The narrated boat tours at Camillus Erie Canal Park have ended until May 2027. On October 8 the park posted its winter schedule. Sims' Store Museum is now open Saturdays from noon to 4 p.m., and the notice adds that "the trails are always open."
That second line matters most for the next six months. Three of the best walks in town run along the same water, which the state spells Ninemile Creek and the canal park spells Nine Mile Creek. The restored aqueduct sits off Devoe Road, a stand of very old sugar maples grows off Thompson Road, and a feeder canal runs behind the Village Offices. All three are open in the off-season, all three are free, and the route that would link two of them is still on the drawing board.
The aqueduct is a footbridge until May
From May through early October, the 45-minute cruise is the reason most people visit the Liz and Dave Beebe Camillus Erie Canal Park at 5750 Devoe Road. The high point of the ride is gliding over the Nine Mile Creek Aqueduct. Once the boats are tied up, you cross the same structure on foot. The Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor says trail users walk, jog and cycle over the aqueduct, so it works as a crossing for people as well as a waterway.
Some background makes the walk across more interesting. The park calls it the 1842 aqueduct. The structure carries a 144-foot waterway on four stone arches of Onondaga limestone, and the remains of an earlier aqueduct and lock sit nearby. The park's property holds the first two versions of the canal, Clinton's Ditch and the First Enlargement. According to the Heritage Corridor, the aqueduct went 89 years without a boat until one crossed in August 2009. Getting there took a 40-year restoration that raised $2.2 million and drew more than 160 volunteers.
Practical details for the season:
- Museum: Sims' Store Museum is open Saturdays, noon to 4 p.m., under the winter schedule. The museum's own page still lists a four-day week, so the newer homepage notice is the one to trust.
- Dogs: The park calls itself dog-friendly.
- Location: The park sits at the halfway point of the Empire State Trail, so cyclists passing through share the paths.
Upstream, the creek runs past maples older than the canal enlargement
Drive Route 173, Warners Road, and turn onto Thompson Road to reach the Camillus Forest Unique Area, 350 acres managed by the state DEC. This is the same creek again. DEC says the southeastern part of the property offers fishing and canoe access to Ninemile Creek, which it calls one of the most popular trout streams in Onondaga County. There is a separate Ninemile Creek parking area on Thompson Road in addition to the main Thompson Road lot.
Late fall is a good time for the trees here. The property includes 38 acres of old forest. In it are sugar maples and American beeches measuring 36 inches across at breast height, and DEC estimates the largest dominant trees at 120 to 200 years old. The biggest is a sugar maple measuring 42 inches. At the high end of that estimate, some of these trees were already growing when the canal park's 1842 aqueduct was built. Six designated loop trails cover almost four miles in total.
The rules here are stricter than at the canal park, and the differences matter if you bring a dog or a bike:
- Dogs must be on a leash, and dog training is prohibited.
- Bicycles and mountain bikes are prohibited.
- The area closes half an hour after sunset and reopens after sunrise. In November, that makes it an early-afternoon walk.
- Cross-country skiing and snowshoeing are allowed on every hiking trail once snow arrives.
- Firearms are prohibited. Bowhunting is allowed during the state seasons.
On bowhunting, DEC announced on October 7 that the early bowhunting season for deer in most of the Southern Zone began October 1 and runs through November 20. DEC's 2026–27 season guide also lists late bowhunting dates of December 14 through 22 and December 26 through January 1. Those are the windows when walkers on these trails may share the woods with archers.
In the village, the feeder canal ends at a row of limestone blocks
The third walk starts on Main Street. The Central New York Land Trust's Camillus Valley Natural Area covers 247.59 acres, and the Land Trust rates its trail as easy. Park in the lot behind the Camillus Village Offices or on Main Street, then follow the signs to the trailhead at the end of Feeder Bank Road. The Land Trust asks visitors not to park on Feeder Bank Road itself. The preserve map labels a Yellow Trail, the Old Canal Towpath, Nine Mile Creek and a River Access Trail. That map was last updated in spring 2016, so expect some differences on the ground.
Syracuse.com reported in May that the existing trail follows a feeder canal for a little more than half a mile to where it joins Ninemile Creek. Large limestone blocks at that spot mark where a sluice gate once controlled the flow of water. The paper also reported that the route passes between the west bank of Ninemile Creek and Camillus Mills, the former Camillus Cutlery factory, before it crosses Main Street.
Past those stones, the path is rough work done by volunteers. Syracuse.com reported that Scott Stearns, a retired engineer from Marietta, and a small group began cutting trees and clearing brush on the Land Trust section the previous winter. Stearns described the work to the paper:
"That was an awful job because it's all rose bushes. They try to eat you. But we cut in a trail and it's very rough, but you can walk it."
The missing pieces are a bridge and one busy mile
These walks are close together but not connected. A village project aims to change that. The Village of Camillus received a $180,000 grant from Onondaga County's Greenways + Blueways program to fund a feasibility study and full design for a five-mile walking and biking trail. The trail would run from Sims' Store Museum through the village toward the Martisco Station Museum, and Barton and Loguidice is drawing up the plans. Village Mayor Dick Waterman told Syracuse.com the trail would be "an extension, or a tributary, of the Erie Canal system."
The table below shows what stands between the parts that exist today, as described in that May report:
| Stretch | Length | What it needs |
|---|---|---|
| Sims' Store to Main Street, via Devoe Road and Newport Road | About one mile | A decision on which side of the road. The stretch has at least eight intersections, including two ramps for Route 5, plus state DOT facility entrances and a Byrne Dairy that was under construction at the time |
| Feeder canal trail on Land Trust land | A little more than half a mile | Already walkable as an existing trail |
| Crossing where the feeder canal meets Ninemile Creek | About 80 feet long, 6 feet wide | A pedestrian bridge estimated at roughly $120,000. The old abutments are already in place |
Stearns told the paper plainly that "until that's in, there's really no trail." In May, Waterman expected the plans to be finished by fall and work to begin in 2027. He put the full project at around $2 million and at least "a couple of years." We have found no public update since that report, so those dates are still the mayor's projections, not milestones the village has announced.
A late-fall Saturday on the creek
For now, the three spots link up by car, and a Saturday visit lines up well with the museum's winter hours:
- Morning at Camillus Forest. Start at the Thompson Road lot with a leashed dog and walk the old-forest loops while there's plenty of daylight. Remember that early bowhunting season runs through November 20.
- Midday in the village. Park behind the Village Offices and walk the feeder canal to the limestone sluice-gate blocks at Ninemile Creek, where the new bridge would go.
- Early afternoon at the canal park. Sims' Store Museum is open from noon to 4 p.m. Walk over the aqueduct the boats crossed all summer.
| Camillus Erie Canal Park | Camillus Forest Unique Area | Camillus Valley Natural Area | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where to park | 5750 Devoe Road | Thompson Road lots off Route 173 | Behind the Camillus Village Offices |
| Trails | Wooded paths and the aqueduct crossing | Six loops, almost four miles | Feeder canal, old towpath, creek access |
| Dogs | Dog-friendly | Leash required | Not specified by the Land Trust |
| Bikes | Allowed | Prohibited | Not specified by the Land Trust |
| Hours | Trails always open. Museum open Saturdays, noon to 4 p.m. | Sunrise to half an hour after sunset | Not posted |
Lori Harrington has worked in Camillus since 2003, and keeping track of things like the feeder canal trail and that $120,000 bridge is part of knowing the town well. If you'd like to hear how the connector trail is moving along, or which streets sit closest to these trailheads, Lori Harrington is glad to talk it through. Let's Connect.
