More Gorges and Waterfalls: Cascadilla Gorge, Ithaca Falls, and Taughannock Falls

Oh hey, so WordPress accidentally published this post a few days ago before I had added text – and I say WordPress did it because I swear I was editing another post at the time – but anyway, if you want to know more about those lovely waterfall photos, feel free to read on.

The first group of pictures – and our first stop – was Cascadilla Gorge, located just a couple blocks from the heart of downtown. The gorge in fact connects the town to the Cornell University campus, which makes for a pretty nice grocery-run if I may say so myself. The mile long trail up the gorge is almost entirely comprised of beautiful cut stone walkways and steps, similar to the ones we’d walked on the day before at Robert B. Treman State Park, but despite the man-made path it was easy to forget we were in the midst of civilization: The lush greenery and depth of the glen muted the sounds from above, and any further remnants of the soundscape of Ithaca were hushed by the moving water.

Beyond the novelty of Cascadilla being surrounded by civilization, the gorge was quite stunning in it’s own right. Though it “only” dropped 400 feet in a mile and didn’t have the huge falls of Enfield Glen we’d seen the day before, the creek’s winding path through the shale and limestone left us with a multitude of surprises and pretty angles from which to view the numerous falls.

Our second stop was at Ithaca Falls, the last drop of Fall Creek before it flows into Cayuga Lake. A short, easy stroll along the banks led us to the base of the 150-foot falls, but we found they could also be viewed from the bridge a few hundred feet back.

The largest waterfall we saw in the Ithaca area was Taughannock Falls, which plunges 215 feet within a 400-foot high gorge. We first saw the falls from the edge of the cliffs, the creek spitting over a narrow passage carved in the cliffs and pummeling the gorge floor below. Having seen this view however we opted to skip the Rim Trail and instead just walked the three-quarter mile trail up the gorge to the base of the falls. The deep gorge was certainly impressive in depth and width, but the highlight was really the falls. When we’d seen enough, we returned to the mouth of the gorge and walked across the street to see where the creek flowed into Cayuga Lake.

Our few days in Ithaca weren’t all gorges and waterfalls and breweries however; we had a couple rainy mornings that allowed me to putter in the kitchen and do some recipe testing. Both the Apple Pecan Crunch Loaf and Cardamom Jam Muffins were a success, and made for some nice breakfasts indeed.