Hiking 19 Waterfalls (how are we not calling this trip Chasing Waterfalls?)
Day 4:
Morning dawned on one of our favorite campsites and we knew it was time to leave. We spent the morning slowly getting ready and hanging out a little more with our Minnesota camping friends. It was hard to go watching the kids all have so much fun together. It’s been good to keep in touch, watching each other’s adventures. From Niagara we drove through the remote back roads of upstate New York to Watkins Glen State Park. It was a quiet forest, with something new to see around every corner. It was like being in a fairytale or Tolkien novel (Rivendell, perhaps). We all said it deserved a return visit. I think we’d like to explore the area more. I spoke to someone a few days ago from nearby Pennsylvania and she said, definitely go back – and check out the incredible area wineries while you’re there, so I guess that seals that. We hiked the recommended Gorge Trail with 19 waterfalls which we feared may not be running this year due to drought. Jeff said he counted at least 19 along the way, and they were magical, sparkling in shafts of sunlight among dark tunnels of still water. Watkins Glen is on the south end of Seneca Lake of the Finger Lakes, not an easy drive but a scenic one and helped along by more of The Fellowship of the Ring on Audible. After our hike, we drove the rest of the way to Springfield’s Deer Run Campground. We set up camp as the only tent in the RV area that seemed to have a lot of semi permanent residents. This can be an uncomfortable situation as sometimes “residents” either get really settled into a routine and particular about noise, or can be the opposite and bring in a lot of families to their spot and it can get loud and crowded very quickly. We lucked out here, it was a pretty quiet place for the most part so we kept our noise level within reason and didn’t plan to spend a ton of time at the campsite in this spot. We met a really nice neighbor who gave us tips on water (and a gallon of it) and food, etc. That night we ate what quite possibly was the boys’ favorite meal of the trip, New York Pizzeria in Cooperstown. We got in late and were all a little too beat to work in a meal around the fire. I think Jeff was pretty excited just to see Cooperstown even though the Hall of Fame was closed, so we drove in. Our neighbor had recommended the pizza place and we had a great dinner out on the patio, drawing and talking, and eating the boys’ favorite kind of pizza, New York style.
