Waterloo NY Part 1

Map of this blog's locations click this link to open the map

We had made our plans to head to western NY for the season back in January while we were enjoying Arizona. Seneca River RV Park is a very new campground so there isn’t much information about it to be found on the web. I believe that 2022 was the first year it was open so even the satellite view on Google just shows a vacant field. We had found a photo taken from a drone that at least showed the general layout. We prefer to do much more thorough investigation of a place before heading there, especially one we are planing to stay for over 5 months, but we had to go with the limited info we could find. We had been told we would not get an assigned spot but should just show up and pick a site. The campground season started on May 1 so we would be getting there within the first week but it was a little disconcerting to we coming in without knowledge of what site was ours.

The campground isn’t the easiest to spot coming along US Route 5 & 20 since there is no sign or mailbox with the address on it. We pulled in and found there were only a handful of rigs already situated on sites. Given there are about 55 sites, we will have a good selection to pick from. There is a restroom with laundry facilities in the campground, but there is no camper check in building or even a campground host. We wander around the loop and decide on a site to setup in. The campground has frontage to the Seneca River but the sites closer to the water have a pretty decent slope that might prove hard to level a motorhome. A fifth wheel or travel trailer would have a much easier time accounting for the slope.

After we get partially setup, we drive to the marina several miles from camp to pay the balance of our seasonal rate and just make sure we are able to pick any unoccupied site. The seasonal rate is $4000 which might sound steep at first but if we stay through the end of the season (Nov 1st), we will be paying just over $22 per day. Even better, the electricity is not metered. Most campgrounds that have extended stays of over a month will have a meter on each site and we would be expected to pay for our electricity usage. Normally that would be somewhere between $2 to $3 per day according to our past history. We check in at the marina, pay our bill and tell them which site we picked. Back at camp, we decide to wash the rig since it needed it and the rules provided by the campground didn’t tell us we couldn’t do so.

Our Site for the Season

Since we had been staying at either Elks Lodges or the casino for the past week, we needed to dump our holding tanks. It was then that we realized that the majority of the sites have the sewer inlet pipe sticking 12 to 18 inches above the ground and these are all about 25 feet or so from the point on the motorhome where our sewer comes out. We managed to dump without making a mess, but it was an hourlong ordeal! We knew this wasn’t going to work on a long term basis. The next morning, we did a better investigation of other sites and found that maybe a dozen of them had the sewer inlet closer to ground level. They were still a long distance from where they should be. We even took the time to get out our string level and take some measurements of the few sites that might work.

We picked one that was closer to the river so the views would be better and according to our measurements, we should be able to get the sewer to drain properly but it turned out that the site itself was over 9 inches unlevel between the front and rear tires of the rig. We have blocks along to account for some amount of tilt but after trying to get level for 40 minutes in that site, we had to give up on this one as well. Our third pick was the charm. We were able to get the rig level and also make the sewer hose be flowing mainly downhill. Our conclusion is that the person that designed this campground didn’t have a good understanding of some of the basics. Many of the sites closer to the road were both on a more level section of ground and had already had their sewer pipes cut down to be closer to ground level.

The first few days here were dealing with some logistics that weren’t going to be fun but needed to be done. First thing was the hail damage to the car that happened 3 weeks ago in Missouri. Now that we were situated in a spot for an extended time, we could call our insurance company and start a claim, but we weren’t sure how extensive (or expensive) the damage was. We investigated nearby hail damage repair facilities so we could find a place that sounded good to us instead of just relying on the insurance agency. A business called The Dent Guy sounded quite promising. He was located in Rochester so it wasn’t real close to camp but we were willing to have an hour drive to get somebody good. He agreed to take a look in a couple days to at least give us a rough idea of whether making an insurance claim would be needed.

The other thing we needed to deal with was taking care of our own bodies. The last time we had seen a doctor was over 7 years ago before we sold our home in Rush New York and started our full-time journey. We tried getting in at our former doctor but since we hadn’t been there in over 3 years, they would consider us “new” patients, which was okay until they told us that they were scheduling new patient appointments in October - 5 months from now! That wasn’t going to work for us, so we needed to research other doctors and figured we might as well pick one that was closer to where we are actually staying. We found one in Geneva that could get us in about a month from now and we scheduled some appointments for us.

