And our amazing journey has come to an end in New York. Today was filled with seeing three of the biggest waterfalls we’ve seen on this trip. The first stop was Buttermilk Falls State Park, which was one of the most busy areas we have gone to with tourists. Buttermilk Falls was also the closest waterfall to our hotel, with only being ten minutes away. Even though it was one of the coldest days and we had a huge drive in front of us, we wanted to keep exploring what all New York had to offer us.
Buttermilk Falls is truly breathtaking when you first see it. It’s about 50 feet high and the sounds of the falls is magical. We even saw baby turtles at the end of the falls when we got there! We were really surprised by how busy this place was and how much wildlife we did get to see. When getting there you get to cross a cute little bridge to the stairs that bring you up the falls. There are many informational billboards to check out and we recommend doing so just to learn more about the area. We also learned that were are several falls up the trails.
After being at the main falls for a while, we decided to climb up the stairs to see all the other cascades. It is 100% worth traveling up the stairs and the cardio to do so. This area was beautiful and unexpected since we are right by a main highway. You can see all the layers of rocks in the area and perfect the water ways in between the trees. We recommend bringing boots these falls due to the mud and water areas. There are signs where the park says to only stay on the trails due to saving the different areas which we commend due to the wildlife and keeping the natural habitat safe. We decided to take the Gorge Trail through the cascades and the Rim Trail back. The Rim trail was only woods and we were not close to the water, so if you want to stay close to the water and seeing more than we advise going back the Gorge Trail.
It was still early in the day, so we decided to go to another waterfall called Ithaca Falls. It was only about a 11 minute drive down the road to get there. This waterfall was one of my favorites. The area was secluded from the little town, and there was only one other person here. The rocks you climb to walk over to the falls were even eye catching due to the smoothness of the rocks decaying with the flowing water. There were several trees growing through the rocks which gave the area a really cool effect. It looked like something out of a dream, and to make it even better, there was a waterfall behind it all. This waterfall was almost intimidating with the water flow and how much was rushing over the ledge. The wind of the falls was freezing but it was almost impossible not to be tempted to walk towards those falls. We couldn’t get very many shots near the falls due to the mist and our equipment. We highly recommend seeing these falls and we want to come back to see them in the winter.
And our final journey brought us to a college campus with a waterfall. These falls were called the Triphammer Falls, which are located on Cornell’s Campus. This too, was only a couple minutes down the road and can be seen all in one day. We wanted to see these falls due to the abandoned power station at its base. We didn’t know that it was not there anymore and we were sort of disappointed but it was still beautiful. There were several areas to overlook the bridges and the waterfall. We only got a few shots since the campus was extremely busy. We do suggest parking right off the bridge by the falls due to limited parking on campus. The campus was so busy we couldn’t find a parking spot at first and ended up paying for parking near a science building. Overall the falls were easy to get to but this was definitely the busiest area we have ever visited for a waterfall and was hard to get any authentic shots. We recommend trying to see these falls if you’re in the area and students are lucky to see something so impressive everyday in the center of their college.
Overall our travels this day were really awesome and we highly recommend all of the areas we explored this day. There is just so much to do in this area, we didn’t want to leave. It is always so hard to go home after all these adventures and going back to a big city. It took us about 6 hours to get from Cornell Campus to Pittsburgh. We were extremely tired but seeing all three of the falls in one day and the drive was worth it. We have so many more falls on our list to go to in these area and I am sure we will be back soon, or in the summer. So stay tuned!
Buttermilk Falls Photo Gallery
