…and a few other places along the way.

I’d wanted to visit the Finger Lakes for several years. I’d seen the Watkins Glen gorge as a child but didn’t remember anything other than thinking it was beautiful. So I wanted to see it again, this time with a camera. And, of course I also wanted to visit some of the many wineries that surround the lakes.

For one reason or another, a road trip to New York always got passed by for some grander vacation in a more distant location. But after my surgery last fall, I wanted a spring trip that was more relaxed and didn’t require air travel or rental cars. So we planned this trip and included several other places we’ve been wanting to visit for a while.

Day 1 (May 8) – New River Gorge, West Virginia

We’ve been to the New River Gorge as a day trip, but it’s further than we usually drive to hike. So we broke up the drive to Uniontown, Pennsylvania, with stops at Sandstone Falls, Grandview, and the New River Gorge Bridge.

Recent rains increased the water volume flowing over Sandstone Falls (and many of the other falls we saw along the trip). The last time we’d been to the area, we could walk to the falls over rocks that were now underwater. This time, we had to jump over small streams to get the views.

Day 2 (May 9) – Fallingwater

Fallingwater has been on my “bucket list” for many years, but being five hours away and not near anything else we want to see, we never got there. I’ve always been fascinated by the Frank Lloyd Wright house built over a waterfall. Seeing the cantilevered structure in person is actually more impressive than in photographs because not only is the entire house cantilevered, but so are the Wright-designed furnishings within the house.

Restoration work is taking place on the house and, fortunately, most of the scaffolding was gone at the time of our tour. There was still some at the top that we could see from the spot known as “The View.”

Day 3 (May 10) – Niagara Falls

I’ve been to Niagara Falls more times than I can remember. My grandparents lived nearby, so when we’d visit them, we’d visit the falls. My husband went as a child as well but barely remembered it, so we added Niagara as a stop on the trip.

We started our day at Niagara Falls State Park, arriving early when there were many parking spaces and not many people. The morning light was a bonus.

We walked the Rainbow Bridge to Canada, which has the best views of the falls as well as its own parks.

After walking from the bridge to Horseshoe Falls, we returned to the U.S. and walked along the Niagara Gorge Trail. An elevator at the former Schoellkopf Power Station, which collapsed in 1956, has been restored and took us to the bottom of the gorge.

After lunch, we walked to Goat Island for additional views of the falls.

After the falls, we drove to Porter on the Lake town park to see Lake Ontario. On the horizon (not in this photo), we could see Toronto, approximately 40 miles across the lake.

Our final stop of the day was Niagara Power Vista, which is an interesting museum about the geology and geography of the region and how the dams were constructed and operate. On the left of the photo is the Canadian dam and on the right the American dam.

Day 4 (May 11) – Finger Lakes

On our way to the Finger Lakes, we stopped at Letchworth State Park, where we hiked a short trail near the Upper Falls. Unfortunately, the trails at the Lower Falls and Middle Falls were closed.

After stopping at a diner for lunch, we arrived at the Finger Lakes, where we planned to take in the view from the Sugar Hill State Forest fire tower. Unfortunately, that too was closed. Fortunately, the area around Keuka, Seneca, and Cayuga lakes is fairly small, so it wasn’t a detour that took us far from our primary destination for the day: Seneca Lake.

On the east side of Seneca Lake near the town of Burdett is Atwater Vineyards! Of the almost 150 wineries in the Finger Lakes, this was at the top of our list, for obvious reasons. The winery isn’t actually named after any relation of ours–it’s “at the water.”

Another fun fact about Atwater Vineyards: its website features one of the few Finger Lakes webcams I found online. I’d been watching for a few weeks as the brown, twiggy leafless trees budded and leafed almost overnight the week before our visit. And, yes, the trees really were these vibrant colors.

After another wine tasting, we went to Eagle Cliffs Falls, one of many waterfalls in the region. It’s a “hike” of a couple hundred feet through a gorge to reach the falls.

We had dinner at a restaurant along the lake and walked out onto the pier for golden hour.

One of the advantages of traveling in early season is the general lack of crowds. At restaurants and wineries, we had no trouble getting a seat, and at attractions, we had no trouble finding parking.

