Day 5 – Letchworth State Park Gorge

Today’s Blog Entry

Even though we’re on vacation we set an alarm today so that we could get out early for our morning hike on the Gorge Trail here in Letchworth State Park. Our goal was to hike while it was still relatively cool and to avoid any potential crowds.

After a quick breakfast we drove a short distance from the campground to the St. Helena trailhead for the Gorge Trail. This trail took us through Tea Table, Wolf Creek, and Big Bend areas while providing excellent views of the Genesee River. The river runs at the bottom of the gorge, i.e. some 500-600 feet below the steep rim of what the local tourist bureau has dubbed “the Grand Canyon of the East”.

After passing Big Bend (about 3-1/2 miles out) we decided to loop back, pick up the truck, eat our picnic lunch, and drive to the far end of the trail to check out the waterfalls. There are three large waterfalls on this section of the Genesee River (aptly named the Upper, Middle, and Lower), all of them worth seeing.

The trails leading to and from the waterfalls added another three miles to our hike and brought our total for the day to roughly ten miles, more than enough given the unseasonably warm and humid weather. Little did we know that the last hiking segment of the day (to the Lower Falls) had the added bonus of 200 stone steps down to the overlook and then those same 200 steps back up to the parking area. Our reward for the exertion was a pair of blackberry ice cream cones from the snack bar near the Upper Falls.

After cooling down a bit we took a drive to explore the area around Letchworth and then returned to camp just in time to enjoy an adult beverage and cook dinner. Tonight we had pork tenderloin (started sous vide and finished on the grill) with Cindy’s home made potato salad – baby Yukon Golds, fresh green beans, brown mustard, olive oil, red wine vinegar, sea salt, and coarse ground pepper.

Today’s Map

Today’s Photos