On the last Sunday before the 4th of July we will have a leisurely walk around the magnificent Maplewood Rose Garden in the northwest quadrant of Rochester, at the junction of Lake Avenue and Driving Park Avenue. Maplewood Park is one of two original parks laid out by Frederick Law Olmsted to highlight the Genesee River. There is good parking at the Rose Garden at the driving Park Avenue entrance. The link to the Rochester city web site pages for Maplewood Park is here

All groups will walk together on this hike. It is intended to be an slow, easy, relaxing afternoon in a lovely part of Rochester.

The Hike

We’ll take up about an hour of the hike with walking around the avenues of roses – there are over 250 varieties on display –  then we’ll walk across Driving Park Avenue to the Lower Falls Park, which surrounds the lowest waterfall on the Genesee River. The walk down to the level of the park is fairly steep, but then it’s easy walking on level pathways. This park offers superb views of the park, a sculpture installation reminiscent of a small Stonehenge and finally Rochester’s own hydroelectric plant. The hydroelectric plant is downstream of a large salient in the river which acts as a supply pond for the turbines.

The Social

For the social we’ll drive to the Genesee Brewing Company plant at High Falls, the highest and most upstream waterfall on the Genesee River in Rochester. The address is: Genesee Brew House, 25 Cataract St, Rochester, NY 14605. It is 2 miles away, going south down St. Paul Street.

Directions to the Maplewood Rose Garden

The address is Maplewood Rose Garden, 250 Maplewood Ave, Rochester, NY 14613. The first choice for getting there is to tell your GPS that this is where you want to go, and then follow instructions.

GPS isn’t always first choice; here are traditional directions:

From the South:

1:  Take your favorite route to the I490 heading west – which is compass north for those of us living south of the city

2:  Take exit 13 for the Inner Loop

3: Take the exit toward Downtown/St Paul St/Clinton Ave, then use the left 2 lanes to turn left onto St Paul St

4:  Follow St. Paul Street until you come to Avenue E; turn left onto Avenue E

5: Continue onto Driving Park Ave. After you cross the Genesee River the road becomes Driving Park Ave; turn right shortly after the river into Maplewood Park. There’s plenty of parking there

Directions to the Social at the Genesee Brewery

The address is Genesee Brew House, 25 Cataract St, Rochester, NY 14605. Again, the first choice for getting there is to tell your GPS that this is where you want to go, and then follow instructions.

Traditional instructions are:

1:  Exit the Rose Garden parking lot and turn left on to Driving Park Avenue, which turns into Avenue E across the river

2:  Turn right on to St. Paul Street and continue for 1.4 miles.

3:  Turn right on to Cataract Street and the brewery is a hundred yards away in front of you, overlooking the High Falls waterfall.