Taughannock Falls State Park

Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2013

A busy and lovely day at Taughannock State Park! We drove down to the main area of the park, right on Cayuga Lake, and found an rv-sized parking spot next to the boat launch.  There was even a little bit of shade! Then we headed up the Gorge Trail to Taughannock Falls with Roxy (always so nice when dogs are allowed to join their people!) The path was very easy—no elevation, wide and shady. The final cascade of the Taughannock Creek is right near the road, so we stopped to admire it.

Lower Taughannock Falls

Continuing along the path, it was obvious that the creek was pretty low at this time of year. A lot of the creek bed was dry, and the temptation to walk alongside or even in the water was irresistible to most of the folks following the trail.  We too went into the creek, where Roxy had a drink. 

After a bit, we opted for the shadier path, and got out of the creek channel. The views were still lovely, and it was fun watching the families with small children making their way up through the water. What a great hike for little kids! 

We finally arrived at the base of Taughannock Falls, which we’d seen from the upper overlook yesterday. It is really awesome and beautiful! We walked across the wooden bridge to the other side of the river (Roxy did NOT like the bridge but followed when I led the way and we encouraged her) and spent about 20 minutes just taking photos and looking up at the rock walls. There are interpretive panels all along the river and we enjoyed reading those too.

Close-up: Top of Falls

We finally headed back—the walk back to the RV was a lot quicker than the walk to the falls, because we didn’t  stop for as many photos and panels (plus we stayed out of the water!) We got back to Samantha at 1:00, just in time for lunch.

After eating, relaxing and reading for a little while, it was time for the next big attraction of the park, Cayuga Lake itself. We pumped up our inflatable kayak and walked over to the boat launch which was just a few yards away. How easy! We were out on the lake for about 90 minutes. The park has a beach for swimming, and several launch areas. Folks were also fishing, and we got a kick out of one guy with two black dogs (part lab, both of them.) They were on a jetty fishing, but then he literally picked them both up and tossed them into the water, jumping in after them himself! A few minutes later they all scrambled out onto the rocks and were back on the jetty shaking themselves off. So cute! It is nice to be in a dog-friendly place.

Pointing our kayak toward Cayuga Lake

We were not very energetic, although we paddled all up and down the shore of near our launch site. We also paddled up the river to where it became quite shallow—we could see the base of the falls (the ones near the road, that is) before we turned around. Cayuga Lake was very calm and quiet—there was no wind, and when we didn’t paddle, we just floated right in place quietly. It was VERY relaxing!

We got back to Samantha at about 4:30, and although I was tempted to swim after that (I was hot!), Joey wasn’t in the mood. So instead we decided to head up the road to our next destination, Sampson State park. We stopped at Cayuga Lake Creamery (our ice cream destination yesterday) for a reprise of our respective chocolate ice creams. Roxy got lucky too—I noticed today that they sell a “Doggie Sundae”!  For years Joey has occasionally bought a small vanilla cup for his dogs, and a special sundae topped with a dog biscuit was too cute to resist. Roxy loved the ice cream, but we were not that surprised when she had no interest in the biscuit…. She is simply not a dog-biscuit fan!

From there, it was a short trip to Sampson State Park, on Seneca Lake. The park is quite large, occupying the site of a World War II naval training station. There is a big campground, a marina, a military museum, and of course the lake with trails and bike rentals.  No waterfalls this time, so we are on the shore of the lake, and fairly flat for a change. The shower facilities are nicer than the one at Watkins Glen, and we both took long hot showers tonight, which was lovely. We had a delish steak and salad for dinner.  The campground also has electrical hookups, which is a nice change—we can use real lights instead of flashlights and we don’t have to conserve our power. In fact, I am recharging everything to the max! So we are feeling pretty pampered right now. We will hang around here tomorrow and play a little bit, and decide where to go next. I have no idea yet.

Four State Parks in One Day

Taughannock Falls

Monday Aug. 19, 2013 

We woke up this morning preparing to pack up and leave our beautiful campsite at Watkins Glen.  My plans for the day, however, were far from certain. There are a lot of waterfalls in this part of the world, and a lot of parks, too! Generally speaking, I had vague plans to drive to Buttermilk Falls State Park in Ithaca, hike there, and then figure out where to spend the night.

We started out, however, by stopping at Walmart in Watkins Glen to deal with our extensive shopping list. We had a very weird collection of stuff, ranging from a new automotive battery for our RV “house”, to sugar-free hot chocolate mix!  We spent about an hour shopping, I would guess, and when we checked out, we joked with the woman at the register about our odd collection of purchases. We decided the strangest combination was the hatchet we bought (to split firewood) and the hot chocolate mix—obviously shopping for a diabetic ax murderer! We all got a good laugh out of it. Back at the RV, Joey connected the battery in sequence with the current battery, while I put away the groceries and other odds and ends. Our house battery got an immediate boost now that there are two of them, and we don’t have to worry about it running down as quickly.

