Sunday, June 10, 2012

Finger Lakes Part 5, Watkins Glen

I spent a weekend in the Finger lakes with my family for hiking and wine tasting. I will break the trip up by park, this is part five.

Watkins Glen is the only state park I had previously visited in the finger lakes area. It is by far the most developed and the busiest. The lower parking lot is full of tour busses. Despite the development and the departure from nature it is spectacular. In a short distance there are 19 waterfalls in a steep walled narrow gorge.

The natural beauty is a dream for any photographer. The steep walls help to create dramatic light on the falling water. By this point I had gotten my slow shutter speed waterfall photos down, I just wish I had a tripod.

 View from the bottom
 View from the first bridge


Working up from the bottom, you quickly come to a falls that allows you to pass behind, before heading into a cave up a spiral stair case. 

 Behind the falls
 Looking back out of the cave


One of my favorite falls isn't even part of the main creek. It was these trickles of water running down into the gorge. The path runs under a ledge where the water was dripping off the above ledge. The only bad part was walking under the ledge got you wet so where was a bottle neck on both sides as nobody wanted to get wet. Using long exposure gave you these beautiful long narrow fingers of water, that people could stand behind.




-James

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