Hempstead Lake State Park

Beautiful park trails. very relaxed atmosphere. great for all ages. the scenery was amazing, and calming to the soul. I parked at field 1 buy picnic area, and walked around and entire Lake, easy 3 miles.

Nice trail, a little over 3 miles and you can stay on the trail itself or go off a bit on your own. You can also cross over to the smaller lake and walk the path there as well. Not a difficult hike, just watch out for the horse dung as parts of it are used as a bridle path as well.

Solid 5k around the main lake, add the smaller lake for some more. Parking is along Eagle Ave and requires payment 8-4p, they do take Empire pass. Trail is paved along park and Peninsula Blvd and curves into some gravel in the wooded areas. A quick, steep hill before the parkway if coming from Peninsula. Not in the greatest of areas, recommend bringing a buddy. Trail forces a finish or you can't get back to your car, keeps up the challenge.

The trail around the main lake is between 2.5 - 3 miles. Trail is dirt and gravel with some sandy spots. A few areas had water accumulation, but nothing you cannot get around. Very nice option for the area. Glad I finally checked it out. Will explore more next time.

Incredible views in the fall. Great hike!

A fun little challenge, it's a good 5k starter as there is no way to cut corners, you have to finish or you won't get back to your car. there's a nice 45° hill at the 2.5 mile mark. Half the trail is sand and pebbles, the other along the lake and Peninsula Blvd is all street. Some of the trail is out of the way, tucked along Southern State, I do not recommend if you are alone or for night activities.

For my first trail ever it was a lot of fun. It was nice to see all the people out and about but my buddy and I were the only ones on bikes hitting the trail. My only off part was when the trail ended by peninsula blvd through on coming traffic getting off and on the southern state. Other than that it was fun riding along the southern state.

Finally got out for a hike and went around the entire lake mostly on the trails rather than the road/bridal path but ending up coming home with two ticks. That was annoying. Its a very nice trail and it was about 3.5 miles around the entire lake but there are other paths you can use to make that long and explore the south pond area. I'm not sure if you can get to the pond on the north side of the southern state but I'm going to check next week sometime. The path is overgrown in some places and in the past I've not been able to go all the way around easily because once you get to the north end of the lake, the trail ends and you have to switch to the bridal path for awhile and sometimes that north end trail is so overgrown you can't make it through so you have to double back and hit the bridal path earlier. There are spots on the east side of the lake that are also difficult to get through but because it was so early, the thorn bushes have not grown up yet. Its one of the few forest areas we have in the area.