We were hungry by then—it was 1:00. But we didn’t want to eat lunch in a Walmart parking lot with so many nice places in the area. We decided to drive to Buttermilk Falls, which our GPS said was only 35 minutes away. Well, the GPS apparently thought we’d be driving 60 mph… it took an hour at our speed, and on typical GPS back roads, to get there. Joe loves those back roads—they just make me nervous, because I hate not knowing where I am going! We did get to the park finally, however, and were very pleased because our Watkins Glen pass, which was dated as good through today, got us in without having to pay a day-use fee for the park.

Buttermilk Falls 

We ate some lunch and walked Roxy. Then we walked over to see the waterfall, which is right there (pretty but not spectacular) at the entrance to the park, with a swimming hole and diving board at the base! Too bad it wasn’t warmer, we probably would have enjoyed a dunk. But we weren’t in the mood and were still trying to decide what to do for the rest of the day. There are some hiking trails up into the gorge (every waterfall has a gorge!) but really weren’t in the mood for that either. We chatted with the attendant, who told us that there were campsites available, and gave us a list of the unreserved ones which we could choose. We figured that we might as well spend the night at the campground there since there was room for us. The mystery to me was, I had checked the campground before leaving home, and had made notes that there were no available campsites for us! Well, we drove up into the campground—a steep curvy drive—and now I understand the problem. There were no sites big enough or flat enough for our RV.  We found one which we could just deal with, but decided we would not be very happy there and we weren’t “feeling the vibes”.  So we drove back down the mountain again.

Another conference, and we decided to drive back down the road a few miles to Robert H. Treman State Park, and see if we could camp there. We were thinking that we wouldn’t mind spending the rest of the afternoon relaxing, reading, and just being mellow.  Our park pass got us past the entrance again, and as we drove toward the campground office to find out which spots were open for the night, I said to Joe, “This map is very weird. The road stops, then starts again—but there is a gap in it!”  After getting a list of available campsites from the office, however, we discovered the reason for the gap—the road goes right THROUGH Enfield Creek! We drove very slowly through the water to the campground on the other side (Joe was delighted, of course!

Road from parking lot to campground. The water falls off just beyond the stop sign. (I forgot to take a photo of the waterfall from the other side.)

Samantha crossing through Enfield Creek above the waterfall.

Unfortunately, the campground itself did not excite us. There were a number of spaces we could have stayed in, and they were flat, too (the area was right along the fast-moving creek). But they were just side-by-side parking spaces with picnic tables—no charm and no privacy. What happened to our gorgeous huge wooded spaces from the night before? Joe said, “I vote for going back to Watkins Glen!” It was definitely an option.
However, we did have one more chance—Taughannock Falls State Park, about 10 or so miles north of Ithaca on Cayuga Lake. I wasn’t sure about the campground situation—I’d made notes that there weren’t any “great sites” left there a couple of weeks ago, with no idea what that actually meant. But we figured what the heck, let’s go for it! So we drove up to the town of Trumansburg  (I keep thinking of the Truman Show). The GPS routed us right past the overlook to Taughannock Falls, and wow, we were NOT expecting this! The falls are the highest unbroken falls in the northeast, at 215 feet (3 stories higher than Niagara Falls), and just beautiful!  We spent some time there admiring the view, and feeling well rewarded for heading this way with no clue what we were going to see.

Taughannock Falls from Scenic Overlook

We then looked for the campground, which we came to even before the campground office. So we drove through it. We wrote down the campsites which were empty and where we thought we could get Samantha in—a lot of them were small, again, and once more we would be on the side of a hill. (I am seeing a theme here: Waterfall State Park = Campground On Side of Mountain.) We found a few places, and then went further down the road to the State Park entrance and campground office. Finally, some good fortune—our first-choice campsite was free for tonight! We immediately booked it. I also picked up a bunch of brochures about the other waterfalls in the Ithaca area (might have come in handy earlier on today!) and asked two really important questions: 1) is there a place we could put our kayak in the water? And 2) where can we get some ice cream?

As for the kayak, the park attendant said we could put it into Cayuga Lake right from the park shoreline. And she pointed us down the road for some home-made creamery ice cream which she said was the best in the area. So after a long day of indecision, we felt ice cream was the first thing on the agenda. It was delicious, and they had VERY good sugar-free ice cream for Joe! So good, in fact, that he had them make him up a pint of it to go home with us. My chocolate brownie ice cream was fabulous too. I now predict the future: More ice cream tomorrow!

View of Cayuga Lake from Route 89

After we totally spoiled our appetites for dinner, we finally headed back to the campground, and so we are here settled in. Our electrical situation has been improved not just with a boosted house battery, but we picked up an inverter as well, which is currently charging my laptop AND my phone off a battery pack.Our plans for tomorrow include a walk to the base of Taughannock Falls, and some kayaking, before heading north a little bit to Sampson State Park. Considering we only covered 71 miles today, we spent an awful lot of time in the RV (although in fairness to say, Joe loves just driving around!) I am hoping, though, to get out and have a little more variety tomorrow.