A Week in Letchworth

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

Over the winter, when we were planning our visit to western New York, we envisioned having our seasonal site in Waterloo but every month or so, we would head out with our rig to a different spot for several days and then return. Maybe we would head over towards Niagara Falls or the Catskills or the Adirondacks, just to get in some of the other fun places within the state that are a bit too far to do as a day trip. Well it turns out none of that came to fruition. Early on, we had scheduled doctor and dentist app that seemed to mess with our ability to head out and then we simply got comfortable staying put in one spot. We did make it to Allegany State Park near Salamanca in mid May for a big geocaching event, but we couldn’t get a campsite nearby, so we had rented a cabin.

Even though we were coming down to our last month in Waterloo, we were able to get one outing planned. Every year for the past twenty or so years, a group of local geocachers has been having a big event in Letchworth State Park each fall. We have been to three of the previous events and always enjoyed the people and the location but it has been 10 years since we last made it to this event. Besides the main event on a Saturday, there are several other auxiliary events before and after this one. Back in June, we decided we would at least try to get one excursion in and the Letchworth Fall Gathering would be it. We had camped here for 9 nights back in 2018 and a few times prior to going full time so we knew the campground fairly well. A link to the blog post from 2018 is here. We reserved a spot for 7 nights that would have us arrive before some of the events and stay beyond the last event.

We have been stationary for 20 weeks, so there was a fair amount of stuff to put away before we could head out. It took nearly a full day to get ready to travel again. It’s only about an 80 mile drive to the campground. The park is long and skinny with the main road thru the park being 18 miles from north to south. The Highbanks Campground is about a third of the way from the northern entrance in Mt Morris, but the more straightforward approach is from the Perry entrance that leads right into the campground.

Upper Falls at Letchworth State Park

On our first full day there, we had no scheduled events so we decided to go enjoy some of the best aspects of Letchworth - the falls and the hiking trails. Our plan was to do a portion of Trails #2 and #1 as a loop which should be about 2.5 miles before you add in the extra distance to go for a few geocaches along the way. We start at the parking lot at the impressive railroad bridge over the gorge and the Genesee River. The current bridge is a new one opened up in 2017 and as luck would have it, a freight train was going across as we were getting prepared for our hike. We have seen trains go over the older trestle bridge and noticed they would go very slow over the old bridge. While not a high speed train, this fairly long train went over the new bridge at a much faster pace.

Railroad Bridge Over Gorge

Standing Under the Bridge

Choo-Choo

Trail #2 starts off with a rather steep climb and while this area of the park has been changed dramatically with the new bridge and the removal of the old one, the steepness of the trail seems worse than the last time we did this hike years ago. Once up the hill and after finding a geocache hidden by one of our favorite hiders in the area, we were on our way. It’s a beautiful walk in the woods. At one point we get a good view of the railroad tracks and about a mile into the hike we get to the tunnel that leads under the tracks. When we had attempted this trail during our last visit in 2018, this tunnel was closed and we had to abort that hike. Today the trail and tunnel were back to normal and we could keep going.

Peaceful Trail in the Woods

Train Track Near Trail

Underpass for Trail

The trail leads us into an area known as the Council Grounds which we explore again in order to complete one of several Adventure Labs in the park. We next head down to the main park road looking to get onto Trail #1 which follows along the top of the gorge on the western side of the park. The views in Letchworth never seem to get old.

Gorge View from Trail #1

We get distracted by the Glen Iris Inn which sites right above the Middle Falls. The inn has about a dozen guest rooms as well as a restaurant. We weren’t really dressed for the place, but it was okay to walk around the outside and enjoy the views.

Middle Falls

Glen Iris Inn

Closer View of Middle Falls

We follow Trail #1 south, back towards the car. At times we get great views of the Upper Falls and the bridge over the gorge. We are starting to get some fall colors on the trees so our timing is pretty good for beautiful scenery. As we approach the parking lot, there is a long set of stone stairs. It’s a challenging climb but we have a geocache to find halfway up which gives us the opportunity to catch our breath. This hide had special meaning to us. It was hidden by another one of our cachers in the area who sadly passed away 2 years ago. We managed to come up with this tricky hide after a 10 minute search.

