History, art, architecture, and nature all blended into an out of the ordinary hike in an urban setting…The Onondaga Creekwalk [Armory Square Trailhead 310 W Jefferson St. Syracuse, NY] was a great way to explore the city of Syracuse as first time visitors – just follow the yellow brick road! Or let’s be real, the faded yellow paint line.
We started in Armory Square, the hub of excitement in the city, on a dreary afternoon. First creek spottings are magical, forlorn, and intriguing…walk on.
You’ll take but a few steps more before spotting the Loch West monster, a seriously cool instillation of street art.
Keep following that yellow line across streets, and see your first informational panel with history about the city. More to come.
The National Grid building was striking against melting against a grey sky, how out of place it seemed.
At times faithfully following that yellow line we ventured into slightly deserted random city streets with no creek in sight, Jeff asked, “Where are you taking me, this is the creep walk!” No one was around, but it was drizzling, and almost dinnertime, maybe we were the creeps! Over bridges under tunnels we journeyed on, rejoining the creek thrust into a new atmosphere.
We were certainly out of the dense grasp of the city, the walk became a more peaceful, serene, the creek truly becoming the star.
In this area there were office and apartment buildings, the trail seemed more popular with walkers here. More informational panels about the city’s history to be found in this section. There was a parcel of abandoned train track overgrown and perfectly green against the rushing water.
We made it to the inner harbor, 1.5 miles from where we started.
One more mile would have taken us to the shore of Onondaga Lake, but we had already done a full day of hiking and planned on visiting the lake the next day. This seemed like a perfect turn around point. Our trip total was 3 miles and we returned with a new perspective and understanding of the city. This was a really unique trail that I would recommend to anyone who is interested in learning about the history and hidden corners of the city of Syracuse.