So for those keeping track, it's day six of the trip, which means it's June 3rd. We leave for Chicago on June 8th. We still have a LOT of days to cover. Five full days to document! And THEN we have Chicago to do. At this rate, I'll be done by my birthday. Of next year.
So June 3rd means we're heading to Watkin's Glen! I have wanted to go here for like, my whole life. My dad said I might have gone as a kid, but I have no memory, and he couldn't be sure. So here we are again, another place I get to experience with the same fresh eyes as my kids and my spouse. I love this for me!!
I was expecting parking to be kind of a nightmare when we got to Watkins Glen, because we arrived...as I assumed we would...later than I wanted to. I am used to Derek and I just being worn the fuck out and exhausted by the end of a trip, because we wake up at the fucking ass crack of dawn to suck out the most hours from everywhere we want to go. My dad is not about that life, so we had to find a balance between my desire to get up early and be on the go immediately, and my dad's desire to do not that.
We didn't get there too much later than I wanted, AND we found a spot pretty immediately, so everybody wins! We had packed a cooler full of drinks and snacks, because...y'all...Watkins Glen is a hike. We were all going to be hot, hungry, and thirsty by the time we were finished, and it was still the rule that we were going to stop for food for restaurants only in the case of an absolute emergency. We had the cooler, we were going to use it. This worked out the best for me, I think, because my diet means I cannot really eat very many places at all. Being keto and vegetarian/vegan makes it difficult for me to eat somewhere on a whim. So I loved being prepared. I cut myself some veggies, I made myself some wraps, I brought my water and my seltzers, I was set and happy.
The weather was GORGEOUS that day. Warm, but not hot, a nice, cool breeze, and plenty of fluffy clouds in the sky.
Here is the bottom of Watkins Glen. There are two places to park and hike: the bottom, or the top. We chose the bottom today. There is a trail to the gorge at the end there, but uh, it was closed. Like everything else in the Finger Lakes region, apparently.
There's Alex as we waited for my dad to finish up in the bathroom and walk with us to the trail (we didn't know it was closed yet, we were still blissfully unaware of the trek we were about to make).
Both of my kiddos!!! It would have been great to have Laurel with us for this trip, I love when all of the kids are together. I love these amazing kiddos the most. What an absolute gift to be able to share these experiences with them.
So this is the first of the waterfalls you see...if you park at the bottom and hike your way up. It's a gorgeous fall, but sadly, the bridge over it was closed, and this was the best viewpoint we got of it.
Here's a little video of the waterfall, for maximum effect.
Rhyann was investigating the raspberry bushes, photographing the beautiful orb weavers all up in that piece. I keep forgetting to ask her how her photos turned out!!! I just asked. We'll see what she says!
Here's Alex, hanging out with us as we took photos of the falls, waiting for my dad to finish taking his photos. Because we knew that the three of us (Rhyann, Derek, and myself) were going to be stopping to take a lot of photos, Alex went up to do the hike with my dad. He told us he'd probably need a lot of breaks, which would be perfect for Alex to stop and take some water breaks herself, as she is criminally underhydrated at any given moment, no matter how hard I micromanage her water intake.
Look at this stone cold fox. This absolute smoke show. This wonderful idiot, who would go on to do Hot Guy Dumb Shit (TM) later on in the hike. Hard at work, waiting for cloud coverage so he could take an evenly lit shot of the waterfall.
There's my daddy, taking his photos!!
Those stairs were evil. I am in pretty great shape. I cycle ten miles a day, five times a week. I walk 3 miles a day, five times a week. I stretch in the morning for about 30 minutes, isolating various sections of my bawdee. I have always been an avid hiker, I played tennis for years, I love being active. And I inherited bad knees from both of my parents. At 36, I was diagnosed with arthritis, though I had been suffering with it for years. I have lost about half of my cartilage in my left knee, I use one of those fun, fancy robot braces with the mechanics in it that stabilize my knee so I don't actually have to use it. I take Celebrex every day to manage the pain. And yet...I do shit like these stairs, anyway, and I love it.
It for sure sucks on the way up, and my knees always get super swollen now. My doctor tells me not to use my knees, because it's decades of overuse that did this to me in the first place. I WAS cycling twenty miles a day, and my compromise was moving down to ten instead of....stopping as she suggested.
Here is the first place that Derek and I stopped to take photos. This is about where we lost Rhyann, too. She moved past us little pokies to keep walking the gorge trail.
Derek and I didn't actually make it over that suspension bridge, but more on that later.
Here's Derek, getting ready to participate in his first Hot Guy Dumb Shit (TM) action of the day.
I had been VERY nervous about the idea of putting our tripods over the edge like that. Unlike Buttermilk gorge trail, if something falls here, we can't go get it. But Derek felt the confidence in doing something stupid that almost all cis men get to enjoy. I did eventually put my camera where his tripod was, though I kept the strap looped around my wrist in case the worst happened.
We had a lot of lookiloos, as per usual. People are always curious about what it is that we're doing. I'm always surprised when we're the only obvious photographers in any given place that is visited for its beauty specifically, and we almost always are. We had one lady stop and make conversation with us, and it was kind of cute how she flexed her bits of photography knowledge, and when she balked at us saying our exposure was 30 seconds, we laughed good naturedly. I do not like people to chat me up while I'm taking photos, though. I should get a shirt that mentions my discomfort at social interaction.
Here we go! The first of the Hot Guy Dumb Shit (TM) decisions that Derek would make on this day. If that shit fell, it was gone. No retrieval unit, just having to buy a new camera, a new lens, and a new tripod. And a new wife, while he's at it.
Thankfully, this worked out ok insofar as he didn't drop anything. He has yet to edit his photos, so no way to tell yet if he even got a photo out of the gamble he took.
This spiral staircase leads down into the Something Something Cavern Something. Cavern of Wonder Cave of Something? Waterfall Cavern? I can't be bothered right now. But this was hand carved. Hand fucking carved! And the staircase isn't exactly small. It's very windy, the cavern itself is very large. I was impressed by the hand hewn factoid.
It is just so impossibly green in the gorge. It's like being in paradise. It's also, unsurprisingly, full of that same earthy, wet smell that I love so much. Definitely intoxicating for me. It almost reminds me of old books, a scent I also relish.
This method of photo taking is an improvement on the method he was using previously! But I have some REALLY bad news from the future.
The answer to the question "what is that cavern area called" that nobody asked earlier is "Cavern Cascade". I was way off.
This is the view when you are about halfway through the hand hewn tunnel (which was carved in 1927). And then you get to walk behind the cascade to get to the next view of the fall.
Refreshing! And annoying when you're humping fifteen pounds of camera gear on your back that you don't wat to get wet. But mostly refreshing. And the sound of the water as it rushes over your head is...humbling, if not wholly remarkable and terrifying.
And here we are, Cavern Cascade.
Plus video!
I definitely wanted to make sure I got a solid shot here, but that would require some...maneuvering? I think that's the best way to put it? I set my tripod up in a very precarious position.
It may look stable, but it is TEETERING, let me assure you. It is hugging the edges of that stone wall for dear fucking life. But my boldness is nothing compared to that of my husband. Here comes Hot Guy Dumb Shit, Episode 2. And not a single reckoning in sight.
While I'm pleased that we didn't have to buy a new camera and lens and tripod, I am also slightly miffed that Derek never suffers any repercussions for doing shit like this. And that kind of bold stupidity should not be rewarded. And I'm FURIOUS. My pettiness doesn't know if it will be angrier if he gets no shot out of that, or if he gets a better shot than mine.
Here are just a few snaps of the gorge as we walked through:
More stairs! But nothing too serious. Just this tiny little flight.
This is just so beautiful. I could have walked around the place for hours.
So this is about where I got a phone call from my dad telling me that the shuttle isn't operating today, and he doesn't have the energy to walk down and meet us. He told me he was going to take the kids and go down the other trail, with none stairs, and meet us at the bottom. He told us to take our time, but we opted to just turn around and meet them at the bottom so we could all leave together. Again, it would have been HOURS if we hadn't done that, and it's unfair to make everybody else sit and wait for us.
Back down these bad Larries. Dumb knees! But the way down for me is easier than the way up. Derek is the opposite. Up is easier than down for him. Wild.
After we all got back to the car and had our lunch and hydrated and generally cooled down, we took a slight detour to Hector Falls, which I've been calling Herkimer Falls. I was kind of tempted to get out and take a photo, but the lighting looked so uneven that I didn't feel like bothering. It was pretty, though!!
After that, we made our way back to the AirBnB. I got it wrong the other day, because this night was the night that Derek made stir fry chicken and bok choy and yu choy and we went to three different stores as an exercise in trying everyone's patience. Doesn't matter now what we ate that other night, I guess!
We still watched Stranger Things before bed. And Derek and I had a busy morning ahead of us for the next day: ITHACA FARMER'S MARKET!!!!!
I didn't do much photo taking on this day. I mean, I DID, but the photos are all of the same subject, just trying to get the best version of it. Derek and I both felt like we missed out, so we decided on the way down that we'd opt out of Sunday's excursion to Alexandria Bay and head back here to photograph everything we missed. I knew it was going to upset my dad, but I hadn't even gotten to Rainbow Falls! We made it to Glen Cathedral before turning around to meet him at the bottom. So here's what I got for the day:
And that's all she wrote for Watkins Glen.
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