Finger Lakes: 1st to 5th October

We left New York with temperatures in the high 70’s. Our destination was the State Parks Department campground at Taughannock Falls, about 250 miles north west of New York, in the Finger Lakes area. Passing through the small town of Ithaca just before reaching our destination, we noticed one of those electronic signs that display the time and temperature alternately. It was mid afternoon, warmest part of the day, and showing only 43 degrees. We knew it was getting gradually colder, but this cold! Once on pitch, we couldn’t seem to get warm inside the rv.

This was the heating system’s first proper run . It makes an immense amount of noise as the fan blows out the warm air, so you feel it must be generating an effective supply of heat. The heating controls describe it as a “furnace” which reinforces this illusion. What it actually does is produce a reasonable amount of heat in a small area that then quickly shoots up to the ceiling. The local Walmart were clean out of human fly suckers so we were unable to take advantage of this available heat by adhering to the ceiling. Instead, we sat in the rv with big coats and thick socks on.

So this is why we’re wearing winter gear in the photo. The falls were really beautiful and, with a 230 foot drop, actually higher than Niagara. The river leading from the falls tumbles through a steep tree-lined gorge of about a mile and then into the 40-mile long Cayuga Lake. All of the 7 or 8 Finger Lakes are long, slim and slightly bent like fingers, hence the name. I suppose they could have been less romantically called the Banana Lakes.

Here is the gorge, and we followed a splendid path to the falls along the bottom of the gorge, ending at the spot where we had our picture above taken. All it needed was a tribe of Mohican Indians paddling past in their birch-bark canoes to make you feel like an old-time settler.

And more waterfalls nearby, this one is Buttermilk Falls where the water cascades down the side of a steep hill. It‘s not just the few hundred yards you can see in the photo, it actually roars down in this way, on and off, for several miles. We ascended the steep path alongside and checked it out. Quite spectacular.

This is our pitch on the State Park campground. I’m sure you will have spotted our neighbours’ tiny caravan on the left. It is a caravan, but just for sleeping in. The two gazebo tents are where the neighbours spent their days- and evenings, too- happily sitting outside while we shivered in our rv! They are made of sterner stuff, clearly descended from original pioneer stock.

Chipmunks were darting around everywhere, so this is a cute pic to finish