Sam & Maisie's
Great things to do in WNY Nature

Both Reinstein & Tifft are must visit places and perfect to start to nature. Close to Buffalo, both have nature centers and regular family-friendly programming.

• • Reinstein. A must visit - great place to start to nature. Best summer camp in town! Watch out for ticks, particularly in the spring.

  • Tifft. Fields are just as fun as the trails through the woods! A Buffalo favorite and great for birding. Watch out for biting ants in the summer.

• Beaver Island. On Grand Island - beach and wetlands with great playground, open space, and birding - beach can often be crowded on warm summer day - $7 parking fee.

• Beaver Meadow. Audubon center in the southtowns - a bit of a drive. Their Superb Owl event the Saturday before the Super Bowl is not to be missed. Great halloween programming and family programming throughout the year.

• Birdsong Parklands. Lovely, easy wander among wetlands in the southtowns. Great birds and herps.

• Bond Lake. Pretty mix of trails and traditional lake park in Niagara County.

• Boston Forest County Park. This was nice - didn't see anyone and saw lots of birds but only in one small area. Won't go out of our way to go back but a nice enough wander.

• Braddock Bay. Braddock Bay is a lovely wetlands park north of Rochester. Well worth the drive for the bird banding station where you can help out with bird banding - there is a raptor research station too!

• Buckthorn. Another great Grand Island park - recommend parking at East Overlook for bird blinds and walking along bike path to little "beaches" by the river.

• Burchfield Nature & Art Center. Simple, easy to access place with interesting art and a good playground - good place to start with little kids.

• Chestnut Ridge. The eternal flame hike is a Buffalo standard. Other trails are great too and awesome sledding in winter. Can be crowded on pretty days.

• Eighteen Mile Creek. A fine creek hike but hasn't had the same biodiversity and signs of healthy water like other favorites. Maybe we've just gone at the wrong time of the year.

• Franklin Gulf. Probably one of the best kept secrets in the area. Stay left when you get on the trails and keep going left to get to a beautiful tree lined shale creek - wonderful for finding salamanders, newts, frogs, and toads!

• Griffis Sculpture Park. A little different from the rest - fields and trails with interesting (and climbable) sculptures. A bit of a drive but a lot of fun.

• Hampton Brook Woods Wildlife Management. Small but nice wooded area along 18 mile creek.

• Hunters Creek. One of the best places to go on a hot day but can get crowded as more people have found out about it in the past few years.

• Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge. Such a great place for birds! Wonderful wetland habitats - best for cool, overcast days when it isn't super hot & sunny.

• Letchworth State Park. Gorgeous place for camping and hiking and only about an hour away. Still need to poke around here more.

• Letchworth Woods. Amazing amount of biodiversity in this little patch of woods on the UB north campus. We've seen creatures here we haven't seen anywhere else in the wild!

• Little Rock City. A bit of a drive but worth it for amazing huge rocks to scramble and walk between. One of our favorite places and even has camping!

• Niagara Glen. Worth the drive across the rainbow bridge to Canada! Great gorge hike with photo scavenger hunt to earn points and trade in for rocks, shells, etc.

• Penn Dixie. Hunt for fossils! So cool!! Go on a cool, overcast day and/or wear sunhats and sunscreen and have lots of water.

• Rollin T. Grant. Also known as "P'ivy Gulf". More poison ivy here than we've ever seen in WNY.

• Royalton Ravine. Very cool - interesting old ruins, fun bridge, little creek - not bad for a northernly hike.

• Sinking Pond Wildlife Sanctuary. We called this one "stinking" pond. It was fine but there are better places in our opinion.

• Sprague Brook. Our favorite place for camping and a great spot for creek hikes, trail hikes, and mountain biking.

• Stella Niagara. This is a lovely wander in a field by the river with great bird watching. Watch out for a few spots of p'ivy too!

• Tillman. Lovely ponds and trails in Clarence. Need to explore more.

• Whirlpool. Intense stairs and rock scrambled but really awesome ending on rocks right by huge whirlpool rapids which is great for picnics.

  • Road Trip!

    • US

      • Alleghany

      • Black Swamp Bird Observatory

      • College Lodge

      • Cook Forest

      • Ohio NP

      • Roger Tory Peterson Institute

    • Canada

      • Long Point

      • Amherst Island

      • Rondeau

      • Pelee

We haven't done all of these but hope to one of these days!

• US

  • • Allegany State Park

    • Black Swamp Bird Observatory

    • Cook Forest

    • Cuyahoga Valley National Park

  • Canada

    • Long Point

    • Amherst Island

    • Rondeau

    • Pelee

Don't just take it from us! Here are some other great resources:

• Earth Spirit

• Erie County Parks

• The Field Guides

• Allegany Nature Pilgrimage

• NYS DEC

• WNY Land Conservancy

• Browse eBird hotspots for Erie & Niagara