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.

Our Day in Watkins Glen

Sunday Aug. 18 

We have had a long and lovely day in Watkins Glen. We woke up to a cool morning; Joe made biscuits and we didn’t rush out. But around 11:00 or so we finally packed up a couple of sandwiches, some trail mix, and water in our packs and, leaving Roxy to guard the fort, headed through the campsites to a short trail which connects the campground  to the South Rim Trail above the Watkins Glen gorge. Nearby was a long flight of steps down into the gorge (the campground is way up the mountain) and the Gorge Trail, which goes along the Glen for 1.5 miles.

 We joined the Gorge Trail at the One Mile Bridge, so first we walked the half mile to the farthest end of the gorge. Then we retraced our steps and walked along the path until we came out at the main entrance, down in the town of Watkins Glen, about 1000 feet and 860-something stairs lower than where we had started.

We took our time and also lots of photo. The Gorge is beautiful, with many waterfalls (the path goes behind two of them), pools, wildflowers and ferns, and wonderful rock formations. 

There were quite a lot of people, only to be expected on a Sunday in August, but we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly, not rushing and taking time to notice the details, such as a turtle and frog sunning themselves on a log in a pool below us. We were happy to have the water and trail mix to munch on, but were definitely ready for lunch by the time we got to the Main Entrance at 2:00.  (Special note to Mommy: do you remember "When you've seen one waterfall, you've seen them all"?)

We sat at a picnic table and watched the people parade while we ate. Then we walked down the main street of Watkins Glen, about ten or so blocks, until we came to Seneca Lake and the marina. We were hoping to find some cute little shops, but it was surprising how few of them there were for such a touristy town, and a lot of stores were closed on Sunday. We sat at the marina for a bit (that’s where we met Zoltar, who co-starred in the Tom Hanks movie, BIG.), then I thought of looking for a grocery of some sort. We used up all our bread when we made lunch, and I  thought we could pick something up. I googled “groceries in Watkins Glen” on my phone, and we found a nice natural food store a few blocks away. But when we got there, it too was closed (I never thought of googling the hours, oops!) The town is small and cute, though, and we enjoyed just wandering around.

 

Heading back to the Visitor Center at the park, we passed a large store which sold shoes, clothing, some souvenirs, and candy. Joe’s feet were really hurting, because his hiking shoes were not that comfortable. So we went in and I made him try on some good shoes. He found a pair of Merrell hiking boots, and was SO happy to trade in the old ones for something really good for his feet! I, meanwhile, found a pair of guitar-pick earrings commemorating Summer Jam ’73, the rock festival we’d been here for 40 years ago. So we left the store very happy with our purchases. Resisting the lure of the chocolates (just not in the mood, I guess), we stopped for ice cream instead before getting to the Visitor Center.

Our plan was to go back to the top of the Gorge at the far end by taking the shuttle bus which runs between the two ends of the Gorge Trail. Then we would have to walk down the dozens of stairs at the far end to the trail, go back to the One Mile Bridge, go up dozens of stairs again on the South Rim side, and so back to our campsite, retracing our steps of the morning. But we got very lucky—because it was so late, we were the only ones on the shuttle bus, and the driver offered to take us up the mountain right to the campground! So we only had to walk from the entrance of the campground to our site—maybe a quarter of a mile or so.

We arrived back around 5:30ish, tired but relaxed. Roxy was very happy to see us, and celebrated our return by bouncing  into her kibble bowl not once, but twice. So I swept out Samantha (kibble EVERYWHERE!) while Joe dug around in the storage compartments trying to locate our electrical inverters. They are nowhere to be found, so they joined our lengthening list of Sam-equipment we need to pick up soon, which includes a new house battery (the current one has outlived its lifetime and isn’t holding a charge well, and we are doing a lot of camping with no hookups on this trip so we need good battery power), and some drawer rails to repair a drawer under the refrigerator which was pretty cheaply constructed. On our last weekend mini-vacation, Joe reglued the drawer itself, but the rails are just junky and it’s driving us nuts. There are a few other small things we need too, and some groceries besides bread, so I predict some major shopping tomorrow.  And then, I have no idea where we will end up for the night. Adventures--stay tuned!

Highland Park to Watkins Glen

Saturday, Aug. 17, 2013

It was somehow no big surprise that we didn’t get out of town today until noon. Joe had oodles of paperwork to do, and no matter how much I try to do ahead of time, at the last minute I always find stuff that I forgot to handle. So we pulled out at noon, made our customary u-turn two blocks later to return for a pair of glasses I’d left behind, and then set off toward Watkins Glen State Park in New York. We got to Pennsylvania and then stopped for lunch—too demoralizing to stop while we are still in New Jersey!  And then we stayed on the interstate until Scranton. 

