2011-07-11 Sunset over Lake Seneca

We saw another spectacular sunset over Lake Seneca at Watkins Glen last night.  The colors were just dazzling!  It was wonderful watching the colors change as the sunset progressed.

One interesting side note about Watkins Glen:

In the photo below you see a tower to the left.  This is the original tower used for salt mining in Watkins Glen.  There is a huge vein of salt deep below ground that runs from just north of the Canadian border down through this part of New York into Pennsylvania.  It is left from some ancient sea.  They "mine" the salt here by forcing steam down into the vein and pumping back up a brine mixture.  Then they evaporate the water away and are left with table salt.  There are two such salt mining operations here in Watkins Glen.  There is also what I think of as a more traditional mine with deep shafts and tunnels about 30 miles from here a short distance above Ithaca.   I believe most of the salt from that mine is used for melting ice on winter roadways. 

2011-07 Watkins Glen Gorge

We will soon leave NY.  We had one last place we wanted to visit - the gorge in near-by Watkins Glen State Park.  It has been so hot lately we held off thinking we would get up early one morning, but that never happened.  So we finally went late Saturday afternoon.  As it turned out, we probably could have gone in the middle of the day.  It is very shady down in the gorge and the cold water makes the walk much cooler, especially when you get hit by the spray from some of the waterfalls.

I'll quote from the park's trail guide:

"The park features a spectacular narrow gorge where you can hike alongside Glen Greek past deep pools, water-sculpted rocks and nineteen waterfalls...Water has shaped the natural landscape of the park.  During the past million years, water in the form of giant mounds of ice, or glaciers, covered New York State several times, dramatically transforming the land in its path.  In this region, the most recent glacier moved through shallow river valleys leaving in its place deep, steep-sided troughs.  When the glacier receded north about 10,000 years ago, water filled these new troughs, creating the 11 Finger Lakes which include Seneca Lake.  Since then water in the form of Glen Creek has poured down the glacially-steepened hillside, cutting away its soft sedimentary rock.  This on-going process has formed this park's rugged gorge and spectacular waterfalls.  Glen comes from a old Greek word meaning "small, narrow, secluded valley.""

Here are a few pictures and short videos from our walk:

This is the first waterfall you walk behind:

This video shows the second waterfall you walk behind and the surrounding gorge:

You can see how we got sprayed with the cool water:

Another short video from another part of the trail:

2011-07 Herbert F Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University

We visited the Herbert F Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY.   The building was designeed by I.M.Pei.  He is a very famous contemporary arctitect who was born in China, but was educated and has lived in the US.  This building opened in 1973.  It is a very modern concrete structure.  On its own it is very unique and interesting, but is radically different that the surrounding buildings at Cornell.  This is an "Ivy League" school and has a beautiful campus with many classical buildings.  Here are a few examples;

These views show how the campus flows over and down the surrounding hillsides.

The campus overlooks Ithaca and Cayuga Lake.

This is a very fine museum with a variety of art works.  While there are many lovely paintings, I was primarily interested in all the ancient art objects from China, Egypt, Greece, Iran, etc. and their Pre-Columbian objects.  Here are just a few of the things that caught my attention:

China
2000-2200 BC
earthenware

China, Ming Dynasty
Porcelain
top 1506-1522
bottom early 17th century

Iran
Spouted vessel in the form of a stag
burnished earthenware
1000-550 BC

Pre-Columbian Art
Moche, Peru
Kneeling Warrior Effigy Vessel
400 BC - AD 100

Egyptian
380 - 342 BC
(about 12" tall)

Coin,
Gold aureus
portrait of Licinius
Emperor 308 - 322 AD

Southern Italy
Red-figure pelike
Orestes and Electra at the tomb of their father Agamemnon
410 - 380 BC

French
Two leaves from a Book of Hours
1460 - 1470 AD

Nepalese
Garunda Mask, 20th Century

Note that if you are interested in seeing more photos from this museum click on this link.  That will take you my library of photos kept in the online Picassa Web Albums. 

2011-06 Robert H Treman State Park, NY

We explored Robert H Treman State Park which is a nearby NY State Park that we had not visited on our prior trip to the Finger Lakes Region.  It is just outside Ithaca, NY (home of Cornell Univ.) and is about a 30 minute drive from our campground in Watkins Glen.

