Aug. 18, 2026. I’ve been working on a long National Recreation Trail near Rochester lately. Took a break from that this morning and headed back to the rural farmland towns of far southwestern NY so I could check out Deer Lick National Natural Landmark. This conservation area sports different kinds of forests and gorge canyons, though the canyons are not visible from the trails, and there are signs saying to stay on the trails. So I got to experience the trees, but not really the gorge canyons.
There’s a map at the trailhead which shows four color-coded trails, and I hiked all of them. For anyone who reads this and wants to visit Deer Lick, note that Orange Trail seems abandoned. You can follow the faded blazes if you keep your eyes open, but the trail itself is full of blowdowns, overgrown vegetation, and deep mud pits that reminded me of the quicksand regularly featured on the TV shows Gen X watched as children.
