Watkins Glen and More

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We’ve been in Waterloo for 3 months now but still haven’t visited one of our favorite state parks in the area. It’s only a 40 mile drive from camp along the western shore of Seneca Lake so it’s not like it is a major day trip to come and visit. Whatever our reason for the delay, we pick a nice Friday to come down and go for a hike and check out the park with its beautiful gorge and falls. Picking a Friday in mid August might have been a bad idea since it seemed like everyone else made similar plans. The park is different than most since the main entrance is in the heart of downtown Watkins Glen. There is a large parking lot across the street from the entrance so at least finding a parking spot wasn’t an issue and it allowed us to make use of our annual NYS park pass we bought when we first got in the area.

Entrance to Watkins Glen SP

The gorge and the water runs from the west to the east and there are trail options on both the north and south side rim of the gorge. By far the most beautiful and popular trail is the Glen Creek Gorge Trail. This one is just over a 2 mile out and back walk right along the creek inside the gorge. It crosses the creek several times over some gorgeous stone bridges. It does include 832 stone steps and has an elevation gain of nearly 500 feet so it isn’t a super easy hike but if you are limited on time this is the hike to attempt.

Visitors Center

We had decided to tackle a slightly longer option which was a combination of several trails coming in at 4.2 miles and nearly 900 feet of elevation gain. It would also start up the Gorge Trail, then follow the Finger Lakes Trail on the south rim before completing the Gorge Trail and coming back to town along the north rim on the Indian Trail. Right after the visitor center we head up and over the Sentry Bridge. It was pretty clear that the number of people out for a walk was pretty astounding. From the bridge, we could look up the gorge and admire the stone walls and stairs perfectly integrated into the rock face of the gorge.

Sentry Bridge

Gorge View from Sentry Bridge

Walkway Next to Falls

As we continue up the gorge, there are several dozen people all along the stairs just before a spot named Cavern Cascade. This is likely the highlight of the whole walk. The walkway actually goes behind the waterfall that drops about 50 feet. I initially thought people were stopped to get a picture of the falls, but in reality they were stopped in order to get pictures as they went under the falls. It is a very slow process to get through this section of the trail until groups get seemingly every permutation of photo possible.

Cavern Cascade from a Distance with Row of People

Getting Closer

Up Close to Falls

Made It Through

The congestion under the falls does seem to help a bit with the crowds beyond that point. Back on the north side of the creek, we continue up the stone stairs. It seems like there are great things to see all along the walk. There is a suspension bridge 85 feet overhead. We will eventually make our way to that spot much later in our hike but for now we can just watch from below. The other impressive aspect of this trail are the tunnels that are dug through the side of the gorge wall. Some have stairs going up through them while others are at flat portions of the trail.

Suspension Bridge High Above Creek

Short Tunnel Along Gorge Trail

A bit further up the trail is the Central Cascade. This is the highest waterfall along the route at just over 60 feet. Another beautiful stone bridge brings us back to the south side of the creek just above the falls.

Bridge Over Central Cascade

Rainbow Falls is just a bit further up the gorge. A small curtain of water is falling off the southern side of the gorge which gives visitors another place to walk under a waterfall. It’s not nearly as impressive as Cavern Cascade but still pretty neat. And just beyond that is another bridge back to the north side of the creek over Rainbow Falls

Curtain of Water Over Trail

Rainbow Falls

In several hundred more feet, we are at the Mile Point Bridge. This is where we will cross back over to the south side and pick up the Finger Lakes Trail on the south rim. It is amazing how the crowds are nearly nonexistent as we head up the steep stone staircase to reach the trail. The trail itself is a wide dirt path through the woods. We can still hear and occasionally catch glimpses of the people below, but for the most part this is a very peaceful walk.

Peaceful Finger Lakes Trail Above Gorge

About a quarter mile up the trail is rail bridge over the gorge. We stop to check it out and catch our breath from all the climbing to get here. Unfortunately we don’t get to experience a train going across the track.

No Train in Sight

Beneath Railroad Bridge

It is at this point that we are beyond  where the Gorge Trail is below us, so we no longer hear any other people. In fact we probably only saw a total of 8 other people walking on this section of the trail. Along the way is a faint side trail down to some sort of man made dam on the creek which creates a small pond - Punch Bowl Lake.

Dam Above Gorge

Punch Bowl Lake

We were a bit surprised to see a huge shelter. It seemed like an unusual place for one given how remote the trail is to it. We did discover that there is actually a rear entrance to the park that gets to this place via car so it makes a bit more sense.

Big Park Shelter

Fireplace in Shelter

We stopped in the shelter and had a snack before we head back the trail. There is actually a loop trail off the Finger Lakes Trail that gives us a slight different route for maybe half a mile. Heading down the trail is much easier and we make it back to Mile Point Bridge and cross over to the north side to pick up the Gorge Trail again. The crowds really hadn’t thinned down much during the 90 minutes we had been gone.

Blooms Over Rushing Water

We continue up the gorge for another 1/3 mile before we hit a spot known as Jacob’s Ladder. This is a staircase with 180 steps up to the Upper Entrance of the park. It’s a good workout especially since we are already about 3 miles into our hike. There is a visitor center with snacks and restrooms. Another option for those less inclined to walk so far. The park offers a shuttle bus that goes between the lower and upper entrances. Visitors can take the bus in either direction for $5 per person. Hard to say whether it is better to ride the shuttle to the top and walk down or vice versa. The walk up the 832 stairs isn’t easy but the jarring of the knees going down them might not be the best either but there is the bus option to cut the hike in half.

