Racing Through Gorge-ous New York!

July 10-25, 2022

What a little gem Letchworth State Park is!  In 1859, William Pryor Letchworth, a business man from Buffalo, NY, purchased 1,000 acres and made this area his summer home.  This land became his place of rest and reflection, which I certainly understand!  His 1,000 acres included a magnificent forest, three beautiful waterfalls and the “Grand Canyon of the East”!  I’m pretty sure I could do some resting and reflecting if this were my backyard too!

Upon his death in 1910, Letchworth donated this land to the state of New York.  Today, the park has expanded to 14,350 acres of paradise for all to enjoy!  Letchworth’s summer home, the Glen Iris, is located adjacent to Middle Falls, the most beautiful of the three waterfalls.  His former summer home is now an inn and a restaurant called the Glen Iris.  

Over the course of a couple of days, we hiked portions of the scenic Gorge trail, taking us along the gorge and past the Lower, Middle and Upper Falls.  The day we hiked to the Upper Falls was a shorter hike, ending at the Middle Falls.  Conveniently, it was lunch time, so we treated ourselves to a delicious meal at Caroline’s Restaurant in the Glen Iris! 

Located near the Upper Falls is the High Bridge.  This is actually the third bridge to span the Genesee River at this location.  The original bridge was a wooden bridge built in 1852.   Apparently, it burned down in 1875, ignited by coal sparks from the train!  It was replaced with an iron bridge that lasted until 1999, allowing for transportation by rail of coal and other goods.  Due to deterioration, it became necessary to replace the iron bridge in 1999 with a steel arch bridge which is currently used today.  Remnants of the iron bridge are still present.

Also located in the park is the Humphrey Nature Center.  We originally went to the nature center to take advantage of their WiFi; however, we inadvertently found their bird sanctuary, which was amazing!  Hummingbirds, goldfinch, orioles, blue jays and many other birds enjoyed dining there while we relished their beauty!

                          

For a couple of our evenings at the campground, Scott and Barb joined us for campfires.  Scott and Barb have recently joined the RV camping world, having been lifelong tent campers.  It was fun answering the same questions we had when we first traded our tent for something on wheels!  

Toasting to Barb's recent retirement from teaching!

The small village of Perry is located only five miles from the Letchworth State Park Campground.  Silver Lake Brewing Project happens to be located there, which is how we found this little village!  It was fun spending some time strolling their streets and imbibing in a cold one on our final afternoon in the area.  It was great to toast to our first stop in New York.  If you are in the area, this park is certainly worth some time to explore!

An hour or so down the road landed us in Bath, New York.  We spent Friday through Monday at the KOA, as the state parks’ weekends were booked full when we made our reservations back in January.  It’s really incredible how far in advance you need to make your reservations!  

This area of New York is noted for its Finger Lakes.  I’d not heard of the Finger Lakes before, but sure enough, if you look at a map, you can’t miss the series of long, narrow lakes that are here.  Native American legend has it that the Creator looked down on this land with favor and reached down to bless it, leaving His hand print.

Bath was founded in 1793 and named after Bath, England.  We found a historical walking tour on-line that guided us around many of the historic sites in town.  One of these historic buildings houses Betty Kay Bake Shop which travel expert Samantha Brown raved about in her March 2020 episode on the Finger Lakes.   Well, if it’s lauded about by a travel expert, we thought it would be wise to check it out.  After a thorough taste test, we definitely recommend the donuts!

"Three Sisters"

Entirely build of steel!

Ten minutes from Bath is Hammondsport, voted the “Coolest Small Town in America” ten years ago.  While we were in Hammondsport, we enjoyed a beer at The Brewery of Broken Dreams, discovered an antique boat show on Lake Keuka (the “Y-shaped” Finger Lake), strolled the streets of Hammondsport and tasted wine at the Pleasant Valley Winery.  This winery was established in 1860 and is the oldest winery in the area.  The original owners had some connection to France which grandfathered them in, allowing them to produce champagne.  Apparently, the climate and soil conditions for growing grapes here is very similar to the Champagne area in France.  The Iroquois had this all figured out long before, as they were growing grapes in this region long before Europeans came on the scene.  The wine here is wonderful and shouldn’t be missed!  After exploring this adorable town, we agree that Hammondsport is certainly worthy of the title!  

Watkins Glen is another great destination location!  For this stop, we camped at Watkins Glen State Park, which is an absolutely wonderful park.  The central feature of this state park is a narrow gorge.  Trails follow Glen Creek through the gorge, taking you past 19 waterfalls as you hike.  We had read that it was best to enjoy this hike during the week, as it becomes crowded on weekends.  Even on a Tuesday, we had considerable company with us along the trail!  We hiked it mid-morning and I would definitely recommend changing that to an early-morning hike instead.  

The town of Watkins Glen is adjacent to the state park, giving us easy access to a grocery store, a laundromat, gas station, breweries, and even Tobey’s Donuts!  Tobey’s sour cream old fashioned donut is amazing!  