Upper Falls View

Stone Stairs Along Trail #1

It was still mid afternoon so we had more daylight and energy to spare so we headed to the Humphrey Nature Center. This place was under construction back in 2015 just before we left the region and while we had checked it out back in 2018 during our stay, we have an Adventure Lab to complete along the Autism Nature Trail (ANT) that opened 2 years ago on the grounds around the nature center. The building itself is quite beautiful with a large wall of windows on the back wall looking over dozens of bird feeders.

Humphrey Nature Center

Wall of Windows

Owl

We explored the ANT and were impressed with all the various stations that offer a range of experiences for those on the Autism spectrum as well as visitors like us. There was one area with all sorts of musical instruments like chimes and cymbals. There were some very intricately crafted wooden benches that had various nature themes. We enjoyed the one mile loop. Cell coverage was a challenge here so it was difficult to complete the adventure lab but the Wi-Fi in the nature center helped.

Entrance to ANT

Racoon Bench

Butterfly Bench

On the way back up to the campground, we stopped at one of the many overlooks to gather some information from a sign in order to solve a geocaching puzzle. The late afternoon sun was still shining at the Archery Field Overlook. This was a full day but a fun one.

On Thursday, we had our first of many geocaching events to attend.  Turns since this was a campfire event, it wasn’t scheduled until after dinner. This gave a a full day to get more exploration in Letchworth. When we had visited Glen Iris Inn yesterday, we were reminded that just across the street from it is the museum for the park. Over the thirty some years we lived in the region and the many dozens of times we visited the park, we realized that we had never stopped by the museum. It seemed like we should remedy that so we headed there mid morning to check it out. Just as we were heading from the car to the museum entrance, a group of 20 children were being guided into the museum. The place doesn’t look that big so the thought of having that many kids in close quarters seemed like a bad idea.

Our impromptu Plan B was to go after a few geocaches near the Archery Field with a quick stop at the park’s visitor center first. We looked around the shop but didn’t find any “must have” items so we headed to the parking area near the field. The puzzle we had collected data from yesterday was a bit confusing but we had the possible location of the final not far across the field. Ground Zero looked like a pretty good hiding spot but after a 10 minutes search, we came up with nothing. We had a backup location that changed one of the digits in the coordinates. It was within a few hundred feet so we gave that location a try. This area looked less promising but after a couple minutes, we had the cache in hand. There were picnic tables nearby, so we took advantage of them and had lunch.

Visitor Center at Letchworth

Frog at Small Pond

Vibrant Maple Leaves

Our next stop was to take a hike on Trail #11. Our mission there, besides the hike itself, was to try to find a multi-stage geocache. We had attempted this one back in 2018 when we were camping in the park but had failed. We figured it was time to avenge that DNF. We knew it was a tough one with at least 6 (maybe up to 10) stages to find before getting to the final container. Stages were hidden by different geocachers from the area which meant they would likely be tough hides. Last time we only made it to the third stage before giving up. Since I hadn’t bothered to keep track of the coordinates from our last attempt, we needed to start over from the beginning. We made it to stage 2 this time and after 30 minutes of searching, we decided we would never get to the final. It also meant we only hiked a quarter mile or so of Trail #11. We would later talk with the cache owner at one of the events over the weekend and she informed us that she hadn’t checked on this in in quite some time so some of the stages may be missing. In a way, this information made us feel slightly better about our failure.

