Ithaca is Gorges!

My title is not a typo, it's the travel slogan for the Ithaca area. It's a play on the word Gorgeous no doubt, but also literally means Gorges. The Ithaca area is home to over 100 waterfalls! They were everywhere! The area has several state parks centered around hiking to see the various falls.

As my Tuesday post ended on a sign saying the hotel grounds were ending and the Buttermilk Falls State Park trails were starting, we will start there....

The first thing we encountered was this weird tree with it's shaggy bark....

Here's a close-up....

I call it the "Cousin-It" tree.
Who knows that reference?

Just the typical scenery.....

Here's an idea of the terrain. We did a lot of hill climbing!

Not a great photo but you get the idea....STEEP!

About the time we were negotiating this downhill trek, we could here a loud roar (no, not like a lion!) in the background. When we finally reached the bottom of the slope, here's what we saw.....

The boys were pretty hot by this time in the walk, but this just wasn't a safe spot to left them in the water. We had ventured off the established trail to get this view, so now we had to climb up that same slope. The footing was actually safer going up, but it sure worked the lungs a lot more!

Once more on the park path.....

Just past where Wilson posed above, we came to a lake. It was created with a man-made dam wall which also served as a walkway to the other side.

The boys gave MUCH consideration to jumping in the water!

We continued on to the other side and next came old stone steps.....

Looking to the Heavens....?

This was the point at which I decided to turn around and head back to the hotel. I'd been gone pretty long and figured it was time to return. All in all, a very photogenic hike. To the top of the stairs and back took a bit over an hour. It was hot and humid out and the boys were disappointed at not getting any water time in. There was plenty of hill climbing which we really aren't used to. When we reached the room, the boys were more than happy to flop on the cool tile floor and take a nap.


A quick note about leashes.....While many of my photos look as if I was walking the boys off-leash, I had them securely leashed for the vast majority of the walk. My boys have an excellent "sit-stay" command, and I feel comfortable using it for a posed photo without leashes. Going down the steep hill was just safer for me not holding on to leashes.....But in general I would never risk them running off after wildlife in unknown territory. In this case, all we saw were chipmunks....hundreds of them!