Finger Lakes Region, NY

This will be my first blog in a series that I’m calling New York: more than just a city. The mountains, lakes, and gorges with waterfalls are beautiful. And there are so many state parks. 215! The only state with more is California.

Originally, our plans for this summer were to leisurely explore western New York state while ‘living’ at and taking care of our fellow RVing friends Mike and Betty’s home for two months while they traveled themselves. When their trip got canceled, we modified our own plans a bit. We still visited them and used their driveway as a home base to see the Finger Lakes Region for two weeks. We got to join them on a camping trip in the Adirondacks. And, we also got lucky and snagged some great NY State Park cancellations. The locations we visit the next couple of weeks aren’t going to make a lot of sense, geographically, it is just how we were able to fit it all in.

There are eleven major Finger Lakes in NY between Lake Ontario and the PA border. They were formed over 500 million years ago by Ice Age glaciers slicing the land and then filling with water when the glaciers melted. The two largest are Seneca and Cayuga, both a little under 40 miles long and ~2-3 miles wide. The region is also very hilly (also glacier created) and the lakes are surrounded by hills that just seem to roll down into the water’s edge. The lakes do not look like the sprawling lakes we are used to, but more like wide rivers. Our friends live a few miles south of Seneca Lake which is the deepest at over 600 feet!

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Synonymous with racing, the village of Watkins Glen sits at the southern tip of Seneca Lake. The crosswalks are extra easy to see, the street signs are not. The original Grand Prix course started and finished on Main street. I talked Michael into “driving The Glen” at the current track, Watkins Glen International, for his birthday and it was a lot of fun! He got to do three 3.5 mile laps with our truck. It was more hilly and curvy than you can see on TV. Our GPS recorded 800 ft of elevation gain in the 3 laps.

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The must-do thing in Watkins Glen is to hike the gorge trail at the state park, which literally starts in town right next to the historic road course sign. In less than 2 miles there are 19 waterfalls and the entire trail is just magical. There are stone bridges, stairs, and tunnels. You walk behind and under and across some of the falls. I half expected to see a fairy or a unicorn.

You will also see spectacular falls right next to the road while driving in the area, like the two shown below.

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On weekend days, we went to explore the other 2 of the big 3 lakes. First, we headed west to Keuka, the only non-finger-shaped Finger Lake. We walked around the cute village of Hammondsport. Hammondsport and Keuka’s claim to fame is being the birthplace of the first Glenn Curtiss US-built and flown seaplanes. There are also a lot of wineries around Keuka, including the oldest winery in the region.

The other big day we had was to drive east towards Cayuga Lake and Ithaca to hike the gorge trails at Ithaca’s 3 State Parks. Yes, the small college town of Ithaca (Cornell) has 3 state parks! The first was Robert Treman SP and just a couple miles past was Buttermilk Falls SP. I’m only showing one waterfall at each of these parks, but there are multiple. Robert Treman has 12 and Buttermilk is more like a continuous cascade. Next, we stopped at the Ithaca Farmer’s Market. And last, was Taughannock Falls SP, which has the most famous Ithaca waterfall at 215 ft tall.

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Another must-visit for us was the Corning Museum of Glass. Even without the fact that half of Michael’s immediate family worked/works for the company that has brought us Pyrex and space shuttle windows, we would have enjoyed this museum. It is an impressive collection of art, science, technology, and even glass blowing demonstrations. I mean, just look at all that copper you need to equal a single glass fiber to transmit information (bandwidth).

The last thing to mention is that you won’t go thirsty around the Finger Lakes. Those hillsides surrounding the lakes are prime grape-growing areas, at least for rieslings. We checked out Bully Hill Vineyard at Keuka Lake (top left). We only got to 3 of the 70 wineries around Seneca Lake (had to make time for the breweries, too). We enjoyed the wines at Hazlitt and Wagner on the east side of the lake and Lakewood on the west side. We also tried a few breweries – Finger Lakes Beer, Seneca Lake Brewing, Seneca Lodge Brewing, Scale House Brewery, Horseheads Brewery, and Two Goats Brewery. Hmmm, seems like a lot all listed out like that.

Many of the wineries in the Finger Lakes are Harvest Hosts (businesses, usually agricultural, that allow free RV parking for a nominal yearly fee), which would make visiting this area and wine tasting very easy and affordable for RVers!

We left the area the same as we usually do, feeling like we didn’t get to see (and in the case, taste) it all. Next up is a week in the central Adirondacks!