Alrighty, so we're on to the one and only day we spent separated for the entire trip. Derek and I knew we had other photos to take at the places we had already been, so we opted to not go on the long haul trip to Alexandria Bay with my dad and the kids and go back to Watkins Glen, Taughannock, and Upper Tremens.
Sadly, this meant that I did not get to meet Rhyann's bestie Alyssa, which is a real shame, I would have loved to have met her. But I think Rhyann had an amazing time seeing her, it looks like Alex had an amazing time viewing Boldt Castle with my dad, so I think in the end, everybody got at least a small version of the day that they wanted.
So here is the old mill house at the top of Upper Tremens.
I found two places with a pretty decent historical account of the property, one of them comes with old-y time-y photos!!!
I learned a LOT from the second link. Like there's a city buried underneath. The old hamlet of Enfield Falls. I had no idea! I just talked to me dad about it, and apparently if we had crossed the street, we could have checked out the excavation sites that Cornell has underway. I really missed out.
Derek and I arrived at about...8 am, I think? And we knew we were going to walk down to the bottom of the falls to try and get a more evenly lit, and all encompassing, view of Lucifer Falls. I took a picture of the trail marker:
That pretty well highlights the gorge trail that we took the other day. And I think some of the history bits on here are featured on the New York History page I linked above.
Here's the old mill!
Alas, we did not get to experience more even light. We arrived too late in the day AGAIN. Exhibit A:
Here I am, in that uneven light, trying to smile through my annoyance at my own poor planning. I know about The Photographer's Ephemeris!!!! Why didn't I just pay the stupid fee and get my light right 100% of the time?? UGH. The things I kick myself for. Get that smile off of your face, you twat! You don't deserve it.
That looks a little more humbled, but you've got a ways to go before you look properly upset at yourself.
The light right HERE is perfect, so I can't complain too much. And that is an unwise place for my camera bag.
The stairs were in shadow, and not the falls, so it was actually nice and cool where we were standing for photos. I have always loved the stone carved steps here.
My own little pocket of good light!
It irks me that he looks taller than me here. He is not. We are the same stupid height.
We had to do a 45 second Mission Impossible Style wall scale to get to the bottom, but we made it!!!
One side is just absolutely carpeted with moss, and there are very gentle waterfalls that come down on that side, and it's like a fairy grotto.
Looking out the other way toward the direction we walked in from.
Here we go! Bottom of Lucifer Falls. Except the light was still un fucking even. We knew that going in, but like...dammit. I am still upset about it.
Look at how mossy and gorgeous! Er, GORGES, ammiright, Ithacans??? You can see one of the gentle waterfall paths.
We are also GORGES. But this is TWICE now that he's stood in a way that makes him look taller than me, and I am angry that I allowed this to happen. I assure you, he was standing on a rock shelf vaguely above me.
Me again! I took a lot of selfies this morning.
Derek took longer with his photos at the bottom than I did, so I looked around for rocks to bring home to Rhyann, since she didn't come to this waterfall at all. And I found one It had a fossil in it and everything! I was so tempted to keep it, and Derek was like, I've been looking for a rock like that this whole trip, we should keep it!!! But I definitely gave it to her. She seemed to love it, too, so that's what counts.
Here is Derek scaling the wall back to the trail! We had to do this to get to the bottom of the falls, and to get back. Could we have trudged through the water? Yes. But Derek wasn't wearing hiking shoes that day, and I don't like squishy feet.
I told Derek that if we took the rim trail, we'd be able to get a view of Lucifer Falls from above and across, and he was like, YES I AM IN. So we made the trek up the rim trail.
And when I say up....
I mean...
....UP. Total elevation gain of 826 ft, and every inch of that ascent was a fucking stair step.
We took the Gorge Trail down, and that was the one we finished the other day, like a bunch of suckers, as my dad drove down to the bottom and met us there. But we had to take the Rim Trail UP to get to this vantage point:
Where Derek continued with episode three of Hot Guy Dumb Shit (TM).
Admittedly, this is the least risky episode, and a fitting way to end the show.
Once we got over having so many stairs to climb, the rest of the trail was wonderful.
Look at that view!!! You can hear Lucifer Falls from here...in fact, it is right below us...but you can't see it.
I echo my previous sentiment that so much out here reminds me of the PNW.
We heard so many new bird calls! We identified an oven bird and a few other birds whose names I don't recall, but I love hearing new bird calls!! I was elated to be walking through the gorgeous forest, listening to new birds, and feeling the warmth of the sun and the cool breeze. Just a lovely morning.
After Upper Tremens, we went to Walmart to grab some stuff, and we ended up putting it all back because we didn't have the cooler and we were going to be heading to Watkins Glen directly after we left the store. I did, however, see this hilarious mark down:
Yes. Technically that is correct. I just can't recall the last time I saw something that was a dollar marked down to 100 cents. I laughed for at least 30 seconds in the store. Or 300000 milliseconds.
