Visitor trends vary at region’s state parks

Over the last 20 years, state park sites in and around Monroe County have seen both growth and decline in their annual visitor numbers reported by the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.

Letchworth and Hamlin Beach state parks, as well as Ganondagan State Historic Site, have seen the largest and most consistent growth in visitors.

In 2023, Letchworth State Park was just shy of the 1 million mark with 975,406 annual visitors. That figure represents an increase of 50 percent from 2003, when 649,777 visitors were recorded. The greatest increase for the park was recorded from 2014 to 2015 when attendance jumped by 207,732 visitors in a single year. Otherwise, growth has remained relatively steady.

There was a slight decrease in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic arrived. Visitor numbers were still strong during that time, however, and fully bounced back in 2023.

The “Grand Canyon of the East” is about an hour from the city of Rochester and contains diverse geological and biological features, 66 miles of hiking trails, three major waterfalls, nature, history and performing arts programs, sporting activities, and accommodations and events at the Glen Iris Inn and Parker’s Hideaway.

Hamlin Beach State Park’s annual attendance grew 43 percent over the last two decades, from 266,910 in 2003 to 381,964 in 2023. Similar to Letchworth, it saw a minor dip in visitors in 2020.

The 1,287-acre park is located within Monroe County, on the shores of Lake Ontario. It is open year-round, with swimming permitted in the summer until Labor Day. In addition to the beach, the park features trails through the ​​Yanty Creek Marsh, a boat launch, fishing areas, winter activities, and 264 tent and trailer campsites.

Over the last 20 years, visitorship to Ganondagan State Historic Site more than doubled, representing the largest growth for locally accessible state park locations. (There were 26,350 annual visitors in 2003, and 54,751 in 2023)

“We have had a steady increase in overall attendance over the past decade. A lot of this is due in part to the expansion of our historic site with the build of our state-of-the-art Seneca Art and Culture Center that opened in 2015,” says Kristin Asche, an interpretive programs assistant at Ganondagan.

Spanning nearly 600 acres in Victor, Ganondagan State Historic Site is located on the original site of a 17th century Seneca town. Its full-size Seneca Bark Longhouse was built in the late 1990s and is a key part of the interpretive history of the site. There are also three trails on the grounds, providing education on plant life, Haudenosaunee culture and history, and Fort Hill, a large palisaded granary.

The Seneca Arts and Culture Center features an interactive exhibit and gallery space, a theater (with the “Iroquois Creation Story” film), auditorium and gift shop. Ganondagan also hosts the Indigenous Music & Arts Festival, an event that brings together nationally recognized dancers, performers, musicians, and artists on an annual basis.

“We have a lion’s share of visitations from our local school districts; more specifically, fourth-grade students are introduced to local and native history at this stage in the NYS educational curriculum,” Asche explains. “We also see an increase in visitation of all ages, as interest in learning Native history has increased in more recent years.”

The site experienced a steep drop in annual visitors in 2020, falling by nearly 10,000. Asche attributes this to pandemic-related closures, which included the indoor center. She notes that since then, Ganondagan has seen a jump in visitors with consistently strong numbers.

A number of other state park sites in the Rochester region have a more mixed picture in their recorded visitor numbers. Chimney Bluffs State Park, Irondequoit Bay State Marine Park, Braddock Bay, and the Genesee River Park have all had unsustained periods of growth or an outright decline in visitors attending their sites.

Chimney Bluffs, located along the shore of Lake Ontario in Wolcott, hit a high of 151,880 annual visitors in 2012, representing a huge increase from 35,184 visitors in 2003.

However, 2021 saw a dramatic decrease in annual visitors, falling to 51,563 compared with 101,612 the previous year. In 2023, the latest date available, the park recorded a total of 45,961 visitors.

Three sites that recorded sharp declines in visitors around the mid-2010s are Irondequoit Bay, which divides the towns of Irondequoit and Webster; Braddock Bay, located in the northern part of the town of Greece; and the Genesee River Park, along the Genesee River in the city of Rochester.

Each saw a decrease of 29 to 32 percent. Each site was at or below their 2003 annual visitor totals in 2023 after previously seeing signs of growth.

Irondequoit Bay began with 37,536 annual visitors in 2004, growing to a high of 46,344 in 2012. By 2023, it had fallen back to 33,811, however. Braddock Bay grew from 29,371 in 2004 to ​​43,339 in 2015. It recorded 21,069 visits in 2023.

Genesee River Park recorded the lowest overall visitor numbers of any state park in the area. However, the reported data does show significant gains over the two-decade period, from 578 visitors in 2004 to 2,990 in 2013. By 2023, though, the number of annual visitors had fallen back to 543.

Jacob Schermerhorn is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer and data journalist. The Beacon welcomes comments and letters from readers who adhere to our comment policy including use of their full, real name. See “Leave a Reply” below to discuss on this post. Comments of a general nature may be submitted to the Letters page by emailing  [email protected]. 

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