Hiking NY: Backpacking in the Finger Lakes National Forest (with a couple side trips)

Can I just start by saying the Finger Lakes area is so beautiful!? My bestie Jessica and I headed out Wednesday afternoon to spend a few days backpacking in the Finger Lakes National Forest. We have been looking forward to getting out into the fresh air, as well as trying out some new gear and getting prepped for our next ADK trip!

Since there are so many amazing things to see down in this area, we made our first side trip to Montour Falls, NY to see the Eagle Cliff Falls at Havana Glen Park. It is a cute family town park with a short trail that you can walk up to a swimming hole and a gorgeous waterfall. Very scenic!

Next we headed up the road a few minutes and entered the Finger Lakes National Forest. We parked in the Blueberry Patch Campground parking lot (they are currently closed) and put our packs on to hit the Interloken trail south.

There were a couple campsites listed on the map along the trail. The first one was occupied so we headed further south and found a nicely secluded spot at the second one to pitch my newly acquired backpacking tent! It was super easy to pitch, and I am very happy with it after this trip.

We set up camp and grabbed our daybags to check out the Gorge Trail before dinner. It was a very mild "gorge" but pretty nonetheless and led us to a nicely moving stream to get our night supply of water from!

After dinner, we enjoyed some cards and chit chat in the tent before calling it a day. We got in a total of 5 miles this day. We woke up together this morning over oatmeal and coffee, then packed up camp and headed back north on the trail toward our next campsite a few miles away.

This campsite was close to a pond, and had an already established fire pit! We pitched our tent and shed our heavy packs to once again grab our daybags and hit the trail for the rest of the afternoon. We headed a few more miles north on the Interloken trail.

The trail passed thru another pasture here where there were cows grazing in a field. We got to see them up close, but they didn't want to be pet. After they scampered off, we decided to rest our feet and have a snack in the pasture before heading back to camp.

Once back at camp we started a fire in the pit and relaxed a bit before cooking dinner. Total miles hiked this day was 10. The next morning we had our breakfast and packed up camp before hiking the final 1.5 miles back to my car.

We decided to explore another gem in this area since it was still so early in the day and we headed over to Taughannock Falls State Park! Such a beautiful sight, I highly recommend checking this one out if you are ever in the Ithaca area. Thankfully we got there before the crowds and were able to enjoy the peacefulness.

We first parked at the overlook and got the view looking down at the falls. Then I drove around the park and we hiked the Gorge trail to the lower observation area.

Check back next week for Adirondack pictures!

Hiking NY: Eternal Flame, Letchworth Gorge Trail, and Niagara Gorge

Last week was a busy hiking week! Summer is in full swing here in NY (I think we skipped spring!) So I've been getting out as much as I can to get my muscles prepped for harder hikes this summer.

On Tuesday I took Brad and we joined my bff Jessica and her family to do the short but fun hike at Chestnut Ridge to see the Eternal Flame falls! I've done this one before, but it's a classic that I knew Brad would enjoy. Lots of small waterfalls ending with a large waterfall with a natural gas leak that stays lit behind the falls!

Wednesday Jessica and I headed south again for a longer hike at Letchworth State Park on the Gorge Trail. The full trail is now open for the season, so we were able to connect to trail 2 for a loop. Our total distance on this day was almost 7 miles! Such scenic views!

This little guy "Chippie" watched us while we ate our snack midway

Saturday is was much warmer, and this time we headed up to Niagara Falls for another scenic hike along the Niagara Gorge to see the Whirlpool as well as Devils Hole. Total distance this day was 5.5 miles and a LOT of stairs.

My legs were feeling it after all this! I worked the weekend, now Jessica and I are both off for almost 2 weeks to set out on more hiking adventures! We had an amazingly awesome trip planned to Arizona this week....but thanks to the 'Rona we had to reschedule it for September. We aren't letting that get us down too much though---we have other adventures in mind. Check back next week for pics!