Great Embankment canal-side sitting area

Canal-side sitting area

Great Embankment Park

Of all the canal parks, Great Embankment Park does not fail to impress.  The park is one of Pittsford’s most beautiful parks, mostly because of the three athletic fields and the attention given to them.  While Rochester Parks visited this park, a maintenance crew was hard at work mowing the baseball fields and lining the soccer field.

One quite interesting thing about the park is that there are two distinct elevations at this park.  It’s somewhat counter intuitive, but the canal water level is higher than the road and entrance to the park.  When entering, there is a soccer field and large parking area.  If you continue on the road, it quickly elevates 30 feet to an upper parking lot.  This is where most of the main features of the park are located.

Great Embankment open field

Open field

Athletic Fields

Aside from the canal trail that runs along one edge of Great Embankment Park, the main attraction would be its athletic fields.  The park contains three in all, one soccer field and two baseball fields.  The soccer field is situated at the “road level” with trees surrounding three sides and the main park road on the fourth.  As I mentioned, a worker was there when I visited in late September and was lining the field.  Presumably, this field is used for recreational soccer.

The baseball fields are situated next to each other.  Although separated by a few trees, the overall field is just under 9 acres of grass.  That is a huge field!

Sam Patch on the Canal

Sam Patch on the Canal

Not a Park for Families

Although Great Embankment Park has some wonderful features, we cannot recommend this park as being a family park.  In addition, of the three core components of a park (eating area, play area, open field), Great Embankment Park only has one.  There are no picnic benches or barbecues and there is a complete lack of any play structure.  With the canal so close (the Sam Patch was sailing by when we visited) and largely just open field, families are not going to want to spend much time here.  Of our two visits to this Pittsford park, the most common visitors were people on their lunch break and people walking their dogs.  I think Pittsford would be wise to add one (or both!) of the missing components to make this already outstanding park better.