Watkins Glen is located at the southern end of Lake Seneca (another of the Finger Lakes).  We spent one evening on a Blues Dinner Cruise.  Captain Bill’s Seneca Legacy gave us a smooth ride up the southern portion of the Finger Lake.  In addition to seeing many beautiful lakeside homes, the boat took us past the US Salt plant, several vineyards and even a couple of breweries, all while listening to a live blues band.  

Random fact:  Watkins Glen has a long history of road racing!  Although the original Grand Prix course is no longer used, you can still drive it and take in its landmarks.  One of the drivers in the first race (1948) was William Milliken.  William was a noted aircraft and race vehicle dynamics expert.  This expert didn’t calculate something correctly as he managed to roll his Bugatti 35 on the last lap of the qualifier.  Today, the corner where William rolled his car continues to be known as “Milliken’s Corner”!  It was fun driving the 6.6 mile course, imagining the Formula One race cars speeding around the curves and going airborne as they flew over the train tracks!

Corning, NY is only 20 miles from Watkins Glen, so another day was spent on a road trip there.  Corning is famous for their glass museum, where numerous discoveries in glass were made.  This is where Thomas Edison came when he needed a glass enclosure for his light bulb.  This is also where both fiberglass and CorningWare® were accidentally discovered.  The invention of CorningWare® came when an oven overheated, creating a glass much stronger, in addition to being opaque!   Boy, wouldn’t that be great to have your oven overheat and discover something this is now a part of every kitchen in the world?  In my kitchen, oven accidents end up in the garbage!  Between the extensive displays of contemporary glass, historic glass collections from around the world and the many glass blowing demonstrations, it’s easy to spend an entire day there!

Market Street is another big attraction Corning has to offer.  It was fun strolling the historic street boasting several glass shops, many gift shops and tons of restaurants.  In 1972, the area was flooded by Hurricane Agnes, but aside from a flood line marked on the front of one of the glass shops, you would never know it.  It’s made a tremendous recovery and is a thriving shopping district today.

Our final stop in New York was a campground 20 miles outside of Saratoga Springs.  Alpine Lake RV Resort, our home for the three days we were in the area, has 500 campsites, 450 of which are occupied by annual campers!  I’ve never seen so many golf carts zooming around in my life!  Everyone we met was super friendly, but this is, honestly, one of the few campgrounds we won’t be coming back to.  The sites are packed super tight and we felt lucky to have gotten parked without incident!  On a positive note, the campground did have a live band playing a mixed genre of music (mostly classic rock) one evening.  It was fun to take in the music and wind down after a full day of exploring Saratoga Springs!

Grilling up shrimp for our Shrimp Burrito Bowls -- yummy!

Saratoga Springs is known for health, history and horses, so of course we had to experience a little of each!  Actually, it would have been next to impossible to spend any time in the city without checking off those boxes!

Congress Park could pretty much accomplish this on its own.  This park is situated in the heart of Saratoga Springs.  It features a couple of the mineral water springs to which healing and good health properties have been attributed for centuries.  These waters were first used by the Iroquois and then used by visitors to what quickly became a resort town, all of whom sought the springs for their therapeutic properties.  An 1867 sign in the park says “Come ye who suffer, and lose your pain; From beds of languishing rise again; Drink these waters for you unsealed; Partake of the fountain by nature revealed.”  Add in the statue of the horse at the park’s entrance and there you go:  health, history and a horse!

This mineral spring water is unique in that it is carbonated and cold!

Spirit of Life statue

With gambling never being legalized, they would float a red ball in this fountain during gambling season so police wouldn't raid the casino in the background!

Just to add in a little more history, we enjoyed a walking tour of Congress Park, taking in the 1875 Civil War Monument, a 1914 Spirit of Life bronze statue, rode on a 1904 carousel, and enjoyed the Italian Gardens designed in 1902.  The focal point of these gardens is a reflecting pool with Tritons “Spit and Spat”.  Interestingly, these Tritons are carved by an unknown artist from Carrara marble, the same marble Michelangelo used to carve David!

Spit and Spat battle it out!

The homes surrounding Congress Park are stunning!  We stopped by the visitor center where they provided us with walking tour maps of the surrounding neighborhoods.  We only had time to do a small portion of the East Side neighborhood walk, however. We took in the magnificent homes as we walked a mile to the horse track!

Historic home on Union Avenue

The Saratoga Race Course has been in use since 1864 and continues to be a big draw to the area today.  Watching these marvelous animals warm up was interesting.  I found myself admiring a horse who had a lot of spunk and seemed fairly spirited.  The horse made me think of Dick’s father, Verner, who often would say “I wouldn’t give a nickel for a kid or a horse without a little spunk!”.  That did it.  I was all in, cheering for that horse as they sped past.  I’m sorry to say he didn’t win, but it was fun cheering for him!

Off to the races!

I call him "Spunky"!

Broadway is the main street going through Saratoga Springs and it was fun stopping by Druthers Brewery for lunch.  The name of this brewery really caused me to pause and think about it for a second.  The servers all wore shirts that said “You are your choices”, which I love!  We really are a compilation of all of the choices (druthers) we have made.  It’s what really makes this world such a wonderful and interesting place!

Druthers Brewery

Street artist hard at work on Broadway!

Next up:  Vermont!