Dryden: Trails, Parks and History

Dryden offers a range of reasons to visit: trails and landscapes, lake activities, an annual festival and historic buildings. If you’re looking for a hotel, it may help to first consider whether nature, local history or an event date will shape your stay. The destinations offer different things to do, making it easy to choose based on your interests.

Trails and Landscapes

The Jim Schug Trail is 4.2 miles long, flat and easy to walk. Weather permitting, visitors can walk, bike, hike, ride horses, snowshoe and cross-country ski there. Benches are spaced half a mile apart, and signs offer historical or natural history information about the surroundings. The trail combines exercise with opportunities to take breaks and make brief informational stops. The Dryden Rail Trail begins where the Jim Schug Trail ends in the Village of Dryden.

The other nature destinations each have their own focus. At Campbell Meadows, easy, winding trails follow Fall Creek, with scenic views and spots for a picnic. Etna Nature Preserve covers 12 acres and has a 0.25-mile trail through the preserve, which is home to a wide variety of wildlife and plants. For comparison, the stated trail lengths at Etna Nature Preserve and the 4.2-mile Jim Schug Trail are quite different.

Roy H Park Preserve covers 241 acres and includes forest, rolling meadows, wetlands and a rugged stretch of Six-Mile Creek. Yellow Barn State Forest, also located in the Town of Dryden, spans 1,289 acres. It has an approximately three-mile snowmobile trail. These details show a range of landscapes and scales—from a short trail in a nature preserve to an expansive forest area.

Lake, Park and Event

Dryden Lake Park is on Lake Road, three miles south of the Village of Dryden. The Town has leased the site for public use. The park includes a 0.75-mile-long lake that is suitable for family gatherings. Dryden Lake offers opportunities for boating, fishing and ice fishing. These water activities provide a distinct focus for trip planning alongside the trails and landscapes in the area.

Montgomery Park is the venue for Dryden Dairy Day, held by the Dryden Grange every year on the second Saturday in June. The park also has a playground with swings, slides, shaded benches, a climbing wall, imaginative towers and a mural about local history. The event date and the park’s amenities are two separate reasons to include Montgomery Park in your plans.

Historic Homes and Architecture

Several buildings in Dryden offer insight into different architectural styles and periods. The Southworth Homestead is a Federal-style home built from local brick in 1836. The Dwight-Gutchess Homestead followed in 1865: it is an Italianate-style home built by U.S. Congressman John W. Dwight. Both properties are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Southworth Library adds another architectural note. Completed in 1894, it was designed in the Romanesque Revival style by Ithaca architect William Henry Miller and is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In chronological order, the buildings include the home built in 1836, the homestead built in 1865 and the library completed in 1894; the details given for each cover different aspects of its history and design.

A Book Barn of the Finger Lakes is located in Dryden on a 19th-century farmstead. The property includes three barns painted red and green and 2.5 miles of shelving. This site offers a different theme from the historic homes and library.

Discover more destinations: Ithaca, Brooktondale, Trumansburg

View the broader travel guide: Tompkins.