Heading Up Jacob's Ladder

Upper Visitor Center

We were going to take the Indian Trail back along the upper rim on the north side of the gorge. Generally downhill, this route also provides a couple of overlooks that give a decent view of the gorge and path below.

Indian Trail on the North Rim

View at Overlook

About a half mile down the trail is a side trail to a large cemetery. We had a geocache to look for so we did the detour to find it before reconnecting with the trail. The very end of the trail near the main visitor center and lower park entrance does have a rather long staircase to come down. It is in good shape and fairly wide so it isn’t too bad to walk. With our detours, we likely had just over a 5 mile walk that is one of our favorites.

Cemetery Above Watkins Glen

Stairs Near End of Trail

While our bodies were tired, it was only mid afternoon so we decided to do a few less strenuous things before heading home. One was to walk down to the local ice cream place just down the road from the park. Sitting there enjoying our treat, we were amazed just how busy the road through town is. But the place will get even busier in a week when the Watkins Glen International event take place. This race has a long history in town. Back in 1948, the first race took place on the streets around town. Nowadays, the race is held on a 2.5 mile track a few miles southwest of town. We completed an Adventure Lab that toured us around the original street course and learned a lot about the race history. For the drive back to camp, we headed up the east side of Seneca Lake just for different scenery. A short stop in the town of Ovid allowed us to walk around this small town while completing another Adventure Lab. There was a small farmers market in progress, but the majority of the items for sale were crafts instead of vegetables.

County Court House Building in Watkins Glen

The "Three Bears" Buildings in Ovid

A few days later, we met up with a friend I used to work with at Kodak and his wife at a restaurant in Canandaigua for lunch. We had arrived a bit early so we could complete a walking tour of downtown. There are definitely some neat old buildings in the area.

Mural of Old Train Station

Old Brick Building in Canandaigua

Ontario County Court House

City Hall

After having a nice lunch at the Bee Hive Brew Pub and catching up with our friends, we headed down to the lakefront area for another walking tour. Being a Monday, it wasn’t too crowded so it was nice to explore the beauty of the northern shore of Canandaigua Lake. There is one section of boat houses along the pier that are quite colorful and unique. Town policy prevents owners from actually residing in the small houses above the boat garage, many of them do seem to have a deck and seating to watch the visitors to the pier.

Psychedelic Sailboat

Row of Boat Houses

Boats in the Marina

A couple days later we would head back north to the Erie Canal Trail for another bike ride. This time our plan was to start in Port Gibson and head west to Palmyra. Our starting point was at the parking area at Harder Canal Park just east of Port Gibson. There are 20 parking spots and it is right next to the bike trail. We had a really nice day for a bike ride and we set off for Palmyra at just under 7 miles. The trail is right next to the canal and there are several spots where the canal is quite wide - greater than 800 feet across.

Wide Section of Canal

Old Bridge Over Canal

About 4.5 miles into the ride, we arrive at Swift Landing County Park. There is some sort of dam along the canal that keeps the canal waters from getting too deep and the runoff flows into Ganargua Creek. It was a pretty spot so we stopped for a look. There were two other bicyclists sitting on a bench and we chatted with them. They warned us that west of here, the canal trail gets pretty muddy in spots. Their advice was to not continue on. I tend to take a comment like that as more of a challenge than an advice. Plus they were on a cruiser bike and an e-bike, so they weren’t necessarily serious riders. We continue on to see what it was like.

View of Canal Water Flowing Over Dam

View of Canal at Dam

From the looks of things, the trail was undergoing some sort up construction upgrades and was definitely quite muddy. The next 1.5 miles were tough going. There were stretches of mud that were several hundred feet long followed by sections that were reasonable. There were tire tracks from a tractor or backhoe that had smooshed the mud out of its tire track and as long as we could stay centered in the rut, we were okay. There was a fine balance between going fast enough to not get bogged down in the mud but not so fast to be out of control. Had those people not have warned us about the trail, we likely would have turned back but not wanting to look wimpy, we continued on and made it through without incident.

Another Bridge Near Palmyra

Once in Palmyra, we realized we had no desire to simply turn around and struggle though the mud again. We took a quick look at our maps and we thought we might be able to follow some roads on the north side of the canal back to the east. But after going a mile or so, we realized many of the roads we thought might work were into a business area and did not go thru.

Canal View in Palmyra

Back into Palmyra proper, we got on NY Route 31 and simply headed east knowing it would get us past the muddy sections. It turned out there was a nice wide shoulder and the traffic wasn’t too bad so instead of finding a bridge back over the canal to the bike trail, we just stayed on NY-31 and worked our way back to the car. It turned into a 16 plus mile ride that wasn’t exactly as we had planned but it worked out just fine.

Overlooking Harder Canal Park (on left)

We originally planned on doing a ten stage Adventure Lab in Palmyra during our bike ride, but realized that we had bitten off more than we could chew so we came back a couple days later without the bikes to get a tour of town. This one had us going all over town and we were actually glad we didn’t have to deal with the bicycles. Our adventure ended in an old cemetery in town where we came across a really neat old stone building.

Beautiful Stone Building in Palmyra Cemetery