We stayed at Burdett House B&B in the small town of Burdett, about 10 minutes from Watkins Glen. It’s a charming Victorian home with recently renovated bedrooms and bathrooms. The hosts are extremely friendly, and we enjoyed chatting with them and the other guests around the fire pit in the quiet backyard in the evening. We highly recommend it if you’re in the area.

Day 5 (May 12) – Finger Lakes

One of the main reasons we planned this trip was to see the Watkins Glen gorge. We didn’t realize that it closed for the winter and, by the time we’d booked, it was set to open “mid-to-late May.” We would have enjoyed the trip even if we hadn’t seen the gorge, but we were thrilled when the park announced it would open on May 10. It’s really a spectacular place, unlike anything else I’ve seen.

Once again, we arrived early for good lighting and few people so we could take our time hiking with our tripods and cameras. For the most part, we had the park to ourselves from the time we entered until we turned around at the end of the one-mile hike through the gorge. Photoshop has some great new generative AI features that I do use, but I didn’t remove any people from any of these photos of our hike.

We spent the first part of the afternoon around Keuka Lake.

The Keuka Outlet runs from Keuka to Seneca, and there’s a trail along the stream. We walked to Seneca Mills Falls where the water volume made it look completely different from the photos we’d seen.

We went to Keuka Lake State Park at the tip of the west fork of the lake. We would have spent more time there, but we were swarmed by mosquitos. As bad as it was, the mosquitos at Milford, Pennsylvania, are still the worst we’ve ever seen.

Driving along Keuka, Seneca, or Cayuga Lake, you’ll pass dozens of wineries, including Dr. Konstantin Frank Winery, founded by the pioneer of the Finger Lakes wine industry.

The weather the following day was forecasted to be rainy, so we decided to take a late afternoon drive to Cayuga to see the lake and nearby waterfalls. We went to Taughannock Falls State Park…

…and Ithaca Falls.

Day 6 (May 13) – Corning and the Finger Lakes

We took advantage of a rainy day to visit the Corning Museum of Glass and take part in the “make your own glass” activities. The museum features both historic glassware and modern glass art and is well worth visiting.

After the museum, we had lunch and walked to a small park in town.

We returned to Hammondsport to the Glenn Curtiss Museum, which showcases the accomplishments of a pioneer in motorcycling who went on to be one of the founding members of the aviation industry.

We drove up the shore of Keuka Lake a few miles to Heron Hill winery…

…then back to Seneca Lake to see Hector Falls, which is on the side of a road.

The rain had cleared out, and we had some time before dinner, so we decided to return to Watkins Glen, this time on a cloudy day.

Day 7 (May 14) – Pennsylvania

It was another cloudy, rainy day, so we skipped the outdoor activities we’d planned and went to the Turkey Hill Experience in Lancaster County. It’s basically an educational theme park with ice cream. There are exhibits about the dairy industry and games for kids (and adults too) based on ice cream making. But the highlight is the all-you-can-eat ice cream bar.

We then went to Nissley Vineyards, also in Lancaster. The family that own the winery are my very distant relatives.

We decided to check out Chickies Rock, which overlooks the Susquehanna River. The trail was nice, but the overlook wasn’t much on a dreary day. (There are some things Photoshop can’t fix.)

Day 8 (May 15) – Longwood Gardens

We spent the morning at Longwood Gardens outside of Philadelphia, which was established by the du Pont family in the early 1900s.

After a miserable drive on I-95, we arrived at my parents’ house and made one last stop on our trip. We went to the nearby Meadowlark Botanical Gardens, which had first opened when I was still a child. I hadn’t been there in over 30 years, and it has changed a lot. The gazebo has been reconstructed and there’s now a Korean Bell Garden, honoring the Korean American community.

With my parents moving soon, we weren’t sure we’d have an opportunity to be in the area and see the park, so we walked through the gardens and around the lakes, perhaps for the last time.

This wasn’t a typical vacation for us. We usually go bigger, visiting far away locations and traveling to places very unlike our hometown. But this was exactly what I needed–a low-key trip where we could change plans and tailor our activities to the weather and what we wanted at the time. I had an opportunity to relax at the B&B in the Finger Lakes, enjoying evenings by the fire and mornings drinking coffee on the balcony. My only regret is that we didn’t stay longer in the Finger Lakes.

Photos and Text (c) 2025. J. Atwater. All Rights Reserved.