Watkin's Glen
Jun. 7th, 2007 11:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sillygoosegirlOn Friday night, we arrived in Watkin's Glen around 7pm and on empty stomaches. But seeing as we were considering trying to make it to Ithica before we slept, my parents described the Watkin's Glen hike as very short (less than a mile, we thought), and we weren't sure how much more daylight we would have, we headed on in. There were a few other groups there enjoying the beautiful glen as well, but before long, we started to hear thunder and the sky got overly dark for that early in the evening. Pretty soon, we had the place to ourselves as we continued inward and everyone else left.
Watkin's Glen gorge trial runs along the most beautiful little stream of waterfall after waterfall. The path has many stone stairs and a low stone wall to keep visitors from falling in. There are beautiful bridges and a few little tunnels. The path was well designed, and I think does a wonderful job of enhancing the beauty of the place, rather than detracting from it. I expected to see elves show up in flowing gowns at any moment. If there was ever somewhere I wouldn't have minded being caught out in the rain, this would have been it. I think it very well might be the most beautiful place I have ever had the pleasure to be. And it was all the more magical for having it almost entirely to ourselves. We took lots of photos, trying to capture the beauty of the place in spite of the low light. Sadly, we don't really know how to use the manual features of our new camera very well yet, and most of the pictures came out very noisy if they weren't far too dark (to keep the shutter speed high and avoid too much motion blur). Probably we would have done better to shoot on auto using the tripod in more of the photos. Oh well... I'll have to rely on my memory for how beautiful it really was that evening, and how romantic with the thunder and mist and all. Amazingly enough, it didn't even end up raining. We didn't come out until almost 9pm (the trail turned out to be 1.5 miles each way), and we were so enchanted we decided we should stay the night and come back in the morning when there was more light for better photos. After changing into our formal clothes, we went to dinner at fancy little restaurant in a building that looked like it had originally been a train station.
The magic of Watkin's Glen begins at the trail head, with a view of the first bridge across the gorge, and a tunnel to reach the trail from the parking lot.
One of the early waterfalls crashes down into a heart shaped pool. It kind of gives a whole new meaning to the term "heart shaped whirlpool tub."
The trail then traverses behind another waterfall before entering a tunnel where you climb a spiral staircase to come out above the waterfall.
There are many of these lovely stone bridges. And there was one high suspension bridge.
This is rainbow falls, a side waterfall which flows in, and must have been the tallest falls along the trail, though it's flow was light. This was another one the trail goes behind.
The views descending out of the gorge were no less beautiful.
Arriving at the parking lot, you can see that we had the place nearly to ourselves.
It took us 3 tries to find a suitable hotel. Our first stop, recommended by our waitress as somewhere likely to still have rooms for cheap, the woman there first volunteered that she had a room available for like $150/night. When we didn't jump on it, she said she had one for $120/night, and then when we didn't jump on that one, she said she had something for $94/night. We asked if she had anything cheaper and she assured us no one would have anything cheaper than $94/night. We said we'd keep looking. The next stop was the same thing, only with a $120 room and a $110 room... and an assurance we wouldn't find anything less than $110. We said we'd continue toward Ithica. He told us it was graduation weekend at Cornell, and we wouldn't find a better deal between here and Ithica. It's not really that we didn't believe him... but we really didn't want to give either of them our business. Our next stop was the Colonial Inn, where we woke up the owner (??), and he showed us to a room for $75, but volunteered the he had some other rooms if we didn't like this one, but they were all more expensive. We took it and counted ourselves lucky. The next morning, he directed us to a bakery 4 blocks away when we asked, and then let us leave our car in the hotel parking lot after we checked out and returned to the Glen (so we wouldn't have to pay to park)... which was, as it turned out, only one block away in the other direction! On our way to the bakery, we ran across an outlet store that had a good deal on exactly the kind of socks I've been wanting to buy for a couple years but been unable to find at a reasonable price. I got 18 pair. Yay for new socks! (I've been needing them... when we got home, I threw away 17 pair of threadbare socks out of my sock drawer! Plus I think there may be a few more threadbare socks in the wash... I'll check tonight.)
By daylight, and full of Memorial Day Tourists, the Glen wasn't nearly so magical or romantic feeling, but it was still beautiful. We took more photos, then returned to the car by way of the less traveled (and less scenic) "Indian Trail" at the top of the gorge.
When we came back the next day, we experimented with different camera settings. Long shutter speed and small aperture, vs short shutter speed and large aperture.
By day, the slope rainbow falls descends is bright green with moss. I see why they call it rainbow falls!
We returned to the parking lot by way of the Indian Trail, and went out on the suspension bridge for a great view into the gorge.
