A Day at Taughannock Falls
Waking up to the sounds of trucks and cars with loud mufflers wasn’t what I expected. There seems to be a new fad of reverberating mufflers and the road near the campsite seemed to have its share of people wanting to make as much noise as possible early on a Saturday morning.
The trip to Taughannock Falls State Park winds through back country roads through corn, soy bean, and hay fields. The route is crisscrossed by many other roads and one needs to be alert of vehicles running stop signs.
I approached the park at the Upper Falls entrance. There were very few signs to direct visitors. I was expecting signs to point me to the Park Office. They don’t exist. I eventually decided to park at the Falls Overlook parking lot. There are basically three routes you can take to the falls as follows:
Gorge Trail: Park by Cayuga Lake at the park office (I eventually found it). This is a fairly level 3/4 mile tail into the park. This will get you to the base of the falls.
North Rim: The entrance is very steep and slowly climbs to Fall Overlook where it levels off to the upper falls.
South Rim: The entrance is steep but not as severe as the North Rim. This trail is more of a steady climb and also ends at the upper falls.
I felt energetic after a good nights sleep and hiked the North Rim to the South Rim trail down to the Gorge Trail. I took the Gorge Trail to the falls but there wasn’t much water in the falls. Despite the lack of water, the rock formations are still spectacular. The hike back up the North Rim trail was strenuous.
On the South Rim trail, I met a very nice Italian family from Bologna. They we touring part of the US (NYC, Taughannock Falls, Detroit, Chicago, etc.). I asked them why they were going to Detroit because I knew it wasn’t the typical European destination. It turns out that he is a post Industrial historian. He was interested in a lot of the old architecture of Detroit.
I headed back to Ithaca and saw a bike path on the way. I took the bike path, known as the Black Diamond trail, into town. This allowed me to get a different perspective of Ithaca. The downtown area near Cornell University has a nice mall walking area. Although, I was hoping to find a coffee shop other than Starbucks. It doesn’t seem to exist or I used the wrong app to find it.
There is a lot of signed graffiti art around town. Some of it was really fun. This could be a tour of its own. Here are two examples:
Heading out of town, I rode along the lake and just enjoyed the scenery.
I purchased a Planet Fitness Black Pass so that I could take a shower and workout when I wanted. There are over 2200 PF sites in North America. I felt pretty sweaty after my hikes and bike ride. So, I decided to test out my pass. The facilities were really clean.
After getting back to the campsite, I cooked another pizza and heard live music near by. After dinner, I tracked down the music. It seems that every Saturday night the campground has this group play. Many of the people seem to park their campers in the campground for the summer. They all seemed to know each other. The band’s name is Under Construction, which seems to be very appropriate. They are a work in progress.
The rain began in the middle of the show.