Thanksgiving in New York: Hiking in Ithaca

Growing up in upstate NY I never really appreciated the local scenery and hiking opportunities. I am trying to make-up for it now. Watkins Glen is a beautiful place to hike, but we have been there several times.  Ithaca has a lot of great trails that my family has not seen yet, so we went on a short (2 mile) out and back hike to Taughannock Falls. It was chilly, but we all enjoyed it.

 Having Grandpop with us turned the hike into an opportunity for more great pictures from my talented dad. All the pictures in this blog post are from his camera.

 

It was also an excellent botany and geology lesson for my homeschoolers.  We learned about shale and limestone (and collected rock samples) on one side of the gorge. We saw how the water washed it away over time. And we saw a mini dessert ecosystem on the dry sunny side of the gorge where cedar trees were growing.

 

 Miss L was not in the mood for photography this weekend. Grandpop still managed to sneak some beautiful shots.  I like this one of her peeking out. 

 And this one:

Beautiful scenery:

 

 According the the Ithaca Gorges and Waterfalls website: This waterfall is the tallest single drop waterfall east of the Rocky Mountains. It is a 215 ft cascade and is about 3 stories taller than Niagara Falls.

 The kids had a lot of fun playing around on fallen logs. It's ironic because we have many of these in our back yard too.