Category: Taughannock

Labor Day Stroll -I

MichaelStephenWills8 Comments

The top of Taughanock Falls is just visible above the trees in this view from the South Rim of the gorge on a sweltering Labor Day afternoon, September 4, 2023.

Click Me for this Finger Lakes Collection, a great place to visit.

Copyright 2023 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Taughannock Gorge with the kids – part 2

MichaelStephenWills

Several possible sources have been proposed for the name Taughannock, all of which describe Native American origins. One translation suggests that the name is derived from a combination of Iroquois and Algonquin terms meaning “great fall in the woods”.  An alternate theory suggests that the name may refer to a Lenni Lenape (Delaware) chief named Taughannock who died near the falls during a battle.

A nice lady offered to take the photo….challenged to keep it straight.

During the second half of the nineteenth century, steamboats, railroads and Victorian hotels were built in the region to serve tourists who traveled to view the falls. By 1925 the hotels were failing due to a decline in tourism, and New York State began acquiring land to form a park.

Pollywogs!! Catch and release

J.S. Halsey built a two and a half story hotel in 1850, known variously as the Cataract Hotel or Taughannock House (or simply as Halsey’s Hotel) at the Taughannock Falls Overlook.

Visitors could reach the hotel by taking a train to Cayuga Lake, take a steamboat across the lake to Goodwin’s Point, then finally board a stagecoach to reach the hotel. The hotel site today is the location of the park visitor center and parking lot.

Enjoy!!

Taughannock Gorge with the kids

and ice cream!!

MichaelStephenWills16 Comments

The waterfall and gorge comprise an example of a hanging valley, formed where Taughannock Creek’s stream-carved valley meets the deeper glacially carved valley that contains Cayuga Lake.

The gorge has continued to retreat westward from Cayuga Lake as easily eroded shale near the fall’s base is worn away by the stream, which supports erosion-resistant siltstone and sandstone found in the upper portions of the gorge.

Pollywogs!! Catch and release

Annual freeze and thaw cycles also act upon small faults in the rock, causing large sections to occasionally break away, further expanding the gorge.

Taughannock Falls’ main cataract is a 215-foot drop (66 m), making it 33 feet (10 m) taller than Niagara Falls. It is the tallest single-drop waterfall east of the Rocky Mountains. The waterfall is located along Taughannock Creek, which flows through a long gorge with cliffs up to 400 feet (120 m) high.

Enjoy!!

First Day

Spring Equinox

MichaelStephenWills3 Comments

Thank You for exploring with me the South Rim trail of Taughannock Falls State Park on this first day of Spring 2023.

Photographs with video from this walk, with nature sounds and music in 4K HD
Click photograph for a larger view. To do this from WordPress Reader, you need to first click the title of this post to open a new page.
Here, before the epynmous creek flows over the falls, glacial outflow carved this deep canyon through relatively soft sedimentary rock.
Distant Lake View
The place for rest and wonder
Looking into the gorge
South Rim view of falls
Taughannock creek below the falls
Red Barn on Gorge Road, off South Rim rial.
Perched on the north rim of the gorge, the Visitor Center for the Falls Overlook is visible before trees leaf out.
On spring’s first day Taughannock Creek is full beneath the old railroad bridge, now a connector between South and North Rim Trails.
The creek here plunges into the chasm below a former railroad bridge.
Gorge from Railroad Bridge Walkway

Click me for another Taughannock post, “Cuteness Break.”

Big Bend

A tripod and Neutral Density filter

MichaelStephenWills7 Comments

Winter 2020 I posted “Winter People Watching” featuring the Sony F828 and candid street photography.

What I love about this place, a unique feature, is the size and different vantage points making it possible to view the same place from different angles. November 2019, readers were shown “The Bend,” a place with Taughannock gorge makes a 90 degree turn, changing from a southeastern to an eastern flow. Here are photographs from spot overlooked by that post.

Here the camera faces away from the sun, the graduated neutral density filter allowing me to capture the cloudless blue sky, a little milky the way it is here February with a hint of spring.

The gorge makes a 90 degree turn, changing from a southeastern to an eastern flow. Here is am in the creek bed facing east.

This little one is studying the information placard with rapt attention, learning how the African continent, pushing against North America, across the eaons, formed the right angle fractures mirrored by this dramatic change in Taughannock Gorge. For the Big Bend photographs I was standing behind them, along the stream bed.

Here is a broader slice of that sky.

The gorge makes a 90 degree turn, changing from a southeastern to an eastern flow. Here is am in the creek bed facing east.

Can you see the tiny figures of hikers, dwarfed by the frozen cliff?

The gorge makes a 90 degree turn, changing from a southeastern to an eastern flow. Here is am in the creek bed facing east.

Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

A Little Water Fall…

…and Gorge Cliffs

MichaelStephenWills6 Comments

Purling of the water beneath this foot high waterfall was enhanced by reducing ISO to 100, tamping down the aperture to f/22 resulting in an shutter speed of 1/10th second. I set the graduated Neutral Density filter to shade the left side.

On the cliffs ahead is where the observation platform is cut into the rock. It has a great view of the waterfall, in some ways the experience of the falls is enhanced, compared to hiking the 3/4 mile path and standing below.

The Gorge Walls, hundreds of feet above the creek are very dangerous to stand below.

A marvelous forest grows on talus from the high gorge walls.

A sign on a disused pier warns waders to leave the creek bed. Ahead the gorge walls tower above the creek. Rocks dislodge and crash down unexpectedly, crushing foolish waders. It is appalling to see, in warmer months, people walking below those cliffs gathering the fallen rocks to make delicately balanced cairns.

Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Rambling Images

Three Summer Hikes

MichaelStephenWills

“Out in the meadow, I picked a wild sunflower, and as I looked into its golden heart, such a wave of homesickness came over me that I almost wept.  I wanted Mother, with her gentle voice and quiet firmness; I longed to hear Father’s jolly songs and to see his twinkling blue eyes; I was lonesome for the sister with whom I used to play in the meadow picking daisies and wild sunflowers.”

from “Laura Ingalls Wilder, Farm Journalist, Writings from the Ozarks” edited by Stephen W. Hines”

Click me for “Summer Dream, Buttermilk Falls” in my Fine Art Gallery

Cornell Plantations

Click photograph for a larger view.
Trail sign at starting point
Beebee Lake
Lily Pads flowering on the north side of Beebee Lake
Fall Creek Gorge flooded by Beebee Lake dam

Taughannock Falls

Stairs to North Rim from Cayuga Lake shore
uphill all the way
first view point
second view point
Hepatica leaves
trail erosion
third view point
fourth view point, north
fourth view point, south with Cayuga Lake in distance
fifth view point, east with only the south gorge rim visible
fifth view point, south wiht distant view of Cayuga Lake
looking into the gorge just below the falls
south rim trail, looking into the upper gorge with native plants
moss
looking into the gorge
Vultures perched on gorge walls above and around Taughannock Falls

Buttermilk Falls, upper

Jack in the Pulpit with spent flower
Treman Lake

A quiet moment……

Copyright 2022, Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved