We Be Rockin' These State Parks

Stellar day today – walked gorges in three (count them), three state parks.

I started with Cuyuga State Park where I had been camping for three nights. Miko and I did our normal walk to the wave-catching lake, through a tunnel and then back home where I packed up the RV and headed out for a big hour drive to our next state park.

Taughannock state park. We were only here for a couple of hours to see the 215 foot vertical waterfall which is 33 feet taller than Niagara Falls. There is a 3/4 mile wooded trail down to the waterfall. We hadn't gotten too far when I noticed people walking on a big flat area next to the trail. Turns out this was the actual riverbed for Taughannock Creek. For the last nine months, this area of New York has been under a severe drought. The creek has done dried up. It is probably not the best year to go in search of New York waterfalls. That said, it was interesting to see what the riverbed looked like – all rock, not any sand like what I would expect. This is rock that has been chiseled out. When I got to the waterfall, it was nothing but a trickle.

The dry riverbed

What it is supposed to look like (picture from the web)

What it looks like now

We then moved on to Robert H. Treman State Park which is right outside of Ithaca New York. It was another twenty minutes down the road. This area of New York is ripe with state parks. I am spending the night here at this park. Scored the last electrical site. Yay Me!!! Interesting that to get to the campground I had to cross a creek – no bridge, just drive through the creek bed. 

Crossing the creek to get to the campground

This is hilly country and it was rather difficult to get level. The people on the ridge behind me had to back up right to the edge of the drop to hook up to electricity. They actually had a many tiered wooden structure on the hill to try to get themselves level. It really looked like an accident ready to happen. I leant them my 30 amp electrical cord so that they could get off of the ledge and I was really glad that I had because that night it poured rain, I'm talking serious rain, and I think if they had been balanced precariously like they were, they might have just slid downhill into my rig. No, I'm not a nice guy, it is all about self protection – didn't want them to slid down the hill into my rig. They were actually lovely people, but I'm glad that everything just worked out.

Robert H. Treman had a lovely gorge walk. I think it was the first time on this trip that I actually felt like I was hiking. There were actual hills here and many many steps, created by the CCC that I went up and down. Ran into a bunch of young men who were at an overlook, drinking beer and being crazy young guys. Miko, being her usual gregarious self, went over to introduce herself and one of the guys told her she was too young to drink beer. I, of course, had to correct him because in dog years she is 28 years old, definitely old enough to drink beer. She did not partake as she had more important things to do like head down the trail.

This was a lovely gorge to hike and even though there was a drought, there was enough water falling to make this a gorgeous hike. The main draw is Lucifer Falls which is a 115 foot multi-tiered drop.

Stairway to Heaven

Lucifer Falls

More Lucifer Falls

Miko actually looking like she might like her picture taken