When we visited Letchworth State Park earlier in the year, we could only imagine how beautiful it must be in the Fall when the leaves turned golden. We didn’t return to that particular park on a recent trip upstate, but New York in the Finger Lakes region is so abundant with gorges and waterfalls that visiting all the state parks in the region will keep us busy for years. About 4 hours north of NYC, just south of Seneca Lake, is Watkins Glen.
The centerpiece of the park is the narrow gorge which was carved by glaciers. Waterfalls cascade down in a series of pools and the gorge trail is an intricate walkway of stone steps and bridges along the length of the gorge. The trail even leads you behind a waterfall on one end which was a welcome surprise, but every step and turn produced equally stunning and interesting views. Since you’re often walking closer to the bottom of the gorge near the water, you feel cocooned in by the walls of the rock which consist primarily of layered shale. If it’s sunny, the sun filters the light through tree tops. Foliage wasn’t peak yet when we were there; you could see the colors starting to turn on the edges of some trees, but every now and then we’d see yellow leaves floating down from the top of the gorge to where we were down on the trail. Sounds enchanting, yes? Nature often is, and after the month we’ve had, this hike was magic beyond words and photos.
Wow, what a magical place!
Wow, that just looks amazingly beautiful. May I ask which programme you use to put your photos on your Instagram account? You do take most photos with your “real” camera it seems, as do I, and I haven’t figured out yet the best way to put them on Instagram.
Hi Helle, My Fuji has wifi, and I also download my photos to my computer and upload them to my phone 🙂
Ok, thanks. From camera to computer to phone – :-)) but the quality shows.
wow!
How GORGEOUS!! Fall leaves or not.
Amazing! Such beauty. I would love to visit here.
I worked at a summer camp on Seneca Lake the summer after I graduated from university. We visited Watkins Glen on one of our breaks and it was absolutely magical. Then years later, when I lived in Brooklyn, I found some old postcards of Watkins Glen at the Flea, which immediately brought back wonderful memories of youth and my first foray into adulthood. So glad you got to experience it.