So – been to Watkins Glen lately?
*Earlier in this space we’ve looked at several easy-on/easy-off trails, where you can get in a satisfying hike without spending half your time just getting to the trail. In ascending order of difficulty we looked at Sperr Park and the Big Flats Trail; Keuka Outlet Trail between Penn Yan and Dresden; and the trails at Mossy Bank Park overlooking Bath.
*If anything, the Gorge Trail at Watkins Glen State Park is even easier to reach – just pull off the village street into the parking lot and you’re there.
*Mossy Bank has a spectacular overlook. Watkins Glen is spectacular every step of the way.
*Thinkers and pontificators from Lao-Tzu to Chairman Mao have remarked on the quiet but terrifying power of water… that while it may be the softest and most yielding of substances, given time it will bore right through the hardest rock. That’s what’s happened here.
*If you start at the lower entrance, on Franklin Street, you pass along the stream, make your way through a short tunnel in the rock, and then pass over the stream on a stone bridge. That short tunnel, and that short bridge, form your portal into a world of mist, stone, water, sharp shadows contrasting with startling sunlight, and noise — for the water roars as it races through the narrow gorge.
*The trail tracks alongside Glen Creek, occasionally tunneling or crossing over, with a low wall between you and the river. You make your way under rock overhangs. You pick your way through muddy underfoot. You push through spray, and you hike to the roar of the falls and the rapids, echoing off the cliffs of stone through which you follow the Creek. (Even where the Creek is quiet, you can still hear it roaring just a few steps away.)
*You also make your way uphill, swimming against the current, so to speak. Near the upper entrance there’s a flight of 180 stone steps. I’ve done it both ways, but it may be good thinking to start at the LOWER entrance, so that your return trip, when you’re tired, is DOWNhill.
*You’re walking through a cleft in the rock… a glen… with rocky cliffs that tower high above you. In many places the stone is covered with moss. Ferns spring forth, and so do precarious hemlocks. Flowers grow here and there, and butterflies make themselves at home. High above you, squirrels scramble in the trees. Check out the juncos, who love cliff spaces like this, a little higher than the surrounding countryside, for their summer homes.
It’s an oft-told tale, but worthwhile all the same. While hiking one day I stopped to help a couple of visitors puzzle out their map and get themselves situated as to which trail they were on, and which way they were headed. “You people should advertise this more,” the woman said. “I’ve been to Hawaii, and I’ve been in their gorges. Their gorges are nothing like this.”
WHAT’S NEARBY: You’re actually in the Village of Watkins Glen, with its famous marina at the head of Seneca Lake. Watkins Glen International is not far off, and the Watkins Glen Motor Racing Research Center (adjoining the public library) always has a classic car on view.
*WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: (a) The Gorge Trail is also part of the main Finger Lakes Tail, and the North Country National Scenic Trail. (b) The park as a whole has 19 waterfalls and 832 stone steps. (c) The visitors center at the lower entrance sells my historic photo books, “Watkins Glen Racing” and “Around Watkins Glen!”