capture the landscape with pictures. Like a lot of outdoor scenery, you have to be in it to really feel and appreciate it.
Ellison Park is a beautiful old park, with lots of old trees, valleys and ridges. The park is named after Frank Ellison, who was born in 1853.
In 1926, Mr. Ellison turned over the initial 220 acres to the county of Monroe, in memory of his father (Nathaniel Ellison) – making Ellison Park the first official Monroe County park.
Currently, the park has a total size of 447 acres. If you want more history, there is more information here.
From the Overlook Trail, I wanted to take a short excursion to get a look at Redman Lake.
Like a lot of fisherman, I sometimes look at overhead and satellite images on the internet – trying to find hidden ponds and lakes that I might be able to fish.
I spotted Redman Lake a few years ago this way, and wondered if I might be able to fish it. Sadly, the answer is no. The lake is part of a private preserve, now owned by the Rochester Institute of Technology, as part of the Tait Preserve.
Redman Lake, and the land around it, was part of the Dolomite Quarry in Penfield. Opened in 1928, it was used to mine sand and gravel. Bob and Amy Tait acquired the property from Dolomite in 2015, and then spent years clearing and developing the landscape to its present form.
In 2019, the property was on the market for $10 million dollars (details here), and acquired by RIT. The Tait Preserve is currently used by RIT students and faculty to conduct research across various disciplines….which is great….but could be even better if I were allowed to kayak fish the lake. 🙂
This was our entire hike – a little over 3 miles. There was a short, but somewhat steep climb to the top of Overlook Trail, and a similar descent where Overlook Trail re-joins the Coyote Den trail. If you wanted a reasonably flat hike, you could easily skip the Overlook Trail.