Finger Lakes, New York Camping Trip - Day 4

 Tuesday, June 27, 2023

Our plans for this day included driving into Ithaca to the sprawling campus of Cornell University where we would be stopping to visit the Cornell Botanic Gardens. The gardens stretch all along Fall Creek and include the Fall Creek Natural Area, the Park Park Natural Area, the F.R. Newman Arboretum, the Mundy Wildflower Garden, the Nevin Welcome Center, and Beebe Lake. Because the grounds were huge, we decided to focus our visit to the area surrounding the Welcome Center, which featured herbs, rhododendrons, and ornamental perennials.

Sculpture at entrance to garden Hydrangea

Digitalis Poppy

From there we continued on the path around Beebe Lake to the opposite end where we could see Triphammer Falls. Triphammer Falls is formed by a dam at the end of Beebe Lake. The falls consist of 55 feet of multiple cascades and are a centerpiece of Cornell University’s campus. After viewing the falls we retraced our steps back around the lake and up a short path to view a waterfall in Hemlock Gorge before returning to the visitor center where we ate our lunch before heading to our next destination.

Sackett Bridge

Water lily on Beebe Lake

Triphammer Falls

Waterfall in Hemlock Gorge

Next we drove to Ithaca Falls, which is located close to downtown Ithaca where Falls Creek plunges 150 feet before making its way into Lake Cayuga. We had some heavy rain during the night and the falls were absolutely thundering. We had to carefully make our way along the path from the parking area because the creek level was high and covered the trail in some areas. After a week and a half of seeing waterfalls that weren’t at their fullest, this one caught us by surprise with the force of its power. It made us think of going back to some of the others to see if they, too, were running more fully.

Ithaca Falls

After viewing the falls we headed back to our truck, stopping for one last view from the nearby street where we saw another snake, this one perched on the top of a bush at the edge of a bridge crossing the creek. 

Snake!

Then our group split up with our daughter and her family heading back to the campground while we drove to Allan H. Treman State Marine Park to walk one of its trails. The previous day while we were riding our bicycles on the opposite side of the Cayuga Inlet, much to our surprise we caught sight of two lighthouses in the distance. We checked into it and found that the Marine Park would provide us with closeup views of both of them. We have visited well over 300 lighthouses over the years, so we couldn’t resist the urge to get some closer views of these two lights.

The white Cayuga Inlet lighthouse was built in 1917 and moved to its present location in 1927. The red Cayuga Inlet Breakwater Lighthouse was built in 1927. Both lights are used to mark the channel to the Cayuga Inlet and although both have the typical shape of a lighthouse, neither has ever had a cupola on top.

Cayuga Inlet Lighthouses

Cayuga Inlet Lightouse

Cayuga Inlet Breakwater Lighthouse

We enjoyed our walk along a nature path out to the lights and were also treated to a view of an active osprey nest where we watched the occupants for a while before heading back to our truck and the campground.

Osprey on their nest

When we returned to the campground the girls and our son-in-law were contentedly fishing in the pond again, so our daughter joined us to hunt for some more wineries to do a couple more tastings. This time we drove over to Seneca Lake and were totally amazed at the vast number of wineries we found. We stopped at Bagley Vineyards and Silver Spring Vineyards and ended up purchasing 3 more bottles of wine to take home.

Afterward, we returned back to the campground for dinner and a relaxing evening. The weather for the next day didn’t look too promising, so we made plans for a mostly indoor activity and turned in for the night.

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