Rather than waste time starting at the bottom of Watkins Glen and working our way back up, we parked at the top and made our way down. We had stopped at Glen Cathedral the first time we came here, and the only place that really mattered to me to photograph was Rainbow Falls.
This is the base of Jacob's Ladder, a stupid mistake to choose after our ascent of the rim trail at Upper Tremens. That train trestle is something special, but I didn't take a picture of the sign, because it was REALLY scuffy and I couldn't read it.
Making the descent into the gorge!!! It wasn't hot out on this day, but the respite from the relentlessly beating sun was welcome.
The place is lousy with these mini cascades of fat trickles of water. Just an absolute treat.
So below this bridge is Rainbow Falls, and when I tell you that in the hour we spent photographing this location that not one moment was free of people, I mean it. It stayed occupied the whole time.
A different angle of Rainbow Falls! One that is not nearly as iconic.
But this view is. If you've ever googled Watkins Glen, I'm willing to bet this is the location that comes up in the bulk of the images you get with your results. And for good reason. It is VERY pretty.
This is where I stayed to get my photos. It doesn't look like it was wet there, but it was definitely wet there. I got dripped on every four or five seconds.
Rainbow Falls was really the only place that we missed at Watkins Glen, so once we were done there, we headed back up the way we came. I did not notice this on the way down, but at the top of the penultimate staircase when you're ascending Jacob's Ladder, someone wrote BOGUS. I can only assume they meant how many stupid stairs you have to climb, to which...I agree.
That pole, right there on the left, is the one that says BOGUS.
On the way back up, I was behind a pair of people that irked Derek and I on a multitude of levels. They were walking VERY slowly, and there was plenty of space for me to pass them, so I politely said, "excuse me!" as I walked by them, though it wasn't necessary. They were both polite, as well, and moved further to the side (again, there was no need, there was so much room, but this is common etiquette), with the younger saying to their father, "Dad, she needs to pass us." And the dad says, "Oh, yes, of course!" And the other one says, "She's in much better shape than us, so she's much faster" to which the dad replies, "Oh, absolutely. Look at her legs!"
And like, I get it, my legs are exposed, but like, there was something super dehumanizing about someone saying LOOK AT HER LEGS as an evaluation tool. Derek was like, they could just tell you're hit, honey! You have really muscular legs! And he's right, I do, but like....I don't know I guess that comment just hits differently for me than it would for him. But they got under Derek's skin, too.
Right as we neared the bottom of Jacob's Ladder, we saw a grey petaltail dragonfly. This is a protected species whose only known habitat is in NY, and there is signage EVERYWHERE about how to protect them, and to not kill them, and to generally care for these AMAZING critters (they're what's known as a living fossil! They have evolved over the millennia, but they're essentially unchanged from their ancient ancestors! How fucking cool is that???? Read more on them here.). So we are lucky enough to see one go flitting past us, and while we stopped to admire and maybe get a photo (spoiler: we did not), it flew into the area of the two people who had been walking slowly in front of me. Now I did not hear this exchange, because I stayed where we first saw the dragonfly and Derek followed it further down gorge, but Derek reported that the older of the two both called it a butterfly AND said if it flew near him, he'd kill it.
I would love to officially tell those two to never come back to this state every the fuck again.
We also saw a LOT of either Amish or Mennonite teens at the park. I was wondering if maybe it was their Rumspringa, but since they arrived and left on bikes, my guess was no, they were just enjoying the park like everybody else was.
There was also a person getting ready to do the hike wearing jeans, long socks, and a heavy ass windbreaker. Fucking WHY??? It was warm out!!! She was clearly looking to pass out from heat stroke.
After Watkins Glen, it was still too early to ho back to Taughannock, so we went to the Commons instead to see if any of the stores were open. They were fuckin not, but there was a whole shindig going on!
We parked on the top floor of the parking garage, and I took the stairs, as I always do. Derek was going to take the elevator, but, well.
Like everything else on the commons, it was fucking closed for business.
I saw this tent and I thought it was so funny, because Thousand Islands in Alexandria Bay is exactly where my dad had taken the kids. Silly, I know, but it made me laugh, so I took a photo.
Turns out it was Ithaca Festival!!!
Derek stopped and got some green curry fried chicken at one of the many food trucks parked in the commons streets. He said it was delicious.
While we were enjoying the locals and wandering the open vendors, we got a text saying that everybody was almost back from Alexandria Bay. Well damn. Derek and I had planned on enjoying the festival for another hour before heading back to Taughannock to get photos of the falls from the base, but instead, Derek finished the second meal he got (which was the curry, actually. The first meal he got was a gyro) and we left.
The next day would be our first easy morning in quite a few days, because we were going to spend the entire day thrifting!!!
I told Derek today that I'm really upset with the photos I've been editing that I took while we were in Ithaca. My whole goal, aside from sharing my favorite place in the world with the three people I love the most, was getting print worthy photos. And I have just failed this directive miserably.
These photos mark the last that I took with my camera. Everything else from here on out is taken on my cell phone.
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