OK, it wasn’t actually a week of waterfalls, but we did visit 5 waterfalls in 2 days. There are hundreds of waterfalls in upstate NY, especially in the Finger Lakes region. When glaciers covered this area during the last ice age they carved out deep lakes, but many tributary streams were not eroded, so they were left hanging over the lakes, creating waterfalls. Yesterday we drove all around the area, checking out the local waterfalls and fall colors. First we visited Chittenango Falls.
This was nice, and there is an easy trail down to the bottom so you can get a good look at the entire falls. Next, we headed towards Ithaca, and stopped at Buttermilk Falls.
The picture is only the lower falls at Buttermilk. We didn’t climb all the way to the top, because we were just stopping here briefly on our way to the main event, Lucifer Falls.
Lucifer Falls was very cool, but we didn’t have a good angle for pictures so the photos don’t do it justice. You walk through a gorge right next to the river to get to the waterfall, and it is a fascinating (and easy) hike. This hike gives you a sense of how the gorge was carved out by the water. The entire gorge looked amazing with the leaves changing color. Finally on the way home we stopped at Ludlowville Falls.
This one wasn’t very exciting, but we stopped anyway. We weren’t planning to visit anymore waterfalls, instead today we were doing one of our last college visits for my 17 year old. But the college we visited today was Niagara University, and it occurred to us there was a waterfall near the school, so we stopped by to check it out.
We stayed on the American side, since we still don’t have passports. So this is as close as we got to the Canadian Horseshoe Falls.
The scale of Niagara Falls is just amazing, and the volume and speed of the water is overwhelming. We could see the mist from the falls from about 6 miles away. When we visited the waterfalls yesterday they looked large and powerful, but they paled next to this one. We have visited Niagara before a few times, but seeing it so soon after visiting the other waterfalls really made it obvious how impressive it is.
I love waterfalls – thanks for sharing!
I love waterfalls too! Beautiful photos!!
Wow! Super beautiful pics!! Thanks for sharing 🙂
These Waterfall pictures are Amazing! I really like waterfalls too!