Our first stop was to see the unique swimming area that is just below one of the park's waterfalls.  The water was a bit cool for our tastes - 60 degrees.

The we began a hike that was only a mile or so in length but was very strenuous.  We first went along the rim trail that climbs up and along the top of the gorge carved over the eons by the water flow.  We came upon a nice overlook to the main waterfall.  To the right you can see the trail and some of the stairs going beside the falls.

Then we started down a long steep set of stairs that switched back and forth to reach the bottom of the gorge.  (I felt like we were climbing down those long steep stairs that Frodo, Sam and Gollum climbed in "The Lord of the Rings" except with a lot more lush green vegetation)

Looking back up some of the steps we had just descended:

Once we reached the bottom we crossed over a small bridge and climbed back up the other side of the gorge where we reached some beautiful overlooks to the falls.  Following are some photos and a short video clip of the waterfalls.

Monique is standing to the right at the top of the falls.

This rock face looks like it is in the process of being carved like Stone Mountain Georgia near Atlanta, but it is just a natural occurrence.

Just after we crossed the first bridge and started up the other side of the gorge, a young man in a blue shirt came scurrying down past us.  When we climbed up to one of the overlooks, we spotted him way down below along the edge of the water below the waterfall.  He was taking photos.  I thought he must have been some type of botanist taking photos of some rare plant growing in the water mist from the falls.  He later came back past us on the trail.  He said "no, he was just taking pictures of the falls from below with some flowers in the foreground".  I thought he sure was taking a lot of risk for those photos.  In the photo below you can see his blue shirt against the green foliage.

The walk along the gorge was just gorgeous, and looks much like parts of the walk along Watkins Glen.

We stopped often to rest and admire the view.

There are some pretty blooms on vines that grow in places along the trail.  Here is a closeup and then a large grouping next to the 2nd bridge we crossed.

Here is a little grouping of ferns growing on the rocks.  It is almost like they were placed there to show three of the different varieties of the ferns growing along the trail.

I especially like this one that grows in a spiral shape.

At the beginning and end of the trail is an old grist mill that is about the same age as Hagood Mill in SC, built in the 1840's.

I love seeing all the gears and mechanical workings of these old mills.

We look forward to visits to more of the State Parks and hikes along the waterfalls in this region.

2011-06 Watkins Glen, NY

We traveled up from Ft Chiswell, Virginia to Watkins Glen, NY stopping overnight in Winchester, VA.  The drive up, especially the last 100 miles or so was through some really beautiful countryside in Pennsylvania.  That last section in PA was through rolling hills/mountains.  The terrain in northern PA and southern NY is more "rounded" than the mountains in the southern smoky mountains, but the elevation seems about as high.  We had a few long climbs up some fairly steep grades, but most of the route followed along rivers and through the mountain valleys.

The one word to describe everything was "green".  Our views were primarily of green forests and fields of grass.  With so much rain in the area, everything was very lush.  The farmers grow lots of grass for hay as well as corn.  I imagine the reason is that there is a lot of dairy farming.  We have seen many farms with multiple silos for storing grain with dairy cows in the surrounding fields.  In fact we have seen more dairy farming here than the areas we have visited in Wisconsin and Vermont, two states know for their cheese and dairy production.  The picture above is of a typical barn in the area.  This one is on the hill that sits above Watkins Glen and the campground we used.

 This a view of the farm on the hillside from near the campground, which adjoins a marina.

Below is the view looking from the farm down at Seneca Lake, one of the beautiful NY Finger Lakes.

These photos are of the area south of Watkins Glen.  This valley leads to Corning, NY which is about 20 miles south.

Here is a view from the south shore of Seneca Lake.

Were are a couple of sunset photos taken from the city park that is just across the road from the campground.  We often took a late evening stroll along the lake.

The city put on a very nice fire works display from this park.

We have enjoyed our stay in NY.  However this campground has been a far cry from the peace and quiet we enjoyed back at Solitude Pointe in SC.  This campground sits next to a very busy highway, especially on the weekends.  Plus for the July 4th weekend, there was a festival in the park across the road with a loud band.  We had to leave.  We rode over to Ithaca, NY to spend the afternoon away from the noise getting back shortly before the fireworks.  Fortunately the band did not continue to play afterward.