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

Lele Kawa

Finger lakes Part 1, Taughannock Falls

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 one.

Down at the southern end of the finger lakes their are many parks and waterfalls. There is one falls that is about half way up Cayuga Lake. It is Taughannock Falls. I had no idea this place even existed until we stopped at the Falls Restaurant and Tavern on our way down NYS Route 96. The restaurant had a bunch of photos of the falls and it looked great in photos. Even their sign was a wood carving of the falls.

I would guess this is one of the biggest free falling falls in the Finger Lakes at 215 feet. Most of the other falls of the area are sliding falls.

Since we were coming from NYS Route 96, we started at the top (North West) end of the park. This meant the first area we reached was overlook near the top of the falls. The view is impressive. The falls spill into its large pool from its big V shaped canyon.

 Once at the bottom of the park we "hiked" up the valley. I was a little disappointed by how huge the trail was. You didn't have to earn it, one could easily drive I semi truck to the falls down the trail, which was pretty flat. This easily approachable falls I guess serves a purpose, as an introduction to the outdoors for those of us that are less adventurous.

From the bottom, the falls looked even better than from the top. Maybe it had something to do with being hit by the spray that floated down the valley.

At the head of the trail on the way back to the parking lot I spotted a little cave. Naturally, I couldn't resist climbing in. It was only about 10 feet deep, but still made this nice photo.

Across the road was the rest of the park. which included some picnic areas, play grounds, marina and a beach.

 Bridge over Marina's entrance

View of the beach

-James

Lele Kawa