Hiking at Robert H Treman State Park

We made our biweekly trip back down to Ithaca to hike to see Lucifer Falls, a 115-foot waterfall at Treman State Park.  This park encompasses the now defunct town of Enfield Glen, of which only a few relics remain.  This park encompasses a total of 12 cascades or waterfalls and is an easy 6 miles of walking on very well-maintained, albeit busy trails.  We began at the lower end of the park and walked up the Gorge Trail first.  Along the way we saw many small cascades and a bigger waterfall, all along trails edge.  When we reached the 2 mile mark we were at the base of Lucifer Falls.  From here, the Gorge Trail had washed out and we were rerouted onto the Rim Trail (are you guys noticing a pattern here, all the trails in Ithaca are named Gorge Trail and Rim Trail!) and up multiple flights of beautifully built stone stairs, which in my mind belonged in some kind of medieval castle!  At the top, it was a short walk to the view of Lucifer Falls.  

After viewing the falls, we continued uphill to meet up with the Gorge Trail once again, which you could follow for about 0.3 miles to an overlook with a bridge near the top of the falls.  We wandered back to the upper parking area and through an old flour mill, which has been restored and turned into a museum honoring both the former town of Enfield Glen and the CCC who built the trails and the parks during the Depression.  

After lunching and wandering through the museum, we took the CCC Memorial Trail to the Finger Lakes Trail to get a break from all the crowds and hike on real trail again.  There was an old woods road to walk on through the site of the former CCC camp and a bridge crossing Fishkill Creek which was out of service.  We crossed the bridge anyway only to realize why it was closed - the end on the other side had absolutely nothing supporting it!  YIKES!  After walking a short mile on the Finger Lakes Trail in solitude, we joined back up with the Rim Trail to hike back down to the car.  These two miles weren’t quite as busy as the Gorge Trail, but still very well-traveled.  When we reached the bottom, we reached Enfield Falls and the public “beach” at the bottom.

The photos above are: a swimmer on the diving board at Enfield Falls, the small falls on the Gorge Trail, NoKey’s face in a unique limestone formation,  NoKey walking up seemingly endless steps, me on the bridge over Lucifer Falls, and me jumping for joy while out in nature.  

Waterfall hiking near Ithaca, NY.

We headed down to two state parks over the weekend, Taughannock Falls State Park and Buttermilk Falls State Park, for some easy and scenic hiking.  We started off at Taughannock and hiked all the trails in this park, which only amounted to about 5 miles in length.  We started off at the parking area with the amazing view of this 215-foot waterfall and hiked counterclockwise on the Rim Trails, which gave us an amazing view of the creek and the gorge more than 200 feet below. These trails were pretty level other than the steep descent to the gorge and then the steep ascent back out, but these did include some beautiful stone steps so it wasn’t too difficult.  We also walked the nature trail back into the gorge to get a view of the waterfall below. 

After having a lunch next to a beautiful small cascade, we headed over to Buttermilk Falls State Park, only about 10 miles away.  Again, this park didn’t have a lot of hiking area, but it definitely made up for the lack of distance in the amount of scenery!   We parked at the lower end and hiked up the Rim Trail and gained about 450 feet in elevation in less than a mile.  Then we stopped at the upper parking area to check out the site of an old flour mill and then hiked up the Bear Trail to Lake Treman.  From here, we wound our way back down to the parking area and down the Gorge Trail, which followed Buttermilk Creek all the way back down the gorge to the parking area.  The Gorge Trail was practically brand new and very traveled.  We passed more people on this trail than we had seen all day.  

These state parks were in great shape and due to the waterfalls they were much more crowded than any of the other state parks we’ve been to in New York!  I can’t wait to get back down to Ithaca to hike more gorges and see more waterfalls.  We may have visited two parks over the weekend, but the area has more than 20 parks with just as much beauty.  

The photos above are: Taughannock Falls, the small cascade about 3/4 mile down past the falls where we ate lunch, me on a rock outcropping, Buttermilk Falls, and a beautiful (one of many!) cascade on Buttermilk Creek.