We drove into Rochester one morning to get The Dent Guy to look over the Grand Cherokee. He brought the car into his gorgeous shop, setup his special lights and we started to make a cursory tally of hail damage. In 15 minutes, he was at a price of $2000. Since this is well over our deductible, we would end up needing to start a claim with our insurance company. We chatted with him about the process of getting the claim filed, his working with the insurance company and how long the job would take. It wasn’t going to be a small job. He estimated he would need the car for a week. But after getting all the info from him and talking for some time, we felt like he would be a good person to work with and would do a good job.

Since it was still early and we were in Rochester, we decided to drive around the area to see some of the sights. We had spent the first twenty years or so living and working on the north side of town, so we took a drive down memory lane. We found the first apartment we had lived in and drove by our first home. We also stopped at Charlotte and Ontario Beach Park. This is where the Genesee River exits into Lake Ontario. It was a weekday morning so it wasn’t too crowded and the weather was picture perfect. Charlotte Pier sticks out into the lake almost 1/2 mile. The wind was fairly light so it was a pleasant walk. We have been here many times in the past and the weather can make this walk downright dangerous especially in the winter.

Charlotte Genesee Lighthouse Circa 1822

Heading Out Charlotte Pier

Light Beacon at End of Pier

After exploring this area and finding a nearby geocache, we continued to drive around our old “stomping grounds”. It was a rather surreal experience for us. We had no real destination in mind and simply drove around based on our history of the area. There were so many places that looked just the same but also many others that were completely different. There were many times I would pull up to a traffic light or stop sign and my mind would tell me to turn right. I wasn’t sure what was up that road, but a mile or so later, we would drive by some place we used to go to all the time - a restaurant, garden center or park. Places that I had long since forgotten but my subconscious remembered them and was able to get me to go back there.

We stopped for lunch at Schallers. A greasy spoon of a restaurant that might not have the healthiest of foods, but does have some tasty dishes. Sitting inside eating, I kept looking around at other people seeing if there was anybody that I knew but alas, they were all just strangers. We still had the afternoon so we stopped at Highland Park on our way back to camp. This 150 acre park is on the south side of Rochester. Designed by Frederick Law Olmsted (of Central Park NYC fame), possibly best known for its lilac bushes, we were timing our visit just about right. Many of the lilacs were in bloom but it was a few days before the Lilac Festival week was to start so it wasn’t as crazy busy as it will be a week from now. While the lilacs are pretty, their aroma doesn’t go along with my allergies. So Chris walks around smelling the flowers and I hold my breath.

Lilacs in Bloom

Just Starting to Open

Floral Art

Another goal we have while we are back in the area is to check up on all of our geocaches. We do have friends that help to maintain some of them for the past 7 years but many of the caches are in more remote areas that don’t get a lot of visitors. We stopped by one of the more popular caches we placed since the last cacher couldn’t find it. This is a hide that is easy to find but takes some mental effort to open. Sure enough we couldn’t find the math based cryptex. Unfortunately this was a rather unique hide that wasn’t easy to create but I had made an extra set of parts needed to reproduce this one when I had access to a woodworking shop in Arizona back in 2020. It will require some painting and assembly to deal with it but shouldn’t take too much time to create a new one.

Even though we have visited lots of places during our years living in the area, we did manage to find a place we haven’t been to before. The Montezuma Heritage Park is in the small town about 15 miles northeast of camp. There were a few geocaches along the two mile trail, otherwise we may have still never known about it. What starts out in a small community park leads to a wide, grassy trail that was in good shape and we headed out towards the Seneca River.

Mural at Montezuma Heritage Park

Small Pond Along the Trail

Grassy Trail

As we approached the river, we saw the remains of some large stone structure. Thanks to the interpretive signs, we learned this is the remnants of the Richmond Aqueduct. Today, only about a quarter of the original stone arches remain but back in the mid 1800’s, these arches supported heavy timbers that carried waters of the old Erie Canal over the Seneca River. The scale of the project is a little overwhelming to even consider, especially when I factor in the tools available at the time of its construction. We could visit it from both above and below and was pretty interesting to check out. The trail we intended to take back was in a low section of land and had several inches of running water flowing over it. We opted to retrace our route out to avoid getting soaked.

