Upstate NY & PA

October 17 – October 22, 2018

TL;DR: The nature situation in upstate New York and Pennsylvania is pretty awesome. It’s flush with waterfalls, including 19 at Watkins Glen alone. Niagara didn’t suck either.

The sights

Beaver Meadows Lake

This beautiful lake delivered on the nature we had been missing after being in cities for so long.

We also got stuck in some rain, but didn’t mind a bit.

Kinzua Beach

Walked up to the Rimrock Overlook, which was super beautiful and home to some exceptional light.

Strolled down the beach, saw lots of trees, huge rocks, and a steep, narrow staircase built into it.

Niagara Falls

Parked at the lot in the back of Goat Island, and it was free (score!).

The Niagara River had a very strong current and the fall colors of the trees surrounding it were stunning.

We walked over to the visitor’s center, then over the Rainbow Bridge to the Canada side.

Unfortunately they were doing construction on the bridge so we didn’t get quite as good a view as we normally would. Continued to walk toward Horseshoe Falls amongst a pretty solid crowd of people.

We think Canada definitely got the better end of the deal; their view is much prettier and you can actually see the falls. Plus, it’s so easy to walk there, and $1 to cross per person.

We rode the Maid of the Mist, Canada-style, got totally soaked, and couldn’t really see all that well. But it was pretty neat to be right at the bottom of the Horseshoe Falls. Loud and super windy.

Also swung by the American Falls on the way back. Cue Jurassic Park theme song.

Letchworth State Park

This is apparently ranked the number one state park in the country. We’re not exactly sure by who, but it was definitely gorgeous.

The Lower, Middle, and Upper falls are the main attractions.

The Upper Falls is under a cool bridge, and is sort of horseshoe-shaped. We walked all the way up to see what was up there. It was more views of the falls. Right.

The highest of them all, the Middle Falls is in front of the Inn, which is an awesome location for a house. In fact, Glen Letchworth originally owned 1,000 acres that included all three falls. He eventually donated them to the state.

In the middle of a big gorge, the Lower Falls had the smallest drop, but also a cool little rock bridge. People started thinning out when the rain picked up, but we found it a good opportunity to squish through the mud.

Letchworth was a pretty busy park compared to the other parks we’ve recent visited. We drove to the north end to do a bike ride down the other side of the river, but it was too rainy.

On our way out, we saw a group of kayakers braving the river despite approaching thunderstorms.

Watkins Glen State Park

This. This is the Disneyland of waterfalls. There are 19 of them! Within 1.5 miles!

We parked across the street from the park, which was right in the middle of town. The park itself is really just a huge, deep gorge of slate and sandstone. Super pretty. Kind of thought there would be dinosaurs around every corner.

The walkways and bridges were done really well, with one of them going right under a waterfall. Would have been so cool if we were by ourselves, but it was pretty busy.

We hiked the Gorge Trail on the way out and wanted to do the Indian Trail on the way back, but it was cut off before the end, so we did half, then switched back to the Gorge Trail.

Watkins Glen (the town)

After the park, we went searching for a hot coffee or chocolate and ended up at a bar where there was a pretty stellar band of old dudes playing folk music.

We walked down to Seneca Lake, and smelled a delicious BBQ on the way there (see Nickel’s under Roadfood).

Also stopped in a really cool booze store called Local 62 with exclusively NY state-made liquor, wine, and beer.

Kaaterskill Falls

This was apparently a bigger tourist destination than Niagara Falls at one point.

It’s still one of the largest cascading waterfalls in America at 260 feet, and cascades in two different stages, though we’d argue there are three (one more at the bottom).

We wanted to park at the bottom and walk to the top (Bri especially prefers this method of hiking: hardest first, then downhill). But there was absolutely no parking for Layla. So we went to the top, and hiked downhill first.

At the bottom, you can kind of cross the water by frolicking across the rocks and logs, which is fun.

The drive to and from Kaaterskill was also really beautiful, with tons of fall colors and sweeping views of the hillside.

Athens

Went here for dinner and beer at Crossroads. Cute, quiet town on the Hudson River.

Details, details, details

Got to the ranger station at Allegheny National Park and the ranger was very helpful. We did, however, get caught by a very fervent RV lover, who trapped us for about 30 minutes with her excitement.

The fall colors are really starting to come through.

Going through the customs counter at Niagara was pretty painless, but the guy was quite thorough, which we appreciated. There also appeared to be some confusion around how to get change.

After Maid of the Mist, we were starving, and basically ran across the border to get the most American and delicious thing we could find: burgers (see Flip Burger under Roadfood).

One night, we watched Cloverfield Paradox and it really threw us for a loop. We won’t spoil it, but the ending was the worst. Had to watch a Big Mouth to shake off the creeps.

At Crossroads in Athens, Jess had a pumpkin beer but Brian couldn’t taste the cloves. It was astounding.

Tannersville was supposed to be a really quaint town with tons of colorful houses, but we found it to be pretty blah. Oh well.

And then this happened…

On our way to Letchworth State Park we had to squeeze under a railroad overpass that was listed at 12’1″. Layla is 12’0″.

We made it.

It got pretty frosty in the forest—low 30s. But Layla’s doing great so far. Us too.

When we were at Beaver Meadows Lake, we ran into a hunter with his rifle on the hiking trail. Seemed like a nice guy, but we still took that as our cue to leave, and fast.

At Walmart, there was a bit of a Fast and the Furious situation outside at 2 AM. Why??

Now we know

Redbridge campground saved the day at Allegheny when we needed to dump and get water.

If you download Netflix shows, they eventually expire and give you no notice. Good to know when you’re in the middle of nowhere about to finish season 2 of Peaky Blinders and find they’re gone.

Road food

Our first meal back on the American side at Niagara? Burgers and fries at Flip Burger.

Ribs, mac ‘n’ cheese sandwiches, buffalo-wing tots…. Nickel’s BBQ was delicious.

Griddled muffin tops, fluffy Belgian waffles, and to-go cake?? Yes.

Where we stayed

Night one: Allegheny National Forest

It was good to get back out in nature. Went up along the road recommended by the ranger and found a good spot right by the river. There are a few places to pull off on the river side along a 2.5-mile stretch on PA-666 between where it forks off from Route 1003 to the south and where it crosses the river again and meets Henrys Mill Road on the north.

GPS coordinates: 41.632460, -79.037921

Night two: Allegheny National Forest

In Allegheny, we decided to stay in the forest one more night, and went down one road where we saw a teepee with a Trump/Pence 2020 sign out front. Given all the hunters we’d seen and the confederate vibes, we decided we did not want to stay there and found a different road instead.