May 5, 2025
Arrival
I drove north from Ithaca on NY-89, along the shores of Cayuga Lake to Taughannock Falls State Park. It was early morning on a rainy weekday in the Finger Lakes, and I was excited to squeeze in this gem of a hike before work.
I parked on the gorge side of the highway, beside the trailhead. In true Finger Lakes fashion, I donned my rain jacket, and headed off onto the Gorge Trail.
Along the Gorge Trail
There are two popular ways to view Taughannock Falls. If you’re in a hurry or not keen on walking, you can visit the upper viewing area. You park atop the gorge near the falls, and descend a short flight of stone stairs to a handsome viewing platform, high above the falls.
But perhaps the best way to experience Taughannock is by walking in along the three-quarter-mile gorge trail, and seeing it in its full glory from below. The trail is basically level, wide and surfaced with gravel. And the entire approach through the massive, curving gorge is … well … gorgeous.
The trail passes along the southern embankment of the Taughannock Creek, sometimes built up as a stone walkway, sometimes just passing through stands of trees. The trail offers excellent views of the tall cliffs on the northern side of the gorge.
The Name Taughannock
I spent college in Ithaca and found that most locals pronounce the name as “tuh-GAN-ick”, with the final two syllables rhyming with “panic.” The etymology is a bit clouded, with competing theories suggesting Iroquois, Algonquin and Lenape origins. I’ve personally wondered about the similarly to “Taconic” a named applied to mountains much further east in New York’s Hudson Valley, sometimes spelled “Taghkanic”. That word is Lenape, likely meaning “in the trees.” But it seems it’s more likely to be a case of convergent evolution (two things slowly coming to resemble each other) rather than divergent (two things of a common origin).
Taughannock Falls
The pleasant stroll along the creek reached its grand finale: a handsome bridge across the creek to a final viewing area. The trail stops a safe distance from the massive falls: just close enough to spray visitors with a gentle mist.
There are a lot of stunning photos of Taughannock Falls. Sadly, mine were not that great. I came unprepared, with just an iphone mini. I kept having to wipe rain drops from the lens.
But even the best photos simply do not do these falls justice. The scale is immense. The waterfall towers 215 feet. That’s meaningfully taller than Niagara Falls, though with vastly less volume. The flow varies by time of year, and was rather robust on this rainy Spring day.
Visiting the Lake Front
I’ve visited Taughannock perhaps a dozen times over a 19 year period. So there are rituals involved by now. One such ritual: I always walk across the highway to visit the “flat” part of the park, out on Cayuga Lake. Over geological timescales the creek has moved an enormous amount of debris forming a delta of sorts out onto the bend in the lake. From the shores, you can glance for miles both north and south along the second-largest of New York’s Finger Lakes.
Beyond the gorge and the flats, the park features a handful of more rustic hiking trails, including a rugged “Rim Trail.” But I always make a point of visiting the lakefront. On this moody May morning, the water was perfectly still. It reflected the overcast sky, making the far shoreline look like an isthmus through the heavens. It was an ideal place for marinating in nostalgia.