At Trail #11

Our last geocaching stop of the day would take us to the St Helena Picnic Area. The hide here was a 4 stage multi-cache but at least this one had been found in the past couple of months so we were a bit more optimistic about our chances. At the first stage near the back of the picnic area, we started our search. The first thing I noticed had nothing to do with the cache but were hundreds if not thousands of these odd white things on the branches of a nearby beech tree. It kind of looked like the very end of a Q-tip. But what was even stranger was as I got closer to them to investigate, they started to move. Not move, like crawl along the branches, but stay in position and move their white fuzz back and forth in a swaying motion. There really wasn’t a breeze, so I knew it wasn’t simply them being influenced by the wind. Plus they were all swaying in different directions and at varying speeds. It was almost mesmerizing to stand and watch them. They didn’t make any noise and were small enough that I really couldn’t see how they were attached to the branches.

Odd White Bugs

Fortunately while I was distracted with my own discovery, Chris had located the first stage of the geocache. She came over to check them out and I snapped a few photos and a short video so I could later investigate what the heck these things were. They are called woolly beech aphids. The white fibers are actually wax secreted from their abdomen. When they are disturbed, they raise their rear ends and wave the waxy fibers back and forth. We have hiked all over this country and have never come across something like this. Check out the link to the video below to see them in action.

To finish off this cache, we need to head down Trail #13. We end up dropping 100 feet in elevation in just 800 feet of trail but we have better luck finding this one. Once we are down here, we realize the trail has two options. One heads east to the Genesee River while the other heads south to the river’s edge as well. Doing both legs of the trail and getting back up the steep incline to the car is only about 1.5 miles total. The view of the river from either spot is good but the one that heads south has a much larger flat area to walk around. Of course if the river is high, all this will be underwater since we are on the upstream side of the dam.

Heading Down Trail #13

View at Eastern End of Trail #13

View at Southern End of Trail #13

That evening, we head over to east side of the river at the Mount Morris Dam Visitor Center. There is a small picnic area just off the parking lot with a large fire ring. There were already a handful of people sitting around the fire when we arrived. Over the course of the night, we had lots of conversations about caching. When it was all over, a total of 18 cachers were in attendance. We knew most of the attendees but met a few new ones too.

Campfire Cachers

Friday morning, we had an early morning geocaching event to attend. In reality, it was a plea from the organizers of the main event on Saturday to come to the shelter and help move picnic tables into the shelter and around the outside. We would have been better helpers if we were 20 years younger, but we figure we are likely closer to the event shelter than most others from the region simply because our campground is only ten minutes from the shelter. About 10 people showed up to help. Fortunately one of the organizers had brought his truck and a utility trailer so we didn’t have to haul the heavy wooden tables the few hundred feet from the picnic table storage area to the shelter. Even so, I ended up with aches on muscles I didn’t know I had!

From here, we head back to the Letchworth museum. This time we didn’t have a large crowd of kids to contend with. The building the museum reside in is a beautiful stone structure built in 1912 making it 111 years old.

Side View of Museum Shows Stonework

Museum Entrance

Inside are a plethora of interesting displays about William Pryor Letchworth, the creation of the park in 1906, the history of the native people from the area and other artifacts of the park. We found it to be quite informative and taught us many things about the park.

Large Display Room

Bookcase

They had a display about the iconic railroad bridge over the gorge and its iterations over the years. The one we remember the most from our prior years in the area was built in 1875 and was still in service until 2017. I suspect the new version will last that long as well assuming rail travel still exists in another century. One of the displays was all about flint knapping - the shaping of flint or other types of stone into various stone tools. One of our favorite geocachers from just outside the park is a master flint knapper and had made all sorts of very fancy tools or smaller versions that can be used as a necklace. He almost always donates a couple items to the event staff to be auctioned off.

Bridge History

Flint Knapping Display

Our next stop was to Inspiration Point. We had a stage of an Adventure Lab to thank for bringing us here. This is another spot in the park that we don’t recall visiting. We have likely driven by it many dozens of times over the years but just never stopped to get inspired. If we had friends or family visiting and we headed to the park, we would typically take them to the 3 waterfalls and maybe show them the Glen Iris Inn. Well it turns out we should have included this on our tour because the view from here is very impressive. Besides a great view of the Middle Falls, you can easily see the railroad bridge in the distance with just a glimpse of the Upper Falls. With some of the fall colors coming out, it is possibly the best view from the park.