By the time we got out around 1pm, the parking lot, which had been empty the night before, was entirely full. No wonder the place was crawling with people!
Then we searched high and low for Josh's sunglasses (misplaced sometime between walking to the bakery and entering the Glen the second time), but to no avail. Eventually we gave up and pressed on for Ithica.
Gallery
Watkin's Glen gorge trial runs along the most beautiful little stream of waterfall after waterfall. The path has many stone stairs and a low stone wall to keep visitors from falling in. There are beautiful bridges and a few little tunnels. The path was well designed, and I think does a wonderful job of enhancing the beauty of the place, rather than detracting from it. I expected to see elves show up in flowing gowns at any moment. If there was ever somewhere I wouldn't have minded being caught out in the rain, this would have been it. I think it very well might be the most beautiful place I have ever had the pleasure to be. And it was all the more magical for having it almost entirely to ourselves. We took lots of photos, trying to capture the beauty of the place in spite of the low light. Sadly, we don't really know how to use the manual features of our new camera very well yet, and most of the pictures came out very noisy if they weren't far too dark (to keep the shutter speed high and avoid too much motion blur). Probably we would have done better to shoot on auto using the tripod in more of the photos. Oh well... I'll have to rely on my memory for how beautiful it really was that evening, and how romantic with the thunder and mist and all. Amazingly enough, it didn't even end up raining. We didn't come out until almost 9pm (the trail turned out to be 1.5 miles each way), and we were so enchanted we decided we should stay the night and come back in the morning when there was more light for better photos. After changing into our formal clothes, we went to dinner at fancy little restaurant in a building that looked like it had originally been a train station.
The magic of Watkin's Glen begins at the trail head, with a view of the first bridge across the gorge, and a tunnel to reach the trail from the parking lot.
One of the early waterfalls crashes down into a heart shaped pool. It kind of gives a whole new meaning to the term "heart shaped whirlpool tub."
The trail then traverses behind another waterfall before entering a tunnel where you climb a spiral staircase to come out above the waterfall.
There are many of these lovely stone bridges. And there was one high suspension bridge.
This is rainbow falls, a side waterfall which flows in, and must have been the tallest falls along the trail, though it's flow was light. This was another one the trail goes behind.
The views descending out of the gorge were no less beautiful.
Arriving at the parking lot, you can see that we had the place nearly to ourselves.
It took us 3 tries to find a suitable hotel. Our first stop, recommended by our waitress as somewhere likely to still have rooms for cheap, the woman there first volunteered that she had a room available for like $150/night. When we didn't jump on it, she said she had one for $120/night, and then when we didn't jump on that one, she said she had something for $94/night. We asked if she had anything cheaper and she assured us no one would have anything cheaper than $94/night. We said we'd keep looking. The next stop was the same thing, only with a $120 room and a $110 room... and an assurance we wouldn't find anything less than $110. We said we'd continue toward Ithica. He told us it was graduation weekend at Cornell, and we wouldn't find a better deal between here and Ithica. It's not really that we didn't believe him... but we really didn't want to give either of them our business. Our next stop was the Colonial Inn, where we woke up the owner (??), and he showed us to a room for $75, but volunteered the he had some other rooms if we didn't like this one, but they were all more expensive. We took it and counted ourselves lucky. The next morning, he directed us to a bakery 4 blocks away when we asked, and then let us leave our car in the hotel parking lot after we checked out and returned to the Glen (so we wouldn't have to pay to park)... which was, as it turned out, only one block away in the other direction! On our way to the bakery, we ran across an outlet store that had a good deal on exactly the kind of socks I've been wanting to buy for a couple years but been unable to find at a reasonable price. I got 18 pair. Yay for new socks! (I've been needing them... when we got home, I threw away 17 pair of threadbare socks out of my sock drawer! Plus I think there may be a few more threadbare socks in the wash... I'll check tonight.)
By daylight, and full of Memorial Day Tourists, the Glen wasn't nearly so magical or romantic feeling, but it was still beautiful. We took more photos, then returned to the car by way of the less traveled (and less scenic) "Indian Trail" at the top of the gorge.
When we came back the next day, we experimented with different camera settings. Long shutter speed and small aperture, vs short shutter speed and large aperture.
By day, the slope rainbow falls descends is bright green with moss. I see why they call it rainbow falls!
We returned to the parking lot by way of the Indian Trail, and went out on the suspension bridge for a great view into the gorge.
By the time we got out around 1pm, the parking lot, which had been empty the night before, was entirely full. No wonder the place was crawling with people!
Then we searched high and low for Josh's sunglasses (misplaced sometime between walking to the bakery and entering the Glen the second time), but to no avail. Eventually we gave up and pressed on for Ithica.
Gallery
