Lime Hollow Nature Preserve, McLean – Two Hikes
Meet up: Dirt parking lot on the east side of Gracie Road about 1/2 mile south of the intersection with Lime Hollow Road, or 1 1/2 miles north of Route 13.
Click here for the Google Maps page showing the location of the meet-up. It’s easy to drive right past the lot without recognizing it if there’s no one there — so I will get there early — look for the cars — the lot’s slightly below the road grade.
Above is a trail map that clearly shows the parking spot – it’s off Gracie Road immediately south of the old Lehigh Valley railroad right of way, and a little southeast of Gracie Pond. A current version of the Nature Centers trails may be found here: LH-Placemat-03_14_25-lowres+2+page.pdf
This is a wonderful place to hike — with two drawbacks — except for the Lehigh Valley Trail, the nature preserve limits any dogs to the trails east of Gracie Road (although we often do see other hikers with dogs elsewhere in the preserve, under the radar). It’s also a longer drive from Ithaca than some people like. We come here a few times every year, most often during the fall and winter hunting seasons. It has a great variety of attractions — large rolling fields, ponds, bogs and wetland areas, lovely pine woods, lively ups and downs, and a very nice visitors’ center with an eco-friendly toilet (not sure how it actually works). It’s definitely worth the trip.
As of 2025, we have split our Lime Hollow hikes into two distinct hikes as described below, so that hikers know which hike to expect ahead of time.
Hike # 37-1 : The Steve Hesse Hike
This is our traditional Lime Hollow hike, which includes trail loops through open fields such as the High Vista loop around Baldwin Pond and Maple Run which ends at the Chicago Bog. While we do loops through some wooded sections on this hike, it’s much more of an open forest hike than the other option.
Hike # 37-2: The Leigh Ann Vaughn Hike
After several years of leading the group on hike #37-1, I was interested in developing a new Lime Hollow hike that takes the group to some of the other trails within the nature preserve. In 2025 hike leader Leigh Ann V developed that new hike route that takes the group to many preserve trails such as the Mill Pond Loop, Wanderer Way and the Chesnut Grove Loop that we don’t see on hike #37-1. This hike has much less of the “open fields and larger pond” feel that hike #37-1 has, and more of a feel of a hike through more heavily forested over rolling terrain.
Last edit 05/25/2025 JFR