Frying Pan Lake: Rockwood Park trails

Right in the city center, Rockwood Park has 55 km of trails, perfect for those days you just don't feel up to cycling an hour or 2 outside of town before beginning your hike.   

With only 1 km (in and out) Frying Pan Lake is ideal for late in the afternoon.  With a minimal sense of direction, nobody is likely to get lost in the park for long but I prefer to avoid stumbling around rocks and roots in the dark and make it a point to be out before sundown. 

Like most trails in the park, Frying Pan Lake is geared for cyclists as well as hikers.  Curves and twists are banked to help keep cyclists on their saddles.  I love my bike but it really isn't designed for that kind of jumping horseplay and neither am I.  It will be there when I return.

Peeks at the lake are sporadic.

That is the 0.5 km point where the trail ends.  You can retrace your steps or just continue along the right where it connects to the Corduroy trail for a 1 km loop.

Corduroy trail

Here we are back on the main drag.  I remember blowing bubbles here one day to see far they could make it across the lake before bursting.  Joe brought up that memory one night.  This was the exact spot.

Lily Lake, Rockwood Park, Saint John, New Brunswick

Lily Lake, Rockwood Park, Saint John, NB

Rockwood Park is a 2200 acre oasis in the heart of Saint John.  Of the ten little lakes, I think of Lily Lake as the primary one, right at the first entrance.

Dad would would come home from work and drive us out here before supper in the summer some days when I was pre-school.  A cool splash helped us sleep better on hot nights. 

This incredible sculpture commemorates the victims of unsafe working conditions in our industrial city.

Places like Reversing Falls were not constructed without casualties.

Mourn for the dead. Fight for the living.

It is in French and English.  New Brunswick is the official bi-lingual province.

The smooth board-walked trail surrounding the lake is multi-use for hikers and cyclists.

This slightly off trail park bench has to be my favorite.

There couldn't be a sweeter, quieter spot to enjoy a book in fresh air and daylight.

The fork on the left leads to Fisher Lakes.

This is the tiny (0.3 km) Cliff Trail that runs above the north side of the lake.

Above the Cliff trail, the main Look Out point (which should probably have the plural s as there are two) is easy to find.