LETCHWORTH STATE PARK, Grand Canyon of the East August 4-6, 2014

From the city life of Rochester to the beauty of the Finger Lakes, New York doesn't disappoint at all! We were camping for 2 nights at Letchworth State Park to hike and enjoy what is called The Grand Canyon of the East.

The park is enormous!!! It was a 6 mile drive from the entrance gate to the High Banks Campground, then another 10 miles further south to reach the water falls. With the rains we'd been having off and on all weekend, the campground was pretty muddy in places.  There are 8 loops, but only 3 for campers with dogs. We drove around to pick our site, since I'm trying so very hard not to make reservations this time around and enjoy the flexibility of moving or staying longer in one place.  So far, it's working well for us.

Once we had everything set up, we drove the car to the middle falls and a drink on the porch of the Glen Iris Inn, the former family home of William Pryor Letchworth, a retired businessman and philanthropist who once owned this fantastic area. The property was given to the state of NY in 1910 upon his death.

Beautiful views across from the falls and from the porch.

 The falls were muddy and dark chocolate brown from all the runoff, but still powerful!

 There's a restaurant and rooms available at the Inn, as well as a small motel and cabins in the other parts of the park.  It's a beautiful place to explore.

Tuesday we decided to just stay around our campsite and relax and do a little puttering, PK wanted to do some things on the motor home, I was happy to sit in the sun and read.

Before leaving the park on Wednesday morning, we walked up to the Upper Falls for this view, I just wish it didn't showcase a RR bridge in the distance.

 A memorial bench…"Life's path is short, Let love be your guide". Loved that.

The waterfalls of the Genesee River are between cliffs as high as 600 feet, all surrounded by lush forests.

.

From the upper falls we stopped to see the statue and relocated cabins of Mary Jemison. She was born on a voyage from Ireland to the US and captured during the French and Indian War. She was adopted into the Seneca Nation and chose to remain a Seneca, marrying and raising a family there in the Genesee Valley. Mr. Letchworth worked to create this memorial park to her. 

 Then we only had to hike to the lower falls and we would have seen all 3 major waterfalls in this magnificent gorge.

It took only about 40 minutes to hike down to the bridge that crosses the gorge at the lower falls. 

 The views were wonderful in every direction.

 There were steps leading on up the east side of the gorge but they were slick with mud and not something we wanted to do.

 So we turned back around and hiked up out of the gorge.

 

 The beautiful path and the campgrounds were all built and developed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s.  

There was also a statue in the park in honor of the more than 3,000 men who served in four camps in Letchworth State Park between 1933 and 1941.
It's the 20th in a series of statues intended for placement in every state and territory where the CCC was active
 
Our stay at the park was perfect, just enough time to see the major parts of the park, but it left us with so many other hikes to do if we ever get back this way.