Monday, September 12th – Sunday, September 18th
Taughannock Falls
State Park, Ithaca
The drive out of Adirondacks over to western New York was
quite beautiful, traveling mostly back road highways.
We camped at Taughannock Falls State Park near Ithaca New
York. Ithaca is on the south side of Cayuga Lake, one of the major Finger Lakes
in the region. After setting up we decided to hike up along the Gorge Trail
and have our first look at Taughannock Falls. We were in a state of shock when
we got to the falls overlook and noticed that there was only a trickle of water
coming over the falls. Wow! What a disappointment as this was the reason we
specifically booked this campground due to the falls. There are also numerous
falls around the Ithaca area, but they too were all in this situation due to
months of serious drought in the area.
We took some scenic drives around the Cayuga Lake and the
City of Ithaca, it was quite lovely. We were surprised at the great number
of vineyards and wineries surrounding the lake. It was a great area for
tourists to do the winery tours. There was also a lot of agricultural lands in the area.
One night we went to a free concert in downtown Ithaca at an
area called Ithaca Commons. The downtown is very quaint with many historic
buildings. The commons area is a former street that has been blocked off as a pedestrian
mall. Also, Ithaca is home to Cornell University, a renowned university for
math and science. There are several well-known scientists that graduated from
Cornell, among them being Carl Sagan, one of our favorites. Kurt was so
intrigued by the university that he drove into town one day with his bicycle
and toured the whole campus. It was interesting to see the mix of historic
and new high-tech buildings. It was quite obvious just driving around
town that it was a University town due to all the young adults walking around
with their backpacks or on their bicycles and the abundance of coffee shops.
We also found some great mountain biking trails about 15
miles out of town. We drove out to
Shindagin Hollow Forest on two days and enjoyed the rides. We were ready to
head to Niagara Falls.
Monday, September 19th – 22nd
Niagara Falls
After Ithaca, we were excited to get over to the Niagara
Falls. Neither of us had been there, so we were anxious to see what it was all
about.
Niagara Falls is close to Buffalo New York, where Buffalo
wings were originally created. So the first evening we drove down to Buffalo
and found Anchor Bar, which is the home of the original buffalo chicken wings. We
just had to go try them and they were good as expected; however we still feel
that Brass Ring Pub in North Palm Beach is the best ever.
The next morning we headed to Niagara Falls. This beautiful
State Park provides various viewing areas for the falls. The Niagara River
actually splits before it goes over the falls, so one of the falls is on the
Canadian side and the majority of the falls on the American side. The view from
the Observation Tower was really amazing and allowed us a better view of the
American Falls and some of Horseshoe Falls. We walked from the main visitor
area on the bridges over the Niagara River to Goat Island, from there we were
able to see the American Falls from the south side and then Horseshoe Falls
(Canadian) from the north side of the river on Terrapin Point.
The next day we went back to Niagara Falls and boarded the
"Maid of the Mist" tour boat.
This boat leaves from a dock on the north side of the American Falls, which
it passes by and then down into the Horseshoe Falls. While in the Horseshoe
Falls area the mist was so thick you could barely see parts of the waterfall.
As part of the boat tour, they provided translucent blue rain ponchos which we
were glad to have. The hardest part was keeping our camera dry while trying to
take photos. Later that night we went back down to Niagara Falls to view the
illumination of the falls and later the fireworks. These amazing light shows
were compliments of the Canadians.
The next day at Niagara Falls was spent with our dogs hiking
the Niagara Gorge Whirlpool Trail. This was a moderately difficult hike with
many stairs to descend, then a lot of rock hopping along the riverside. Then,
of course, we had to ascend the stairs returning to the trailhead. It was a
beautiful day and we all enjoyed the hike and seeing the river at the lower
level.
Our last day at Niagara Falls was spent on a scenic drive
heading north up along Lake Ontario. Neither of us had ever seen the lake so we
wanted to check it out. We also drove
through Fort Niagara which was a historic military base during the
Revolutionary War. From the Fort property we were able to see the inlet where
the Niagara River flows out to Lake Ontario.
All in all, our time in the Niagara Falls area was well
spent and we truly enjoyed it. Neither of us really knew what to expect, but it
actually turned out to be much more beautiful and interesting than we had
thought it would be. We had decided to stay an extra day so we could see
everything.