Inspiration Point View

We do a short walk on Trail #1 from the point just to get in a bit of exercise. As we are coming back to the point, I hear the sound of a train whistle. I hustle up to a place where I can get a good view of the bridge to see a long freight train crossing. Very cool! As we get to the car, I notice another another pretty stone building across the street. We have seen it many times but only in passing. I just assumed it was probably the home that the park superintendent lives in but when I investigated this building, it is called “The Stone House” and is actually a place that can be rented. The 1939 building isn’t cheap but if you and 7 of your friends have around $500 a night, it can be yours. On our way back to camp we stop at another overlook - Great Bend Overlook for a quick view of the gorge again.

View of Train Crossing

The Stone House

From Great Bend Overlook

That evening, we had another geocaching campfire event. This one was also on the east side of the river on somebody’s private property. I’m not sure I know the details, but years ago a local cacher that was friends of this property owner got permission to hide some geocaches on their many hundreds of acres of farm and wood lots. Over the years, the landowner offered more opportunities, and each fall for the past 18 years, there has been a campfire event on one special parcel of land. We have come to this 3 times in the past but it had been 10 years since we were last here. Before dark, various groups of people would wander off to look for caches placed nearby on the property. There were about 30 people in attendance and I got a chance to talk with the landowner at length as it turns out we have some mutual friends. After dark a large group of cachers went out to find a newly placed night cache. We decided to stay around the campfire and socialize figuring we can pick a different night to attempt the new hide.

The next day was the big geocaching event. There were scheduled activities from 7:30AM to 6 PM. Over the course of the day, we had around fifty cachers in attendance. The weather was glorious for the last day of September so most of us would head out into other areas of the park to find some of the many caches placed there.

Trailside Lodge

Fall Gathering Begins

When we headed out, we came upon another large event taking place at a Lower Falls Recreation Area. This one was some sort of yoga/wellness event. There was one large group of people being led thru a yoga class. There were also a dozen booths with all sorts of yoga gear and health products. We did a hike along Trail #1 from the Lower Falls back up to Inspiration Point. When we came back to the geocaching event, we ran into a group of cachers that were heading in to complete the Adventure Lab at the nature center. We decided to join in to see how well they would do compared to us. Being an all day event, we skipped the breakfast portion but did stick around for lunch and dinner. We had a great time and caught up with so many friends we haven’t seen in quite some time.

Yoga Event

Fun with Friends

Since our event wasn’t far from the Middle Falls and it was nice and dark by now, we decided to do another first for us at Letchworth. There are large spot lights on the gorge wall that light up the Middle Falls at night. In all our years coming here, we have never bothered to stop and see them. In the past, a typical day for us at Letchworth was to hike all day and head out when it got dark. Usually by then, we would be too tired to stop at the falls. You definitely want to bring along a flashlight to walk along the path since there is minimal lighting. It is quite stunning to see the fall lit up at night.

Middle Falls at Night

The Sunday morning after the event, a group of local cachers, got together at a diner in Mt Morris. There were over 2 dozen of us in a back room. I believe many of them get together once a month for a breakfast. The food was good as was the conversation. Since we were out of the park in Mt Morris, we decided to do a couple other Adventure Labs in the area. One took us to a cute little park just outside of town. We wandered around Al Lorenz park for over an hour. It was a beautiful morning and we were mostly successful with our caching plans.

Pond at Al Lorenz Park

From here we head down to the Mt Morris Dam. When we were here 5 years ago, we had gone on the tour of the dam so we didn’t feel the need to do that again. But we did do some short walks on the section of the Finger Lakes Trail that goes along the rim of the gorge to find some more caches. Besides the trail being nice, there are some excellent views over the Genesee River. The fall colors are not at peak, but they were definitely progressing nicely.

