Hiking 18 Mile Creek Park

We love to hike and are fortunate to have family that also loves to hike. While visiting family in western New York in July, we hiked at Eighteen Mile Creek Park in Hamburg, NY, a first for us. The trail runs above the creek itself, and we caught glimpses of the water as we moved along. Summers in this part of the state vary considerably. After drenching rains during our visit last summer, this summer rain was minimal and the water level of the creek showed the lack of it. We hiked a mile or two along the rim, then retraced our steps and took one of the trails that led to the water in the 60’ deep gorge. 

The decent was steep but not difficult, and once at the creek we walked along the shale rock outcroppings in both directions. In some places the water receded to a point we could nearly cross to the other side on the exposed rock without stepping in the water. Wildflowers grew in abundance attracting large numbers of butterflies and other insects. Naturally a welcome breeze choose that time to blow, and I spent some time trying to get photos of the flowers and insects with my camera, in this case my point-and-shoot Canon G16. I don’t use the camera often enough so naturally I struggled a bit with the settings.

I never did get a shot I liked of the flowers, but managed to capture the trail and the water. As we started back a father and young son showed up with fishing poles and started to set up on the shore. We made our way along the trail back to the car, and passed two mothers with their children, the children all in water gear and eager to get to the creek, running ahead and racing each other. It is July after all, and summer vacation.