Traveling the 518-mile Great Lakes Seaway Trail through New York and Pennsylvania takes you along the scenic shoreline of Lake Erie, the Niagara River, Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River. Ancient glaciers carved a landscape of waters, drumlins, and plains that includes the 1000 Islands, Niagara Falls, the northern hardwood forest, Presque Isle, and the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains. The Seaway Trail encompasses the military conflict, agricultural ingenuity, and recreational resourcefulness that shapes this distinct setting.
Today, you can travel the Seaway Trail on bicycles and motorcycles, in motor coaches and RVs, and by car and camper. Discover a world filled with maritime and military historic sites, museums, farm tours, marinas, campgrounds, and trails for hiking, biking, and skiing.
Several museums along the byway chronicle various contributions to American life. Visit the National Toy Hall of Fame at Strong Museum, the Pedaling History Bicycle Museum, the Niagara Aerospace Museum, Derby Hill Bird Observatory, Boldt and Singer castles, and the freshwater Antique Boat Museum. The Safe Haven Museum in Oswego preserves the history of America’s only shelter for World War II Holocaust refugees. The museum is just a short distance from a LT-5 tugboat that was used in the Invasion of Normandy.
Twenty-eight historic lighthouses, built in various architectural styles, dot the Seaway Trail shoreline. Some have public museums, some offer overnight accommodations.
Savor the regional bounty of the Seaway Trail year-round, from the maple syrup of late winter to fresh fruits and vegetables from spring through fall. Various farmsteads along the Trail supply the milk for River Rat, Great Lake and Heluva Good Cheeses, available at farm markets Trailwide.
Visit restaurants and food processors during your trip that have created signature dishes, including the original Buffalo wings, the blooming apple dessert, hand-carved beef on ‘weck sandwiches, Zeigle’s hot dogs, 1812 Ale and Funny Cide Lite Beer, Grandma Brown’s Beans, the hamburger, Life Savers, the shore dinner, Webb’s Goat Milk Fudge, and Welch’s Grape Juice. And don’t forget the wine trails!
Many of the major battles of the War of 1812 took place along the shoreline of the Seaway Trail. Forts, battlefields, military cemeteries and former shipbuilding communities retain their historic links. Sackets Harbor, home to the Seaway Trail Discovery Center, was the site of two British attacks designed to disrupt military shipbuilding. Exhibits at Presque Isle State Park near Erie, Pennsylvania, tell the story of U.S. naval officer Oliver Hazard Perry who declared, “We have met the enemy and they are ours” after capturing a British squadron on Lake Erie in September 1813.
Regional hometown and visiting celebrities include comedienne Lucille Ball, castle builder George Boldt, suffragette Susan B. Anthony, Underground Railroad heroine Harriet Tubman, artists Frederic Remington and Roger Tory Peterson, and several American Presidents, including Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Millard Fillmore and Ulysses S. Grant.
Follow the green-and-white Trailblazer signs and stop at information panels, kiosks and interpretive site panels to learn more about the natural history, recreational opportunities and architecture of the Seaway Trail. Did you know the Buffalo area of this byway has five Frank Lloyd Wright sites? The Seaway Trail Discovery Center in Sackets Harbor has three floors and nine rooms full of travel and adventure ideas!
New York's Seaway Trail: A Year-round Birdwatchers’ Paradise
America's Inland Maritime History Along the Seaway Trail
Fresh Snow-Cruising on the Great Lakes' Seaway Trail 
Facing the Thunder: Niagara Falls