Finger Lakes – Ithaca

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Finger Lakes and Ithaca Falls

July 12

Our first night’s reservation at the Watkins Glen State Park Campground was for July 13 (our wedding anniversary).  We decided to leave a day earlier to allow for a casual 5-hour car travel day and night, and time to explore on the 13^th before checking into the campsite and setting up camp.

We left home around noon with our bikes a-tow, and got to Skaneateles (Skinny-Atlas), NY around 5:00 p.m.  I had seen this town on a couple of internet lists of most beautiful towns in upstate New York, so we used this as our first targeted stop along the Finger Lakes, on our way towards the Ithaca area.  Skaneateles is a quaint, picturesque, swanky resort-like town on the northern tip of Lake Skaneateles, a smaller Finger Lake. We parked the car and walked around the busy town to explore and find a place to eat.  We discovered and walked along a very long pier off of one of the parks downtown.  It was a cool way to get a view of the town from out in the middle of the water, as if approaching it on a boat. The town is, as advertised, very beautiful.

We ended up having dinner on the lawn of the Sherwood Inn across the street from this park on the lake. Food and service were excellent at the Inn’s restaurant, and we had a view of the park and part of the lake.  The weather was perfect for eating outside which was a requirement given the COVID precautions.  The Sherwood Inn did a nice job of turning their front lawn into a “dining room”.  Toward the end of our dinner, surprisingly, our waiter informed us that our dinner was paid for by an anonymous person.  He would not divulge who. Interestingly, we had just posted a Facebook check-in of our wedding anniversary eve dinner…hmmm…. we never have found out who paid for our dinner…but THANKS!!

After dinner we walked through town, got ice cream at Skaneateles Skoops, and walked along the park by the lake.

After taking in the scenery we headed to Ithaca, which is about 1-hour away. Our GPS took us through some crazy roads through gorgeous upstate NY farmland. There are lots of high hills around here so we got plenty of vistas of green farmland and blue Finger Lakes.

While Emilie drove, I booked a room at the adequate Fairfield Marriot in downtown Ithaca.  I also warned her that being dusk in upstate New York this was perfect deer-jumping-in-road time so be careful….and about 2.5 seconds after I said this a deer jumped in front of our car!! I’ll be sure never to say that again.

After checking in to the motel around 8:00 p.m. we headed out to see nearby Ithaca Falls before it got too dark.  To get there we followed the GPS to a point on top of the falls accessed at the end of a dead-end street of houses rented by college students. Nobody else was there except two young hipster dudes seemingly living in a carport-like shelter in the woods near the vista point. The views from atop the falls, including the bright red sunset off to the west were great. The sunset colors actually can be seen as a purple tinge in the waterfall.  We also benefited from a recent tropical storm that passed through the area just a couple of days prior.  Because of the storm, all of the waterfalls we saw in the area were at peak water flow!

Heading back to the car we asked a couple of guys on the street if there was different access to the falls, and they directed us to East Falls street. We plugged it in, and within 3 minutes we were at the trailhead leading to the falls at its base. It was getting darker now, but not too dark. We parked and made our way across the street down a gravelly path winding alongside the creek under dark creepy trees, and we could hear the roaring falls about 100 yards away. There was one other person there. Shortly, we were looking upward and enjoying a beautiful dusk-lit view of these amazingly powerful 150′ falls.

Again, due to the tropical storm came through the area the water level and flow were high…great conditions for a waterfall experience.  We got close enough to the falls that we felt mist on our faces.  We had to be very careful not to fall into the water.  Dusk, as it turns out, is a great time to see Ithaca Falls.  But it’s a lousy time to photograph them if you’re an amateur like us.

At around 9:30 p.m. we tried to find a place to get a COVID-safe drink outdoors in downtown Ithaca.  Unfortunately, Ithaca rolls up its sidewalks around 9:00 p.m. on Sunday nights when college isn’t in session. So, we called it a night.

Taughannock Falls & Cascadilla Creek Trail

July 13

After a to-go breakfast and coffee from the motel (no other breakfast was offered due to COVID precautions) we headed out for the Cascadilla Creek Trail in Ithaca, about15 minutes from the motel.

