Taughannock Falls State Park

On our recent trip to the Finger Lakes Region of New York, we visited Taughannock Falls State Park.


For a trail map and directions, visit the New York State Parks website here.  There are fees to get into the New York State Parks, but you only have to pay for one park each day, as long as you keep your receipt.  We had visited Watkins Glen State Park that morning, so we didn't have to pay to get into Taughannock Falls State Park.

The Parks website will let you know which trails are open each day - we should have checked it before the 1/2 hour drive to the park, because when we got there, we found out that the Gorge Trail leading to the huge waterfall was closed!  Kinda disappointing.  We walked around for a bit at the shore of Cayuga Lake and then drove up to the falls overlook area.  From here you get spectacular views of Taughannock Falls.

Cayuga Lake

Taughannock Falls from the overlook

It was getting late in the afternoon, but we were still able to get a short walk in.  The overlook is on the North Rim Trail, so we took this trail west to the bridge overlooking the Upper Falls and then went a short distance on the South Rim Trail.  The hike was approximately 1.5 miles total.  The area we were on was relatively flat, but if you start at the Rim Trail beginnings, I imagine the climb would be a lot steeper.

North Rim Trail

 

There are really amazing views of the gorge from the South Rim Trail.  If we ever found ourselves in the area again, we would definitely re-visit this park.