Abraham Lincoln Park — Attraction in Town of Penfield

Over the past few years I have probably spent 100+ hours walking alone in this park. I have gone down every trail and turn, every old closed down trail and all the newer ones they make, and have tried to make my own trail at times. It is my favorite forest and I never get sick of it, its big enough to feel like you always see something new that you missed but small enough to not get lost in.

The way through the park will be up to you, but this is what I worked out over the years:

Start at the parking entrance with the playground and go in, head right and stay right, down the hill and through the cats tails, until you get to a fork in the trail. Here you go LEFT up the hill. It's slightly steep but a good warm up. When you are on top you take a RIGHT and start walking down the cliff of the coast of the bay. The views are the best here and as you can see from the pictures, this is prime for sunsets.

You will eventually reach the end of the cliff coastline and it will start going downhill. At the bottom of the hill, you can go LEFT to get to a bigger grassy opening with no trees blocking the view and look out at the bay. Take a RIGHT to keep going back into the woods.

You'll walk with a marshy inlet to your left until you get to an area with wide openings in between pine trees on a series of various little hills. Explore this if you want, and then you'll reach an area at the end of the hills that has another marsh full of cattails.

This part is hard to describe... you want to pass this little sliver of marsh but as soon as it's out of sight, you want to veer left when you can. You'll reach a little wooden bridge built by a man who dedicated to his wife as a wedding present. He's a doctor in the area.

Dont cross this bridge, go LEFT and walk down the creekline (it's not always running and depends on how recent it rained).

At this point you'll find this little area to the RIGHT of another marsh at the end of the creekline. You can simply follow that path and it will take you closer and closer to the other side of the bay.

Finally you will reach the end, a path that leads you out to a wide clearing, fire circle, grill, and big 2 story party house run by the town of Webster. This is a great place to eat, rest, play some toss, let the dog run for a bit.

When you head back in the woods, you can go the same way back, or just focus your anchor on the bay coastline, which wraps around the woods, irondequoit bay as a straight shot out to the lake, and the side of the bay is to the right of the bridge when looking out from the shore at the restaurants etc on the bay near the boats. If you just walk in a straight direction as much as possible towards the corner where the straight shot and right bay side meet, then walk in a straight shot back towards the boats and restaurants etc, eventually you will reach that spot where the road forked and the cat tails you walked through after the entrance will be right in front of you.

Hope that made sense, but if not, just wander around and dont give up til you make it out again. Usually works in most...

Ok, my experience was quite different than others. I'm a 67 year old grandmother raising my two grandkids ages 7 and 9 and we hiked this trail for the first time in June after some rain. We looked for a paper trail map before we began, but there weren't any. When we came to the big muckhole at the bottom of the first descent, we thought we could get around it, but couldnt avoid slogging through it with mud up to our ankles. We saw white squares on the trees here and there so followed them to the top of the hill overlooking the bay. I especially would have liked a bench to sit on in the clearing- there is no where to sit and enjoy the beautiful view. I made a wrong assumption that the trail would loop around back to the parking lot, so continued to follow white squares. Some people that we asked said yes, it would, so we went on. An hour into the hike we asked a couple men where the trail was going, and they said to the YMCA and then we would have to walk alongside the busy road for about a mile back to the parking lot. So we turned around (would have sold our souls for some water!) and made wrong turns because it seems the white squares go in many directions. I got a little scared that we would be lost in there for hours- I didnt take my phone either. Finally we found our way back to the muckhole and decided to climb up the side of the hill to bypass it. At the high point I started slipping and couldnt find anything to grab on to, so I fell and rolled down the hillside splat into the black muck. The kids were horrified seeing me like that and hearing me utter words they never heard me say before! I'm not a stranger to hiking, so I left wondering why there arent: Paper trail maps Trails marked with colors and/or names Short boardwalks across the muckholes A bench at the apex of the trail overlooking the bay The next day we laughed about our trek, bus seriously, it could have...

Lovely, wooded hiking park with well marked trails. It's quite hilly, but the trails are well groomed and cared for, so it's good for a bit more challenge in your hike without being dangerous. I wouldn't recommend for young kids, but there's a playground at the Empire road entrance for them to enjoy. A couple of port o Pottys are also at the Empire entrance, but I didnt check to see if they are open in the winter.

I saw evidence of skiers having used the main, white trail, and met a couple of groups of folks in snowshoes. So the trails seem good for those activities. In 2 hours on a sunny Sunday afternoon, I only met about 10 folks inside the park, and a couple of them had larger ( but well behaved ) dogs. Very little traffic noise deeper inside the park, and lively overlooks of the bay. So this seems to be a great park for immersing yourself in nature.

Lots of birds, including a lively small flock of chatty cardinals in the woods. Some very steep, rough but climbable hills for those who enjoy scrabbling up slopes, and a map of the marked trails deep inside the park where the white and yellow paths meet, nearer to the entrance of the white trail down by the YMCA. In wet or snowy conditions there are a couple of short, steep sections, so either bring hiking poles or clothes that you dont mind getting a bit muddy. Or just go to another park, so I can continue enjoy this one...