Richmond Aqueduct from Above

And the Arches from Below

View of Seneca River

The following day would take us to a place we are quite familiar with - Canadice Lake. This is one of the 11 Finger Lakes in the area and is the smallest of them at only 3 miles long and about a third mile wide. We have several geocaches hidden in the forests surrounding the lake. There is a nice trail that is on the west side of the lake - good for hiking or mountain biking. We opt to leave the bikes at home since we will need to do a lot of off trail hiking to get to the geocaches we have in the area.

Heading Down Canadice Lake Trail

At the Southern End of Canadice Lake

Abandoned Car Still in the Woods

One of our more challenging hides is only about a quarter mile off the main trail but up the side of Bald Hill and gains 400 feet in that short distance. The last geocacher to log this cache said it was in “total disrepair” so we had come prepared to replace the container if needed. There was fire damage to some of the understory vegetation that was probably from within the last 12 months. We were huffing and puffing most of the way up to this one but as we approached ground zero, Chris honed in on where she remembered we had hidden it and we found the cache in excellent shape. We placed this container in December of 2011 so it is over 11 years old at this point yet the inside of the camouflaged lock and lock container looked almost like the day we hid it. The only regret we had was how far up the hill we hid the darn thing - makes for challenging cache maintenance.

Our 11 Year Old Hide in Good Shape

Trillium Blooming

We continue north on the trail to a couple other hides we have and cleaned up the containers and replaced log sheets with new, dry ones. In all, we were rather impressed with how well these hides have survived the many years of western New York weather. We had a couple other hides within a short drive of Canadice Lake so we went to check on them. One of them was easily taken care of in the field while the second one required some more intense effort to fix the container back at home. In all, we were pretty successful with this maintenance run.

View Across Canadice Lake

A Selfie Near Our Cache Named Selfie

There is a big geocaching event every year around the middle of May in western New York. The Allegany State Park GeoBash has been taking place since 2005. We weren’t even into geocaching back then, but we came to this event for five straight years before leaving the area to travel. It had been our first “mega” event and was a favorite of ours because that part of the state is quite beautiful with lots of hiking and of course lots of geocaches. As we were planning our route from Arizona to Waterloo, we had considered fitting this into our travels except for two issues: we really wanted to get into our site in Waterloo in early May, and the campground there was already full for the weekend of the event.

But we still wanted to attend the event to see the area and meet up with old geocaching friends. We had considered driving the motorhome back to the casino that is just a few miles from the entrance to the state park, but we didn’t think using the parking lot there as a campground was what the casino wanted. Plus it is about 160 miles each way so the fuel would have cost us nearly $150. We also debated about getting a hotel room at the same casino but it was completely booked because a popular country music star was performing there over the weekend. Allegany State Park (ASP) does have cabins for rent and we must have gotten lucky because we found there was one cabin available for the three night we were wanting to stay. So we booked the cabin and made our plans for a 3 night getaway from home. In the past seven years, we have only been out of our motorhome a few times, so this will feel a bit like a vacation. There was a bit of packing to do especially since we needed to bring our own bedding and towels unlike a getting a hotel room.

The plan was to head down to ASP on Thursday and spend 3 nights in the cabin. This would allow us time to explore the park as well as attend the main event on Saturday and many of the extra events that usually accompany a mega event. The weather forecast for the weekend wasn’t looking great, but we had a beautiful day to drive there. Check in time wasn’t until mid afternoon so we decided to make a stop along the way. Rock City Park is just to the south of Olean NY. It sounded like a pretty neat place that we had somehow never heard of it during our 32 years living in the area.

Entrance to Rock City Park

A Wine Bottle Tree?

It’s a privately owned business that is situated on a rather unique geologic formation of rock. It’s only $8 per person to enter but seems worth the price. The building at the entrance has a gift shop with lots of souvenirs for sale as well as a large assortment of rocks if you’re into that kind of thing. Living in a motorhome, a rock collection isn’t a high priority! One small closet housed a collection of a couple dozen old bedpans - it’s not clear why? Back outside, there is a short trail that meanders through the property. It starts out on top of the large rock formation but has stairs that drops visitors into the lower section where we can explore in some of the slots that have been carved out of the rock over centuries.

