Ripley Hill Nature Preserve

Great hike with a beautiful overlook of Skaneateles Lake. The hike overall is not very difficult and does not take long to reach the overlook.

Other reviews note that it’s a dirt road and that rough road conditions makes it bad. Yes it’s in the middle of the country side, and dirt roads should be expected. New York is largely agricultural and these sorts of things are common place. The trail starts on an old farm road, but it is well taken care of and there is a proper parking area. Don’t let others deter you.

It's a beautiful spot in one of the highest areas in the county but unfortunately there's really nothing in the way of trails yet. As of 2019 they have built a beautiful trail through the woods with an epic viewpoint of Skaneateles Lake (probably one of the best views in the county). The trail is well maintained and located directly off the side of a dirt road. Pull off a little to park and walk to the viewpoint. If you want to continue, keep going down and carefully cross 41 and you can add the Hinchcliff Preserve to your hike!

Nice and quiet walking trail with a nice open view at destination. There is now also a small parking lot with plenty of space and the gps coords take you right to it

The view of Skaneateles Lake is great but the drive is downright scary. You will be forced to get on a long dirt road with heavy farm equipment/truck traffic and no chance of stopping or turning around. There is no shoulder, just trenches on the side of the road, which makes parking a super stressful experience. In fact, even the view of the lake couldn’t take the stress off my mind because so many trucks are traveling up and down the narrow farm road between corn fields and woods and I couldn’t park my car further to the side because there’s simply no room. Unless they plan to just have people walking to the area, I just don’t see how the parking situation makes any sense.

There's a parking lot there now which is nice probably would be a great spot for astronomy in the parking lot open field to the south of the lot. Really nice walk through the woods to a bench with an awesome view of the lake and hillside.

No parking