Sunday February 16, 2020 - Taughhannockl Falls State Park, NY - About 5.5 miles
Its been a little lacking in terms of 'real' hikes lately but we finally got out for a good one on this 3 day post Valentines day weekend. This hike came recommended to us by our friends Scott and Tom over a really nice dinner out with them at The Cub Room in Rochester Saturday.
The plan for the day was to get in a good walk or hike if possible and then explore Ithaca in the afternoon. The state park is only a few miles from Ithaca. The drive down NY-96 was quiet and relaxing as it almost always is.
We used the 50 Hikes In Central New York book to find this hike which was great because as we hiked from the off the beaten path trailhead we started at we went by the 'obvious' hike starting spot for the vast majority of people that just walk along the bottom of the gorge and both the parking and the gorge itself were way too busy for our tastes.
Our loop started at the top of the bluff, went 1.5 miles along the North Rim of the canyon including going down to river level then .75 miles up (and then .75 back) along the bottom of the gorge. Besides being almost deserted, the view from high above the gorge was more interesting and the trail was 100% covered in snow but thankfully it was just cold enough fro everything to be firmly frozen and there wasn't any ice. The trail through the gorge had some ice and mud.
We took a lot of other photos but it's pretty hard to convey how dramatic the drop offs and stark clean snow were. When we got finished with our walk up and down the gorge, the book had us taking a zillion stairs up from the floor to the south rim to walk back up top towards are car. Unfortunately, the State doesn't keep that side open in the winter and they actually forbid people to try to use that side. So we had to backtrack along the North Rim which was no great sacrifice since it was very pretty.
We did make it to Ithaca but just for lunch. As with the hike recommendation, Ithaca bakery didn't disappoint in terms of food (i had a regional specialty, the chicken Spiedie) but it was extremely slow to get our food. We came home with pleasingly stretched out muscles from crunching through so many miles of snow.
The plan for the day was to get in a good walk or hike if possible and then explore Ithaca in the afternoon. The state park is only a few miles from Ithaca. The drive down NY-96 was quiet and relaxing as it almost always is.
We used the 50 Hikes In Central New York book to find this hike which was great because as we hiked from the off the beaten path trailhead we started at we went by the 'obvious' hike starting spot for the vast majority of people that just walk along the bottom of the gorge and both the parking and the gorge itself were way too busy for our tastes.
Our loop started at the top of the bluff, went 1.5 miles along the North Rim of the canyon including going down to river level then .75 miles up (and then .75 back) along the bottom of the gorge. Besides being almost deserted, the view from high above the gorge was more interesting and the trail was 100% covered in snow but thankfully it was just cold enough fro everything to be firmly frozen and there wasn't any ice. The trail through the gorge had some ice and mud.
We took a lot of other photos but it's pretty hard to convey how dramatic the drop offs and stark clean snow were. When we got finished with our walk up and down the gorge, the book had us taking a zillion stairs up from the floor to the south rim to walk back up top towards are car. Unfortunately, the State doesn't keep that side open in the winter and they actually forbid people to try to use that side. So we had to backtrack along the North Rim which was no great sacrifice since it was very pretty.
We did make it to Ithaca but just for lunch. As with the hike recommendation, Ithaca bakery didn't disappoint in terms of food (i had a regional specialty, the chicken Spiedie) but it was extremely slow to get our food. We came home with pleasingly stretched out muscles from crunching through so many miles of snow.
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