Stewart Park is at the foot of Cayuga Lake at the lake's northern end, where the lake meets the Route 89 causeway and the city of Ithaca's northern residential edge, and it occupies one of the better-positioned public lakefront parcels in the Finger Lakes system. The park has a carousel, a boathouse structure, a waterfowl pond, and an open lawn area that runs to the lake edge with the full southern length of Cayuga Lake visible on clear days.
I've been here in multiple seasons and the July version, which is when this check-in was logged on the same day as Moosewood and Country Flavors, is the peak-summer version: the lawn full, the boats on the lake, the light in the mid-afternoon hitting the water at a long angle. The geese at the pond are a constant regardless of season, which my daughters found more engaging than I anticipated.
For a lakeshore park at the entry to one of the longest of the Finger Lakes, Stewart Park earns its rating. The carousel alone is worth the stop if you have kids. The lawn-to-lake geometry is the best public access to Cayuga Lake that the Ithaca end of the water provides. Five stars for a resource the city maintains at a level that justifies the location.
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