Buttermilk Falls State Park

The weather forecast predicted a beautiful Saturday here in Central NY so I decided Friday night I was going to make a run to Ithaca for some waterfall action.  There has not been a lot of rain recently but my thought was the lower levels would produce some interesting cascades in my “go to” state parks.  I gathered up my equipment, packed extra clothes and headed out around 5:30am.

My first stop was Taughannock Falls on the western edge of Cayuga Lake.  Much to my disappointment the gorge trail was closed which only left me the falls overlook location.  I grabbed a couple of images and explored around the new visitor center before reluctantly leaving for my next stop, Buttermilk Falls.

I was at the northern end of the gorge trail before 8:30am.  The change in plans due to my first stop probably worked to my advantage.  The trail was fairly empty and the sun had not reached into the gorge in a lot of the locations.  I spent a good hour and a half photographing the upper portion of the gorge.  I have never been very impressed with the namesake falls.  I have found much more interesting images in the upper portion of the park.  The image for this post is one of those locales.

Buttermilk Creek
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 2s, 19mm, f/16, ISO 200

The next stop (which ended up being my last stop) was Robert H. Treman park.  By the time I arrived a little after 10am the park was already starting to get crowded.  I didn’t think it would matter too much though as there are over 5 miles of trails along the gorge.  What I didn’t think about was the number of people ignoring the signs about not playing in the water.  I lost count of the images I walked past because there was someone in the water.

This park ended up kicking my butt!  The next time the little voice in my head says “it is only a couple hundred stairs up to the top” there is going to be a fight.  It is only a five mile round trip from one end of the park to the other.  What the park map doesn’t explain is the huge changes in elevation.  I will put together a post later in the week with a better look at this great state park.

For now, I am going to relax and recuperate… and probably head out for some sunset action.  🙂