Travel Log to the Finger Lakes, Day 1, 2

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finger_Lakes

It's dark now, and we're enjoying a quiet evening here in our cabin in the woods. Wally has taken the car to meet friends, and Ward, Theo, and I are working puzzles and eating pizza. We are on a short vacation together in the Finger Lakes region of New York. A rare treat because coordinating the schedules of four adults is not easy.

We left Friday morning with Theo in charge of the day. He drove, and our first stop was in Harrisburg, PA, to visit the State Museum of PA. We were lucky to time our stop between two school visits, so we practically had the whole place to ourselves. We have gone to many museums, and this was definitely one of the better ones. After lunch at a nearby hamburger place, we continued on our way.

The next stop was the Tioga Reservoir along the PA and NY border. Unfortunately, we didn't see any of the advertised bald eagles, but we enjoyed the stop anyway. Then we continued onto our final destination outside of Ithaca, NY,  arriving at dinner time. When people heard we were coming to this area, they all had a recommendation for where we had to eat. But we were tired and hungry, and the restaurants were crowded, so we found our own place--a tasty Mexican restaurant.

Then on to our VRBO cabin in the woods, which is about 10 miles out of town. It is a nice cabin that the owner vacated for us to rent. It feels strange to be staying in the middle of all of her stuff without her being here, but I guess that's how business is done these days. 

Today we went to Watkins Glen State Park. It is at the southern end of Lake Seneca, one of the larger Finger Lakes. The Finger Lakes are a series of 11 long skinny lakes that were scoured out by glaciers and dammed up by glacial debris (terminal moraines) forming the lakes. Hiking the Watkins Glen gorge was the main impetus for this trip. It was something that Ward did with his family when he was little, and he wanted to do it again.

The gorge was formed from a hanging stream left from the glaciers. This hanging stream (Glen Creek) deeply eroded the area forming the gorge. The trail was narrow in places, and the crowds sometimes made it difficult to maneuver. However, the scenery and 19 waterfalls along the way made it worth it. We hiked the rim trail above the gorge on the way back. Fewer people chose this route, making the trek quite enjoyable.

Then we went in search of a better view of Seneca Lake. This lead us to accidentally find the US Salt mines and processing plant. Very interesting, but it was not open to the public, so we had to move on. Finally, we found the pier and docks of Lake Seneca in Watkins Glen and took a short walk along the shore. We contemplated taking a boat ride on the lake, but it was windy and cold, so the idea became much less appealing.

We were back in Ithaca for a late lunch at the Ithaca Bakery - one of the recommended places to eat, and it did not disappoint. Then, after a quick stop at Aldi's for supper fixings, we returned to our cabin in the woods. And I think this is where I started.

A few pictures.

The museum was next to the PA state capitol building.

The museum covered all parts of Pennsylvania's history, both natural and social. While Ward was studying Pennsylvania's early charters and constitutions, I was scoping out some things invented in PA, like the Slinky and the banana split.

The Tioga Reservoir was actually two lakes that were connected through this channel.

You could walk behind some of the waterfalls in the gorge.

Bridges were built across the stream in several places.

Glen Creek was eroding through mostly horizontal layers of shale and limestone.

The hardest part of the rim trail was all of the steps at the end, which were not kind to our knees.

Lake Seneca is one of the deepest lakes in the US, at 618' deep.

Ward and Theo were bracing against the wind on their walk along a jetty. While Theo had short sleeves, I had three layers, and we were both cold.

Until next time...