Recreation in Erie County Parks
Erie County Parks offers many opportunities for both active and passive recreation. Our department maintains several recreation amenities, and many others are made available through numerous partnerships we hold with area recreation organizations. For more information on activities available at each park, click HERE to view our activity matrix, or click on any of the links below for location and partner information!
Tennis
Tennis courts are located at the following parks: Ellicott Creek, Chestnut Ridge, Como Lake, Akron Falls, Grover Cleveland Golf Course, and Sprague Brook.
Erie County Parks partners with the Summer Classic Events and the Chestnut Ridge Conservancy, as well as the USTA, to offer tennis lessons and tournaments at the Chestnut Ridge Tennis Courts.
Pickleball
Erie County Parks has striped all tennis courts with either hybrid or exclusive pickleball courts. The first exclusive pickleball courts will be located at Como Lake Park and will open in the Fall 2023!
For more information about pickleball, visit http://www.buffalopickleball.com/.
Disc Golf
Erie County Parks partners with the Niagara Regional Disc Golf to maintain disc golf courses in four County parks: Emery Park, Ellicott Creek Park, Chestnut Ridge Park, and Como Lake Park. For more information on these courses, including maps, visit https://udisc.com/courses and search by park name.
Snowmobiling
The NYS Snowmobile Trail crosses several Erie County Parks, and we are pleased to partner with Erie County Federation of Snowmobile Clubs to ensure sections of trails are groomed, maintained, and repaired. To see a map of the entire NYS Snowmobile Trail and where it cuts through County parks, visit https://webapps2.cgis-solutions.com/nysnowmobile/. For more information on snowmobile trails in Western New York, visit https://www.wnysnowtrails.com/.
Cross-Country Skiing
Groomed cross-country ski trails are available at Elma Meadows Park and Golf Course, Sprague Brook Park, and Emery Park. Ungroomed cross-country skiing is available just about anywhere in the Park system.
Youth Ski Nordic is a local cross-country ski instructional program for children and families which meets at Elma Meadows Park for weekly practices in the winter.
For more information on this program, visit https://sites.google.com/view/bysn/home.
Mountain Bicycling
Erie County Parks is proud to offer excellent formalized multi-use trails which are suitable for mountain biking in two County Parks: Sgt. Rademacher/Hunter's Creek Park and Sprague Brook Park. Erie County Parks partners with the WNY Mountain Bicycling Association to ensure trails are clear and maintained and well marked. For more information, including where to obtain MTB trail maps for these parks, visit www.wnymba.org.
Mountain bicycling is not permitted in any other Erie County Park other than Hunter's Creek and Sprague Brook Parks.
Hiking
Most Erie County Parks offer some level of hiking trails, ranging from fully-paved/easy to variable and difficult. We truly offer something for every type of hiker at every level of mobility! Formal trail maps are available for Franklin Gulf Park, Chestnut Ridge Park, Hunter's Creek Park, and Boston Forest is coming soon! Erie County Parks is proud to work with the Foothills Trail Club and the Finger Lakes Trail Conference to ensure the sections of Finger Lakes Trail and Conservation Trail passing through Erie County Parks are well marked and maintained.
For more information on the Foothills Trail Club, visit https://www.foothillstrailclub.org/.
For more information about the Finger Lakes Trail, including how to obtain maps of the full trail system or sections, visit https://fingerlakestrail.org/.
Bark Parks
Erie County Parks is proud to offer two formalized dog parks within two parks, Ellicott Creek Park and Como Lake Park, with a third to join the pack soon!
For more information on the Lancaster Unleashed Como Lake Bark Park, visit https://comolakebarkpark.org/.
For more information on the Ellicott Creek Island Park Bark Park, run by the Friends of Ellicott Creek, visit https://friendsofellicott.com/.
Cricket
Erie County Parks offers a cricket ground at Ellicott Creek Park to host teams and leagues from the region. We partner with the India Association of Buffalo to ensure the ground is well-maintained and programmed throughout the season.
For more information on cricket in WNY, visit https://cricclubs.com/CricketAssociationWNY.
For more information on the India Association of Buffalo, visit https://www.iabuffalo.org/.