Hidden Gems in the Finger Lakes REgion
Unique Nature Centers
Do you love a curated outdoor experience, where you get to learn new things while you explore a beautiful place? If you gave an enthusiastic “yes!” to that question, then the Finger Lakes region has some terrific opportunities for you!
A Unique Perspective
Tanglewood Nature Center, Elmira, New York – Tanglewood offers a wide variety of opportunities for local residents and visitors to the region. As a Nature Conservancy partner, Tanglewood incorporates education and advocacy to attract visitors who intentionally follow responsible travel practices that minimize their impact on the Center’s ecosystem.
One of the Center’s most popular programs is their Animal Ambassadors presentations. With over 40 species of live animals that could not be rehabilitated or were abandoned, Tanglewood has developed a program that introduces these animals to the Center’s visitors. They also offer off-site programming with the Animal Ambassadors, bringing the animals to schools, community events, and wherever they are invited! Having a personal experience with the animals gives people an incentive to preserve the habitat in which these species normally exist.
While the visitor experience at the Center is clearly prioritized, Executive Director Elaine Smith says their intention is that visitors will bring their newfound knowledge and appreciation home with them to their own backyards. Elaine and her staff also hope visitors will learn how to identify native species and care for them in areas beyond the Center’s reach. Another key goal is to connect humans to nature on a deeper level, knowing we are not separate from nature and our own survival depends on a healthy environment.
Clearly, there are currently many wonderful ways to spend the day at Tanglewood Nature Center. The exciting news, though, is that their future programming will add a whole new level of exploration – literally! The Center staff and volunteers are fundraising to build a canopy walkway – bringing visitors high above the ground to experience life in the treetops, a complete ecosystem unto itself. Sign up for their newsletter so you can keep track of its development!
A Unique Location
Sterling Nature Center , Sterling, New York – At the far northern tip of the Finger Lakes region, located on Lake Ontario in Cayuga County, you’ll find another special nature center to explore. The website deeply understates this gem with this description, “The Sterling Nature Center is a diverse natural habitat encompassing 1400 acres of forest, wetlands, meadows and 2 miles of Lake Ontario shoreline.” The truth of the place must be visited to understand how much more it is than this description allows.
Built with architecture that is sensitive to the local environment and dark skies compliant, the new nature center building was opened in 2024 and hosts community engagement events including multiple guided hikes and tours such as International Vulture Awareness Day, Harvest Moon, pollinator education activities, and beach clean up events. The diverse trails, well-maintained by Cayuga County staff and open from dawn to dusk, offer insight into local habitats such as beaver-created wetlands, woodland, and meadow habitats as well as lakeside habitat along the impressive shores of the region’s only great lake. Director Jim D’Angelo explains that the various trails appeal to a wide range of people, allowing them to see mammals and birds on a short hike. Nature photographers have discovered this spectacular location and their visitation numbers are increasing every year.
The Center offers public programs year-round – thus providing visitors the opportunity to see the same ecosystems in various seasons, making it easier to see how the habitats shift to meet the changing weather patterns. While you can enjoy sunset/sunrise in every season, especially over Lake Ontario, some seasonal highlights include the following: vernal pools and associated wildlife in spring, butterflies and dragonflies in summer, colorful foliage in fall, and animal tracking in the winter snows. Interestingly, some of the timing of these seasonal highlights is shifting due to climate changes in the region, so you may get butterflies earlier or later in the season, vernal pools in what you’d expect to be winter, and other unexpected seasonal shifts. Fortunately, even with that uncertainty, visitors are sure to find something of interest whenever they visit and they also always get the benefit of enjoying and relaxing in nature.
Volunteer-minded visitors in the fall have a special opportunity to participate in the Monarch Watch, helping to tag butterflies to give researchers the ability to learn about their migration patterns. This is a very popular program, so sign up early! If you prefer to work with birds, that’s an option, too! Just keep an eye on their events page and sign up for the bird banding programs. You can find their most up-to-date information on here and on their social media sites.
A Unique Combination
Deer Haven Park , Romulus, New York – Deer Haven Park is home to a surprising combination of the world’s largest herd of white deer and a living history museum associated with a cold-war era military munitions base. Whether on a self-guided driving tour or on a guided bus tour, visitors enjoy watching the white deer move freely among the historical concrete structures that used to hold large sized and astoundingly large quantities of munitions.
The area where the park is located has an interesting and complicated history. Originally a patchwork of family farms, the government took over the property in 1941 and it became the East Coast’s primary munitions storage facility called the Seneca Munitions Depot. The fence the military constructed around the facility kept wildlife inside; the deer inside happened to have the recessive gene for white fur and, over time, they continued to breed and the herd grew. In 2000, the Depot was decommissioned and in 2003 the US Military turned the property over to the Seneca County IDA. In 2016, a newly formed business, Deer Haven Park, LLC, purchased 7,000 acres of the Depot.
Now, as their website says, “After more than 70 years of locked gates and secrecy, Deer Haven Park offers a glimpse into this mystical place. In addition to the unique and majestic Seneca white deer herd, it holds a mysteriously rich military history.” Visitors to this fascinating park leave with a better understanding of how the US Military has impacted these local communities, both human and deer, throughout our country’s recent history. If you time it right, you may even be able to join one of the special events where you get to see one of the storage structures opened for the first time since the Depot was closed. If you prefer to learn military history with real human stories while enjoying a beautiful and peaceful setting with visible wildlife, this is a must-see spot on your Finger Lakes adventure
