Our first stop in the Finger Lakes area of NY was near Letchworth State Park. The night of our arrival, we drove to the park to see the Middle Falls lit up.
We stayed home the next day to work and catch our breath, but Saturday had perfect weather (upper 70's) and we decided to take a drive around the western Finger Lakes region. The trip took about half of the day and we only got lost once. When not in higher elevations or near lakes, most of the area was farmland.
We passed two ski areas on our drive. Not quite a large as Colorado, but they still looked fun.
This was our view from the hamburger joint where we had lunch. See that boat closest to shore? It took them about 15 minutes to get that boat tied up. One guy re-tied a single line to a cleat at least five times before he walked away. They ended up using three lines all tied to the same cleat (there were three cleats available). It was entertaining to watch.
Reclaimed wetlands at one end of the lake.
Just a cool shot.
Sunday was a tough day (pray for our country). Neither of us really wanted to go sight-seeing but Sunday afternoon we took a short trip to the Dam about four miles from our campground. It is a dry dam (something we had never heard of.) It is not used to retain water, but only to control flow during floods. In fact, the dry side of the dam in the picture below is the upstream side. The side with more water is downstream. The upstream portion of the dam only has water a couple of months each year (usually Spring) or when a major flood event occurs.
We returned to Letchworth again on Monday afternoon. Rains kept us at home most of the day. We wanted to take a couple of hikes (walks) we didn't have time for on our previous trip. Most of the park follows a river, so the park is about 25 miles long and about 1/4 mile wide. The drive through the park looked mostly like this.
And while you can see some things from the road, like this view...
...or this one...
...you have to leave the main road to see the other sites.
Most of our time this trip was spent at the Lower Falls. We hiked down. Waterfalls usually mean a hefty climb one way or the other.
At our next stop, Inspiration Point, we could see the Middle Falls, the mist from the Upper Falls, and the bridge that is under construction.
The sun was not in a good position for photos this evening, and we could not get the canyon walls to move so that we could get all the elements we wanted in our shots, but it was fun to try.