I got a big kick out of playing with my smart phone. It’s still only a few months old, and this past week I downloaded apps which give me maps and info on all the NY State Parks, which are now stored in both my phone and my Tab 2. I also played with Waze, which cautioned us about cars stopped at the side of the road, objects in the road (potentially dangerous), police cars ahead, and warned about traffic congestion.  So for a while we were very “hooked up”, with the phone, the GPS, and occasionally the tablet for when I needed a detail map. Ironically, I had a paper map in my lap most of the time too, because I still prefer it to the GPS systems.

We left the interstate at Scranton and turned onto PA Route 6, a very scenic route along the river and through small towns…. And I mean SMALL towns!  Other than the scenery (which is gorgeous), the drive was unremarkable, except for one appalling sight. We stopped at a light and noticed on the side of the road a digital sign which had a video of the Beatles, probably from the Ed Sullivan show, or certainly something from that era. We watched it while we sat, and then the video stopped and showed the advertising—for a senior residence “for those who want a home environment with wonderful care.”  OMG!!!!!!!  The Beatles are now being used to market senior citizen housing??  It was horrifying! 

It took a while to recover from THAT, and we were very happy  to stop at the Marie Antoinette Scenic Overlook when it appeared. It offered a gorgeous view of the river below us, with green farmland on the other side and mountains in the distance. The farmland was called Azilum (Asylum) and was a colony, lasting from 1793-1803, established by French Royalists who fled from the French Revolution. Their hope was that Marie Antoinette might find safety there. An entire village was built around the Great House.  The scenic overlook was a project of the WPA in 1930. 

Looking West

Looking East

From there we continued west and then north through Elmira to the village of Watkins Glen. It was getting latish by this time—somehow we extended a drive of 4-1/2 hours to 7 hours!  But we finally made it, up the side of the mountain, to the park, where we have reservations for two nights. If this is a sample of the NY State Park campgrounds, we are going to be VERY happy on this trip! The sites are very large, with a lot of space between each one, and we are in the forest, which is lovely. It’s very interesting, we are basically the only RV, although we saw several pop-up trailers. I guess most folks who drive RVs want hookups (there are none here) but we really prefer to be in the woods and have no worries about having water and electric supplied—our tanks are full and we have enough light from our batteries and lanterns.

Joe made us an awesome supper based on previously cooked chicken which we brought from home (still frozen.) He defrosted it by steaming it, used the broth from the steaming as a base for a pepper, onion, and tomatoey sauce, and served it on rice. YUM YUM!!!!! 

 So that was our first day. Tomorrow we will go see the Glen, hike on at least one of the trails (one is accessible not too far from our campsite), and just relax. We are still trying to arrange our belongings inside Samantha, and as this is our first extended trip in her, we will probably be tweaking everything for a few days. We do have so much room, though… Joe is in the bedroom, I’m in the “living room” (in the front), and it seems like he is miles away. Roxy is happy, too…. She played with her squeaky toy and now she’s sleeping next to me. A successful first day! 

Added: I am LOVING this phone! I took these photos with the phone. Now the phone is also my mobile hot-spot and for the first time, we don't have to worry about where to find wifi to upload this blog.  What a miracle of technology. And it even allowed me to talk to my daughter earlier today :).  Very very cool!

Vacation is Almost Here

Midnight, Thursday August 15, and we are fully into Vacation Preparation Mode. We are heading toward the Finger Lakes in New York State--first planned stop is Watkins Glen State Park. Last time we were at Watkins Glen was for the Watkins Glen Rock Festival in 1973. Just a couple of weeks ago was the 40th anniversary of that enormous event-- 600,000 music fans in the heat of July gathering to hear the Band, the Allman Brothers, and the Grateful Dead.

Now we return to the scene, having traded in our 1964 VW minivan for a 28-foot 1992 Jayco Eagle Motorhome. Looking at the photo, Joe doesn't look too different-- he was again in a long hair and beard phase last fall when we brought Samantha (Sam the Eagle, for you Muppet fans) home after spending our first night with her at Turkey Swamp State Park.

Anyway, the plan is to leave on Saturday. Looking forward to a mellow couple of weeks-- a lot less driving than we usually tackle. Lots of waterfalls and state parks. We are looking forward to relaxing!