A Bedpan Collection

A Gazebo for Wedding Ceremonies

Narrow Passage in Rocks

A Rock Shaped Like New York State

Pretty Bloom

The trail is marked so we don’t end up getting lost in the maze of slots. Many of the rock formations have been given names. Often we would stop and stare at the rock outcropping and try to “see” the thing the rock is supposed to look like, but usually we don’t see anything but a neat rock. There are several artifacts from a century ago when there was oil found in the area. There were also a lot of wildflowers in bloom since it was mid May. 

Large Rock Formation

Archway

Old Drilling Equipment

Cantilevered Rock

The trail is likely under a mile but it was still fun to explore. A different set of stone stairs lead us back up out of the rock field. Care must be taken up here because many of the crevices that are present are fairly wide and many feet deep. There are a few small bridges to allow those not wishing to tempt fate by jumping. We timed our visit so we could enjoy a nearby picnic table and have our lunch before heading out for ASP to check into our cabin.

Trillium

Bigfoot Spotted

We made it into the park and found the registration building to check into our cabin and get the key. The Diehl cabins are in the Quaker Run area of ASP on the south side of the park. This loop has some camping sites and 8 cabins. These cabins are 4 season rated. Most of the other cabins in the park are only 3 season and aren’t open yet. Our cabin was fairly nice with a covered porch for sitting outside of it is rainy. Inside are 4 single beds with mattresses, an electric refrigerator, propane stove and oven, heater, small shelving unit and windows on each side. We position two of the beds side by side and push the others out of the way. It looks like it should work for us. That evening, we had a geocaching pizza event at one of the shelters in the Red House area of the park. We spent an hour or so there meeting up with some old friends from the Rochester area here for the weekend events as well. It was a good time. Headed back to the cabin for the night and discovered that it possibly has the most uncomfortable bed frame and mattress on the face of the earth! Each mattress has on a rather heavy plastic cover that makes all sorts of noise as you roll over. Plus the springs that support the mattress are also rather noisy. Let’s just say we didn’t find it to be a very restful night.

Our Cabin for the Weekend

Reasonably Nice Interior (except for the bed!)

Friday morning we head out to get a few geocaches inside the park. All the hikes we did were fairly short ones not far from trailhead parking. We didn’t really have time to do a real hike even though the weather was still quite nice and would have been a perfect spring day to explore. There was an ice cream social event in the town of Salamanca later in the morning. Just over 100 geocachers attended and we sat and talked with several of them. Across the street was a well hidden geocache on a tank. Even with a pretty large group searching, we came up empty and moved on.

Pretty Pond Along ASP Route #3

Another Trillium

Tank with Cachers Looking

We head to the main administration building inside ASP at the Red House section of the park. Much of the building was built around 1930. It is a beautiful stone and brick building that overlooks Red House Lake. Inside are some rooms open to the public that show some stunning woodworking and houses a small natural history museum with many examples of the birds and mammals that live in the park.

ASP Administration Building

View of Red House Lake

Wall of Windows

Birds of the Area

We had some time before an evening event so we headed to the Art Roscoe Ski Area of the park for a bit of a hike and a few geocaches. It was a shame that we had only three nights in the park because it is one of our favorite places to visit and hike. We have likely hiked 40 miles of trails over the years we have come to ASP but we will have to be content with the short time we have. We do a section of the trails here and get a few caches as well as see the old Summit Fire Tower.

Summit Fire Tower in ASP

More Trillium

We head back to the cabin for a quick dinner before going to the event event - the annual bonfire. Some friends of ours that we hadn’t seen in almost 5 years are camping in the park for the weekend geocaching festivities - they were thinking ahead and managed to get a campsite and could sleep in their own bed! We ended up sitting around the bonfire and talked the full evening with them getting caught up on what is happening in their lives. It was a fun night even though there were some brief rain showers that passed over us.

The Saturday morning of the main event was nearly a total washout. There was a large building that was used for a benefit auction and some of the scheduled talks. In addition, there was a very large tent setup with some vendors and lots of tables and chairs. We found that most of us stuck to the covered areas. Even the group photo, which usually is taken on a small grassy knoll nearby, needed to be done under the tent. Even though the weather was miserable, we still enjoyed seeing some familiar faces.