We parked on the neighborhood street near the trailhead at a metered spot, just next to St. Paul’s church (not exactly a cathedral but it provided some shade for the car while we hiked on this hot day).
We were taken with how truly beautiful this short hike is. There were only a few people on the trail, which was a bonus. It’s really a river/gorge walk, not so much a trail hike, but the stone walkways, stairs, and bridges made for some cool cascade and rock formation viewing all along the gorge trail. This took us to the heart of the campus of Cornell University. Here we had to cross a campus street and continue the trail about another 1/4 mile before it looped around the upper portion of the trail, which divided the campus. Then back across the campus street to hike back the way we came, to the bottom.

    

We then drove five minutes to Falls Creek Gorge Natural Area, where Emilie had been a few years before. This is actually part of the Cornell Botanic Gardens. We took our chances and illegally parked at the closed campus museum which is directly across from a trail entrance that brought us quickly to a suspension bridge hanging high over Fall Creek.  We hiked the wooded loop trail which actually included a short bit of street walking in an abutting neighborhood. There are a series of four waterfalls along this short hike above the creek.  The bottom of the loop (which was the half-way point) actually was just above Ithaca Falls, which we visited the night before.  We got some nice vistas of a couple of waterfalls along this easy 1-mile trail.

Taughannock Falls State Park

From here we headed about 15 minutes north to Taughannock Falls State Park to hike the Rim Trail and Gorge Trail, and to see the Falls.  We paid $8 to enter the State Park, which is right on Cayuga Lake, and we proceeded to the gorge across the street.  With input from a random guy that we passed we decided to do the steeper Rim Trail first to get views from above before going into the Gorge via the cryptically named “Gorge Trail” for views from the bottom and a chance to hike and play in the water on the gorge floor. We figured it was better to get wet at the end of our visit.

The hike up the 1.25 mile South Rim Trail began with an arduous ascent along the heavily wooded edge of the gorge. It was a good hike but there were no views of the waterfall.

We took this to the end of the gorge where the trail went around in a horseshoe to return us to the start via the 1.5 mile North Rim Trail. The views of the gorge and some falls from this side were much better.

After about a half mile we got our first view of the spectacular 215’ Taughannock Falls. This great vantage point of the very impressive falls was about 1/4 mile before the official “Falls Overlook” where hikers and people in cars could see the Falls. So, this point was great because only hikers would actually even know about it because it’s not marked, and only hikers of the North Rim Trail would come across it.

Then we headed to the “Falls Overlook” to get another great view, but with more people.  The bonus here of course is there were places for us to sit for a bit.

After about 10 minutes at the Overlook we headed to the bottom.  At the car we switched our hiking shoes for our water shoes and began the much more popular, and family friendly ¾-mile “Gorge Trail”. It was a lot of fun seeing the Falls from the ground after seeing it from the rim trail, walking along the expansive creek, playing in the water, and trying very hard not to slip and fall since we did not have swimsuits on.

Watkins Glen State Park

Once back at the car, we dropped the backpack and walked across a large grass area of the park to sit on a bench overlooking Cayuga Lake. There was no swimming at the lake due to blue-green algae which apparently is known to cause the growth of a second head on all humans who come in contact with it. We had a small snack, enjoyed the view, and then got back in the car and headed to Watkins Glen State Park campground, about 30 minutes away.

We got there around 6:00 p.m., checked in to the campground and set up our tent, where we would be sleeping the next 3 nights. The site was actually a small RV site. There was plenty of space between campsites which was great. We have only one complaint about the campground…it’s within earshot of the Watkins Glen International Speedway! So, even though it’s 3 miles away, we could hear race cars going around the track.  Our campsite was toward the back of the Seneca Village section of the campground, and so perhaps another section might have been quieter.  I selected this area because I wanted to be close to the trailhead within the campground that led to the Watkins Glen Gorge Trail.

Just before the entrance to the campground section of the state park there is a popular Olympic-size swimming pool open to the public.  Unfortunately our schedule just didn’t allow for a swim there.  Just before this entrance to the park we found dinner at Seneca Lodge. From the outside of the older looking lodge and grounds, we thought this was going to be some rustic mom and pop dive restaurant. Boy, were we wrong! Turned out to be a great find. It is a very nice place with their own craft beer. We ate out on their nice deck, which we didn’t know they had, with a great view overlooking farms and green pasture (which we didn’t know was there.)  Emilie bought some of their craft beer as we left.

Off to the campfire for a nightcap, then bed. It was a beautiful starry night and we slept under a canopy of very tall, swaying pine trees.

It was another great wedding anniversary spent adventuring.  For those who must know, it was our 29^th!

Next: Finger Lakes – Watkins Glen/Treman Park/Wine Trail