Finding hidden gems in the Southern Tier of 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 24, 2022

We have recently learned that New York is divided into three tiers. We explored the northern tier when we were in Adirondack Park several days ago. Because we have driven south a couple times, we were then exploring the southern tier of New York. We were excited to look for hidden gems here. It was 35 degrees last night! Even though we have headed south to get to the southern tier, it looks like we need to travel even further south soon. It was foggy and cold when we left the motor home this morning for a tour of the southern tier of New York and Amish country.

We love the roadside produce stands everywhere, but they are even better in Amish Country! We bought a watermelon, green beans, and zucchini squash.

We headed up and down the steep hills of southwestern New York. We were looking for an Amish bakery, and found this one that's only open on Friday and Saturday. We're glad that our timing was great this time.

We've learned that many of these bakeries are in little buildings right beside the house. It gives visitors a close-up view of these large old farm houses that are always well-kept. We bought a cherry pie for $7, a pan of cinnamon rolls with nuts for $4, a bag of cookies for $1.75, and strawberry jam for $3. Inflation hasn't hit this Amish bakery yet.

We were driving up country roads with names like Meyer Hill and Jersey Hollow. We shared the road with the locals.

We love it when we get deep into Amish country and can spot work being done with the horse-drawn implements.

We respect these people's preference not to have their faces photographed. That was tough when we stopped at another family's road-side stand. Two of the boys were out front, pushing and pulling a single hand-operated grass mower. It was work, but they looked like they were having such fun. We bought fried pies, blackberry jam, and hot jalapeno rings. Denisa wishes that we could stay around longer so she could return these canning jars for them to re-fill.

We drove down Toad Hollow and Buelow Road to find more produce stands. They picked much of their produce last night because they were afraid of a frost that would ruin it. We followed another hand-painted sign for "Baked Goods" and bought a loaf of bread, monster cookies, dolly cake, canned dilly beans, and whoopie pies.

We drove by signs that would take us to home businesses for things like lumber mills, hydraulic hoses, cabinets, tarps, furniture, rugs, quilts, baskets, clock repair, and maple syrup. Many of the customers were local, with hitching posts out front. At another stop we bought zucchini bread, wheat bread, donuts, and apple cider. At this point you are probably wondering if we have a trailer attached to the pickup to haul all our purchases home.

Our next stop was the local cheese store, which uses only milk from Amish dairies. They are facing a shortage of available milk because the number of local dairies has decreased from more than 100 when this cheese factory began, to only 39 now. We bought cheese curds and fresh summer sausage to go with our just-purchased pepperoni bread for lunch. We enjoyed our Amish lunch while we drove by some of those holstein herds of dairy cows.

We took a picture of all our purchases from today. Much of the baked goods will go in the freezer, where we will spread these yummy home-made calories over several weeks.

We read that one of the Amish bakeries we visited today had donuts "as big as your face." Mark is holding up one of those face-sized donuts that is big enough to see his big smile through the hole.

We love cooking with fresh produce, and we were glad that we got to shop right before the freeze. We also love to try the canned goods that are prepared in their kitchens with no electricity. Everything we bought was delicious!

Our drive today was in the pickup, and we can verify that it isn't a good idea to be driving these dirt roads in a tall motor home. This railroad overpass would have shaved off the top two feet of our home.

While we were driving around this southern tier of New York, we also saw that we were close to the City of Rocks State Forest. No, we had never heard of it before, but it gets great reviews. So here we are! Mark has already scrambled down into the City of Rocks, and Denisa is taking his picture from what we thought was ground level.

This state forest has a sunken nature trail that is far below the normal level of the forest.

The sunken cliffs made a wonderland of ferns and moss as we  walked down the nature trail. We have definitely found a hidden gem.

There is a lot of moisture in this sunken trail, and we'll call this photo of mushrooms and ferns the wildflower picture of the day.

We found one neat view after another as we continued our hike. We have wandered into another of God's wonders here in the southern tier of New York.

While the trees are way above us, their roots were clinging to the cliff walls that we walked by.

The City of Rocks makes an amazing maze of narrow passage-ways that would make a great place to play hide and seek.

This state forest is a hidden gem, in the middle of the Treasure Mountains of New York.

After driving 22 miles back to our camp, we had a nice snack of Amish goodies. That fueled us up for a bike ride in the town of Allegany--another hidden gem here in the southern tier of New York.

We rode this seven-mile loop that took us beside the Allegany River for most of the way.

Our bike ride also took us through Bonaventure University in this little town. They were celebrating Family Weekend Festival, so we got to see some of the activities with lots of visitors on campus. 

It was a busy day of finding hidden gems. We enjoyed Amish Country, the City of Rocks, and the Alleghany bike trail here in the southern tier of New York.