Sign-in Sheet for GeoBash

Geocaching's Mascot "Signal" Makes Apperance

Group Photo for Event

Later that evening the rain finally stopped and we managed to get out for an another hike and a few night caches. This type of geocache is one where the posted coordinates bring you to a parking lot or trailhead but not the actual container. To find a night cache, there are usually small reflective thumbtacks on trees. After sunset, you come out with a flashlight and start to follow the trail of “fire tacks”. Usually there is a convention of a single tack means you’re on the correct trail while a double set of tacks indicates where you need to turn. They are quite fun if for no other reason than being out in the woods in the dark. One of the night caches we completed turned out to be a rather long (greater than 1/2 mile from trailhead) hike and for some time we questioned whether we were actually doing the intended night cache or were simply following some random hunter’s markings placed to get to a tree stand. By the time we finally made it to this one, we were tired and knew we should head back to the cabin even though there was little chance of getting a good nights sleep.

We packed up the car on Sunday morning and dropped our key off at the office. It was actually a very nice morning from a weather standpoint. Too bad the main event wasn’t today. There was one last event to attend - a pancake breakfast. The crew that was putting on the event was cooking hundreds of flapjacks, bacon and sausage. We enjoyed the food and caught up with another group of Rochester geocachers. Heading out of the park, I stopped to get a picture of the administration building from the far side of the lake.

View of Admin Building Across Lake

We decided that since the day was looking quite nice, we should do something on the way back to Waterloo instead of simply driving home. Letchworth State Park (LSP) isn’t really “on the way” but it isn’t too far out of the way so we decide to head there since this is another beautiful state park we used to go to quite regularly. We last camped there back in 2018 during our trip through the area on our way to Maine. We had gotten an annual New York State Park pass since we knew that there would be ample opportunities to visit some of the parks during our season in western New York. Arriving from the south brings us in the Portageville entrance which is the closest entrance to reach the three sets of waterfalls that are along the Genesee River that flows through the park and creates the stunning gorge along the way.

Like ASP, we have spent countless hours exploring LSP over the years and have way too many places we would love to visit again. The main road through the park is on the west side of the river, but there are numerous hiking trails on the east side as well. With an overwhelming number of things to see and do, and only a few hours on our trip home, we are forced to limit it to the essentials. The three falls - Upper Falls, Middle Falls and Lower Falls - are surely the highlight of the park for those simply spending a few hours in the park. We limit our visit to just the Lower Falls area. Not for any particular reason other than a virtual geocache placed near these falls by a friend.

From the parking lot near the Lower Falls, we head out along the Gorge Trail and then take the steep set of stone stairs that lead down into the gorge and eventually hits a footpath to a great viewpoint of the Lower Falls. The wind is causing the mist from the falling water to cover all the vegetation and trail making for some slick spots but it is definitely a beautiful spot. There is another Lower Falls viewpoint along the main trail that isn’t as difficult to reach but still provides a decent view of the falls.

Beautiful CCC Created Staircase Near Lower Falls

Lower Falls View

Back up the trail we just came down but before reaching the stairs up, there is another set of steep stone stairs down to a pedestrian bridge that actually crosses over the river. A group of three kayakers are paddling upstream to get an even closer view of the falls. After crossing the bridge, there are several trails that head up the gorge on this side of the river. They are fun hikes but we don’t have the time to spend on this visit. Heading back up to the car, we spot a milk snake coming out of the rock wall to get to the sunny part of the trail.

Pedestrian Bridge Near Lower Falls

Kayakers Approach the Falls

Required Selfie for Virtual Cache

Milk Snake Checks Us Out

More CCC Stonework

We continue driving north on the main park road and stop at the Tea Table Picnic area. We know there is a great view of the gorge from here. A bit further north, we stop at the Mt Morris Dam Overlook which gives us the chance to see the water level. Looks like the area didn’t get a very wet winter or spring because the water level on the backside of the dam is quite low. I’ll mention that they used to give tours of the dam from the other side of the river. It was very fun and interesting although I’m not sure if they still offer them. From here, we are near the north entrance to LSP in the town of Mount Morris. We leave the park having only spent a few hours there. We hope to be able to come back this fall for an annual geocaching event that takes place in the park. We enjoy the drive back to Waterloo and the chance to drive past many familiar places we haven’t seen on a long time.

View of Gorge at Tea Table Picnic Area

Overlooking the Dam