Mt Morris Dam

View Along Finger Lakes Trail

From here, we head back into downtown Mt Morris to get a sightseeing tour from the other Adventure Lab. It’s a nice little town and we got to see more of it than we typically would by simply driving thru on our way to or from Letchworth.

Large Church in Mt Morris

Mural

That evening, we decided to head out and attempt the newly published night cache. The typical night cache is one where the posted coordinates is just the place to start your journey. To find the final container, you must bring a powerful flashlight and search for small reflectors on trees. Walking in the woods at night brings a whole different feel to normal hiking. We eventually made our way a quarter mile or so before we were led off the trail into a small opening in the woods. This is where we found the amazing final container. Although it wasn’t just the container that we open and sign the logbook like most night caches are. This one was a concrete obelisk over 3 foot tall and the ammo can was locked in place. Without giving away the solution, there were some complicated challenges where we needed to find other things hanging in the trees and use a UV light to read off some information. Then with this information you shine your flashlight in a port on the end of the obelisk which in turn lights up the sides with little pinpoints of light that form the constellations of the night sky. From here you decode what you see into the numbers required to unlock the ammo can. It was a challenge and we needed to phone a friend that had completed it the first night it came out while we stayed back at the campfire event. She was able to give us a nudge that permitted us to actually complete this one. The pictures below show the impressive final (taken the following morning when we returned to see it in the light of day).

Concrete Obelisk

Flashlight In - Constellations Out

While Letchworth State Park is a beautiful park, it’s not the only place to explore in this part of state. Sonyea State Forest is south of Mt Morris and just over a 10 mile drive from our campground. I know we have been here in the past based on the fact we have a few geocaches we found but that was back in 2011 so I can’t say I remember much about the place. We saw there were a handful of other geocaches that we haven’t found along the Keshequa Creek Falls Trail. From the description and pictures, it looked like a very nice hike of just over 4 miles round trip. 

Based on our maps, it looks like the trailhead is very easily accessed from the north. But it turns out that Craig Drive, while it leads to the northern edge of the state forest, it is part of the Groveland Correctional Facility and is marked “No Admittance” once we make the turn. Not wanting to get in trouble with the authorities, we reevaluate our map and see we will need to come in Union Corners Road from the south. This adds several more miles to our drive. The last 2 miles are on a dirt road before we enter Sonyea State Forest proper. Then it is a 3/4 mile drive on an even bumpier dirt road to the trailhead. Given the road conditions and the fact it was a Monday morning, we really didn’t expect to find anybody else out here. But surprisingly, there was a couple with a truck and trailer in a camping spot near our trailhead. I suspect we surprised them as well and they wandered over to see what we were up to. Turns out they were slowly working their way up to Maine. Once we told them we have been full time RVing for more than 7 years, they had all sorts of questions. We gave them a few suggestions of things to check out along their trip and in Maine.

The first third mile or so is all downhill to get to the creek level. We drop 150 feet in elevation. It wasn’t too bad coming down but will be more of a challenge on the end of our hike coming back to the car. We had several geocaches to occupy some time on our hike. At one of them, we were really struggling to find the container. It had been found four months ago so we kept searching. The snake that was in the branch of a nearby tree was of no help but we found it nonetheless.

Keshequa Creek

Snake Near Geocache

There were several spot along the trail that were right at the creek and there were a few designated camping sites along the way. The falls were pretty but there wasn’t much water flowing at this point in time. It turned out to be a very pleasant hike and quite secluded.

Large Rock Wall Along Creek

Keshequa Falls

Well that wraps up our one week stay in Letchworth. There was so much more we would have liked to have done while we were here, but it feels like we got in so many things and more importantly, got to visit with so many friends. Now it’s back to Waterloo for 2 or 3 weeks before we start our journey south to keep ahead of old man winter.