June 26, 2008

June 26, 2008

By accident we are at Letchworth State Park. I had never heard of the place until yesterday. A picture of the park was gracing a brochure I had picked up to read while waiting for the canal boat. It is billed as the “Grand Canyon of the East”. How could we pass this up?

Unfortunately it is drizzling and foggy this morning so I am afraid we are going to have a poor impression. I guess that it is the breaks. The park is long and thin and runs along a length of the Genesee River. From the first overlook we can see that the winding river has carved a pretty steep canyon thru the hills here. Impressive for the eastern US. A few more overlooks later and we are hiking to the first of three large waterfalls on the river. Between the drizzling rain and the falls overspray, it is a challenge to take a picture without water droplets covering the camera lens. While taking a break to eat lunch our friend the sun finally makes an appearance. Losing the raincoats we make our way to the middle and upper falls. In the sunshine they are beautiful. Although much smaller than Niagara, these falls make up for it with a much nicer forest ambience. We are surprised this park doesn’t get more press. A true hidden gem!

From Letchworth we drive southeast and stay at a nice private park in Campbell, NY.