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| Lover's Lane on the Watkin's Glen Gorge Trail |
16 June 2026 - Hiking Watkins Glen State Park
After breakfast this morning, it was time to check out of the motel and move on to part two of our road trip. We left Pennsylvania and headed a little further north to the Corning / Horseheads, NY area for our "cousins' reunion". My sister would be arriving mid-afternoon to the clan gathering, so Clark and I had a few hours to entertain ourselves ahead of meeting up with my cousins.
Having never been to Watkins Glen State Park, even though it was less than a two-hour drive from my home in Wellsboro, I wanted to check it out, i.e. take another item off my "bucket list". Looking at the trail map ahead of time, we wondered if we would have time to get there and hike at least some of the trails there.
Clark called ahead to inquire and was told we should park at the South Pavilion and walk the trails to and from the Mile Point Bridge. We would get to see all the waterfalls and avoid climbing the 180 steps of "Jacob's Ladder". That sounded perfect with an estimated time for the hike being less than 2 hours. We would miss the gift shop with this approach -- not a problem.
My thigh muscle from yesterday's bike ride had me wondering how my leg would react to hiking trails today. I took some ibuprofen and hoped for the best! We were doing this!
We checked out the restrooms before starting our hike and then set off to see the waterfalls!
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| Start of trail |
We walked across the bridge to where we were told to start our hike.
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| Suspension Bridge at the start of the trails |
Looking down from the bridge, we could see people walking along the water's edge.
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| People on trail way below us |
We wanted to know how to get down there, and the cryptic trail map gave us no clue. We found a park ranger who told us how to get down there, but indicated it did not run the length of the gorge. Even so, we decided to go down for a closer look.
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| Section of a tree caught on a waterfall |
The man at the information desk stressed that the gorge was cut naturally, i.e. no help from man!
Clearly, the walkways and stairs are manmade for safety of visitors and protection of the environment.
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| Down by the water's edge |
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| Lots of stairs to climb down / up here at the park |
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| Water rushing through the gorge |
When we got to the end of the trail, Clark checked the trail map and saw that we must have passed under the bridge we had crossed to start our hike. We had not seen it! We were too busy looking down for two reasons 1) to see the view and 2) to keep our feet dry. Plenty of water drips off the rock walls and puddles abound on the walkway. Navigating the walkway without soaking our feet presented a definite challenge.
We were not alone on the trail and passing folks sometimes required waiting one's turn for dry spots to tread.
Clark told me to look up. We saw the bridge on the way back up to the main trail.
We followed the marked trail looking for the highlighted points of interest such as the Glen Cathedral waterfall.
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| One of many wet areas to navigate |
Beautiful vistas!
The next marked spot on the trail was the "Central Cascade". Too many folks "littered" the trail to take pictures without people in them. The weather was perfect for hiking and many folks were taking advantage.
Continuing onwards, we arrived at the "Rainbow Falls".
Hiking through here, we had to dodge water falling on our heads!
The trail took us behind the waterfall.
We found it more than a little noisy here!
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| Deep |
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| Spring colors! |
Next on the marks "things to see" was the "Frowning Cliff". Try as hard as we might, we saw no cliff frowning. In fact it looked more like it was grinning!
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| "Frowning Cliff" |
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| Where's the frown?? |
After failing to see the frown, we continued on to our turn-around point at the Mile Point Bridge.
We saw yet another tree trunk stuck in a waterfall.
Watching out for puddles, Clark found a heart shape cut into the pathway.
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| Clark's feet! |
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| Ev taking a rest part way up the steps |
The majority of the stairways did not have handrails. With my leg giving me difficulties, I used Clark as something solid to hold on to going up and down whenever possible. Sometimes the stairs were too narrow or too congested to allow this luxury. Many times I gave myself support by using the rocks along the side of the steps.
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| Mile Point Bridge |
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| Sign to "South Rim Trail" |
We would be taking the North Rim Trail back to where we entered the gorge trails. We had arrived at our turn-around point. However, Clark wanted to see more. Knowing 180 steps awaited me with no great vistas to view, I sat down on a wall to wait for him to return. He took off to complete his explorations!
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| Clark is a yellow dot in amongst the greenery! |
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| Clark almost out of sight! |
As I looked for my comfy spot to sit and wait for Clark, a woman seated on the wall already gave me an At-a-girl saying, "You're doing great! You're almost there!" I replied, "Nope! We have to turn around and go all the way back the way we came."
We struck up a conversation while I waited for Clark. She was on her own. She had brought water and bought a walking stick at the gift shop but forgot to bring a snack. She was wondering how she was going to make it to the end of the trail.
We were instantly best friends when I pulled a snack bar out of my backpack to help her boost her energy level. We sat together chatting until Clark returned as a pleasant interval before getting back on my feet again.
Clark took some pictures of his extended hike.
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| Jacob's Ladder |
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| RR bridge over the creek near stairs |
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| Creek from the bottom of the stairs |
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| Creek from half way up the stairs |
As Clark headed back, a train crossed over the bridge and the sound echoed along the gorge. This section of the path was open to the sun and was quite warm with no refreshing spray from falls or shade from the cliffs.
Someone had posted a note advising a passerby to "Take a Picture of the Mausoleum".
We were told to take the North Rim Trail to return to the South Pavilion entrance. Someone we met along the trail told us the North Rim Trail was uphill the whole way, so I was wondering how I would do hiking back. As it turned out, the way we were going, it was basically downhill the whole way! This trail was more rustic, not paved, with no stairs. I found it easier to hike than the manmade terrain.
Hiking this trail took us past a Y in the trail. One branch was the North Rim Trail, the other led to non-park property that turned out to be a huge cemetery. We noticed that a few folks had climbed over a railing by the side of the trail to explore the cemetery.
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| "Final resting place of a Titanic Survivor" Elizabeth Barrett Rothschild |
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| Mausoleum of Elizabeth Barrett Rothschild |
Further down the trail, we found some children making stone towers, cairns, where many folks have done so before them.
Taking the North Rim Trail back to the suspension bridge was a short and fast trip. We got back to the lily pond at the very beginning of the hike and I wondered if I had the energy to make it up the final hill to get back to the car.
I pushed through and we were in our car and on our way to the cousins' reunion at 2:00. With a 30-minute drive to Horseheads, New York, that put us exactly on time for the pre-arranged 2:30 clan gathering!
We drove straight to my cousin Ruth's house and found my three cousins (related from my father's side) sitting on her porch ready to greet us! Cheryl and Sally flew in yesterday from Texas for this gathering. Shortly after our arrival, my sister and her husband arrived having driven here today from Lebanon, Pennsylvania.
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| Family: Jim, Pat (my sister), Cheryl, Ruth, and Sally |
We spent until dinner time sharing family stories and then went to Cracker Barrel for dinner together. It has been almost 20 years since I ate at a Cracker Barrel, and it seemed like nothing had changed in that amount of time. All except Ruth, who lives here, were staying at the same hotel, so after dinner we called it a night and agreed to meet for the hotel-provided breakfast in the morning.
