Simpson State Park

We ventured down to Simpson State Park on the eastern side of Seneca Lake on Saturday. We mainly wanted to get a little exercise on their bike trail. We were quite surprised at what we found when we got there.

At the Veterans Museum

During WWII the area that is now Simpson State Park was the second largest naval training facility in the country. Between WWII and the Korean War the area became Simpson State College educating the servicemen returning from war. During the Korean War it was used as an Air Force Base. Finally, in the 1960s it became a state park.

A vintage Shasta trailer

You can certainly tell it had been something other than a park. Off of the main drive, there are numerous old concrete roads, broken and grown up with weeds leading off in every direction. There are large paved areas which were obviously parking lots for long gone buildings. Today, there are picnic areas, a swimming beach, bike and hiking trail along the lake, a marina, recreation building, and a huge campground. Appropriately, there is also a Naval Veterans Museum.

Just resting

We took our bicycles and our picnic lunch and made it a day. We enjoyed our bike ride, especially since there were several benches along the route for resting and enjoying the lake view. Another highlight was the vintage Shasta camper we found in the campground.

It was a great day except for the small, nickel-sized spot on the truck where one of the bike handles rubbed the paint off all the way down to the metal.