The gorgeous gorges of Ithaca, New York

We are way behind in getting travel posts published this summer because we're having too much fun traveling! So we won't be confused about when each "wandering" happened, we 'll start each blog with its actual date.

September 21, 2022

We had beautiful weather this morning, and we were on the road at 11:00, heading towards our next Boondocker Welcome host near Cortland, New York. That's 113 miles and a 2.5 hour-drive today. We left Adirondack Park, which took us out of the mountains and into the rolling hills filled with agriculture. We traded our mountains and forests for gorges and cornfields. When Mark saw an Amish farm with a "Baked Goods" sign, he almost made a 50 mph U-turn in the motor home. But then we saw the fine print at the bottom of the sign--"Saturday only." No reason to U-turn on a Wednesday. At the end of the drive our camp site was right beside a 100-year-old red barn.

We have our own personal front yard with hiking trails and a view over the rolling hills of central New York.

Today's forecast calls for clear skies, something that we haven't seen much of lately. We don't want to waste the blue skies, so after we got the motor home parked, we headed toward Ithaca, New York. This is the home of Cornell University, and we checked out their botanical gardens in front of the visitor center.

A very nice woman welcomed us to campus, and gave us maps of the trails available in town. This town is situated around the deep gorge that the Fall River has formed. Their chamber of commerce signs brag that "Ithaca is Gorge-ous!"

Several bridges stretch across the gorge, including this suspension bridge that is limited to pedestrians. The trail we are hiking borders the north edge of Cornell University's campus, and students and faculty use it every day to get around. What a lovely way to get to class!

We crossed the Thurston Avenue bridge as we made our way around the Fall Creek Gorge Trail. This walk led us down a staircase of waterfalls carved through the sandstone and shale by the Fall River. We saw four waterfalls along the way--Triphammer Falls  (80 feet), Rocky Falls (55 feet), Horseshoe Falls (30 feet), and Forest Falls (60 feet).  The waterfalls that we could see below us were quite impressive with the recent rains we have been enjoying.

We walked to the end of the trail, and then back to the welcome center. Some of the trails are closed for maintenance, but we still had a nice walk. We then drove the pickup along the Fall River, all the way to the town's name sake--Ithaca Falls. The tallest of them all, Ithaca falls is an impressive 156 feet tall.

We have wandered into another of God's wonders here in Ithaca, New York!

It was long day of moving the motor home out of the mountains and into the hills of central New York, and then exploring our new region. We capped the day off with a stop at the A&W drive-in for the Wednesday night special of $1.59 cheeseburgers. This is good cheap fun here among the gorgeous gorges of Ithaca, New York.