Road trip to Niagara falls, Day 1 #TravelTaleTuesday-1

The main intention of starting my blog was to share my  travel tales. I also write about personal things to an extent and I am happy about it. Picture prompts, poetry and fiction have also found their place here. Travel after travel kept me busy. By the time I had a plan for writing about my trip,  I was already travelling to some other. Yes, It has been  a  splendid year of travel for us. Laziness, procrastination and other personal priorities are other attributes which delayed the whole process of writing. Since its winter here and the scope to go places is less, I want to religiously stick to writing and get some discipline over it. Less travel and more writing this month. I will be sharing a travel tale every Tuesday here. Yes, under the tag- TravelTaleTuesday.

 

 Travelling is a passion me and Mr.K share in common. We thoroughly enjoy the whole process of planning and packaging, getting prepared and welcoming the unexpected, new places and new people, exploring places and getting little adventurous too. But  sudden and dynamic plans are the real thrills. Road trips are the best amongst them- for a reason that we can stop to enjoy various view points on the way, relax in the rest areas, grab quick snacks, and go on according to our own schedule at our comfortable pace.

 

Road trip to Niagara is a amazing journey to take. Me and Mr. K did it once in May this year and our joy knew no boundaries. We enjoyed every bit of it and learnt a lot of lessons about travelling. We redid it again last week along with two other best buddies. The places we visited on the way to Niagara  on our first trip(in summer) are slightly different from the second one(in the fall) though many were in common. I will combine both the lists here to give a overall view of the places  and different options that one can cover in a 2 day road trip. I would love to share my personal experience here as well.

 

It is  a 400 mile (one way)  drive from New Jersey to Niagara. There are plenty of places to visit on the way. The whole journey is an scenic overload, throughout. People who would like to spend time with nature will never be disappointed to see these places. Every  little place along the way are like the postcard landscapes. There are beautiful view points, waterfalls, pristine lakes, lush green state parks and anything one would want to soak in nature itself. Oh yeah! The food outlet options are also ample in number. Driving to these places in the fall season to witness the lovely colors and pleasant weather -the experience is  beyond words.

 

1)The Palisades Interstate Park

 

The best place to view the scenic beauty of the New York skyline. This Park gives the entire view of the Manhattan and the Brooklyn.Though it is a small pit stop to take on the highway, missing this is surely a loss of visual treat. How about a coffee break in this place?

 



The Hues of the sky



The skyline is not clearly captured here



 



Fall colors, love and pose



How I wish to take a ride in the water
 

 

We drove along some of the finger lakes to reach the below destinations. The Finger Lakes are a group of eleven long, narrow, roughly east-west lakes in a section of Central New York in the United States. The lakes' shapes reminded early map-makers of human fingers, and the name stuck. 

 

2) Ithaca falls, Robert H Treman state park

 

This state park is  an area of wild beauty, with the rugged gorge called Enfield Glen as its scenic highlight. Winding trails follow the gorge past 12 waterfalls, including the 115-foot Lucifer Falls, to where visitors can see a mile-and-a-half down the wooded gorge as it winds its way to the lower park.

 

Fishing and hiking are the activities that can be done here. We had other plans for the day so we walked a small trail and enjoyed the place soaking in its magnificent beauty.

 



Cascading  Ithaca Falls

 


Tunnel like entry to the trail

 


The better view

  

3)Taughannock State park

 

We needed a place to rest and take a break from the long drive. When we checked on the map for a near by state parks we found the Taughannock (like a tongue twister :-P) .What we saw when we reached there is a breath taking experience.

 

Taughannock plunges over two spectacular waterfalls and winds through a deep gorge of 215 feet before the stream enters Cayuga lake. The tribes who once lived here were named after the lake.The Cayuga people have a mysterious history to say. The Cayuga Gods are believed to be the creators of humankind. Interesting Isn't it?

 Picnicking, swimming and hiking are a few ways to enjoy this dynamic landscape.



The view in the Fall season





Spell bound and breath taking view of the spectacular waterfalls -Summer view
 
 



 

 


walking the trail...

 

Another view of the Cayuga lake

 

Big Picture

 

 

Closer view

 

  Close to this Waterfall there is a state park under the same name where the spot for picnicking is one of the best I have been. Barbeques are the best ones to relish here with the family, friends  and loved ones. We kept it simple for the day and made yum-yum bhelpuri along with orange juice. The sea gulls there were our uninvited guests but we were happy to share our lunch with them:) 

 

It's bhel time

Look at their discipline of standing in a line. What are they planning for?

 

A perfect swim spot.

 

The Yacht

 


 

Single sea gull.. having it's me time

 



And a family of them


 


How about sitting on these hedges and humming my favorite song

 


 

Some posing..

 


The play ground.. Swinging in silence

 

 

The vast lake or the reflection of the clear sky

 


Staircase to heaven.. for the people to hike

 
 


 

That's me awestruck at the view 


4)Watkins Glen State Park 

 

Heat shaped rocks

The waterfalls of Watkins Glen descend like the steps of the staircase. Three steps and two treads drop through this narrow section of the glen.

 

The Cavern cascade, Minnehaha falls, and Entrance Cascade.

The gorge is a fierce place with floods, rock slides, and rock-fracturing winter ice that continue to deepen and widen the ravine.

An ancient sea covered much of New York state nearly 400 million years ago. The layers of rock in the gorge walls around us were once the layers and mud and sand at the bottom of the sea. Swimming in the gorge is extremely dangerous and it is also illegal. The potholes to swim are deadly due to a strong undertow. Campsites, picnic facilities, and fishing are in the nearby Seneca Lake ( largest of the 11 finger lakes created by recreating glaciers).

 

so much climbing to do.. oops!




Bizzare and artistic patterns of rocks

 

 

Needs no caption.. Beauty to behold

And the massive force of the fall

 

 

The Day-1 of the trip had taken us places to visit various waterfalls. Tired and exhausted physically we reached the hotel in Rochester to get some rest. Oh yeah! our sumptuous Italian dinner at Olive gardens was a cute bow on the packet of memories of the day.

 

Day 2 was reserved to enjoy the world's largest Niagara Falls. I will tell you more about it in the next post.