Watkins Glen is one of the top attractions in Western New York and a world famous tourist hike destination. Does it live up to it's hype?
Leaving from our hotel in Ithaca, we made a quick stop at hector falls. This multi-tier waterfall is located on the side of the road just ten minutes north of Watkins Glen. There is a small pull off to hike to the middle tier where there are some chairs, but the bottom tier is definitely private property.
Watkins Glen is located in the town of the same name, and is one of the most famous hiking destinations in western New York. The park has been described as enchanting and other worldly. It primarily consists of a hike up through a gorge full of roughly cut waterfalls, with plenty of man made stairs and bridges to help navigate the otherwise impossible terrain.
When doing my research online I discovered that the park claimed to have something like 892 stairs. This number seemed very high, but it seemed much worse to the friends I was traveling with. Riley and Jenny decided to join me on my western New York journey, both are students at my gym but neither are avid hikers. When I explained to them that this was only the first of three parks we would be doing in just our first day, and that they all had a similar number of stairs... well, the looks I got from them said it all. They began to prepare almost immediately with extra cardio and practice hikes! It's a good thing they did too, but I'll save that for the next few articles.
This park attracts enormous numbers of people daily, and as of the time of our visit was still under one way travel policy. You hike up the main gorge and then back down one of the rim trails. Even though we arrived around 8am the parking lot was already full and we snagged the very last spot. When we left at 9:45 there were mobs of people entering the park and a lady waited ten minutes for me to move my car to take our spot... listen, I have a lot of gear to put away when I get to the car! Let this be your warning, come early or you can expect to stand in an actual Line going through the gorge. We had most spots to ourselves occasionally but even we had to contend with some small groups taking their time at the most popular photo locations.
Speaking of, the photos of this bridge and falls deep inside the park are probably the most popular subject of photography. I had to wait for it to clear out and the lighting was something at the time we were there, but it really is a magical spot... which when you try to cross, you WILL get soaked. 50% of the paths in the entire park are covered in puddles and there are multiple spots where you will get sprinkled on from the water dropping above. This is of course compounded by the fact that we went when it was quite dry and hadn't rained in some time, late june. I can't imagine just how wet this park is in early spring! I was quite happy to have been wearing water proof boots, and the extra grip they provided brought peace of mind even though it wasn't really necessary.
Getting back to those stairs, even though we climbed tons of them, stone ones, wooden ones, some in tunnels... we never really felt exhausted climbing through the gorge. The walk back along the rim provided semi decent views and even more stairs back down. Yet it wasn't until later in the day that we truly got burned out. All in all I found the physical part of the hike thoroughly enjoyable.
Now, does the park live up to its enormous hype? Kind of. I admit I enjoyed it, and there are spots that are really cool and unique, walking behind the waterfall before going up a tunnel of spiral stairs is pretty cool. However I think the crowds somewhat kill the experience later in the day and the rim trails are nothing to write home about.
To end the first part of our day we drove ten minutes south to visit Chequga Falls/ Shequaga falls. One being the name and the other the pronunciation, just expect google to use the S name and attempt to take you to the bridge above the falls. This fall is located in a small town, literally at the end of nice big lawn between private homes. I would hate to live there with so many people coming in and out, and I hope people respect their signs to stay off of their lawn!
This is yet another very large waterfall that was a nice bookend to our first adventure of the day. I think visiting this and hector falls really makes sense due to their proximity and is a nice way to round out your trip, especially since Watkins glen doesn't have much in the way of large waterfalls itself. All in all this was a nice relaxing way to start the day... The next part though....
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