Buttermilk Falls State Park
Cascadilla Gorge
Ithaca Falls

The weekend redeemed itself on Monday. I wasn’t so sure during the first couple of days if I would be traveling to find a few landscape images. I trusted the forecast for Monday and it was worthy. I enjoyed a beautiful morning in Ithaca exploring a few of its gorges…

My first stop was Buttermilk Falls State Park to walk the gorge trail upstream of the namesake waterfall. I arrived prior to the sun rising very high in the sky which allowed me to grab all my favorite views without having to worry about “hot spots” caused by the sun. This first image is very early along the trail. You can see the sun starting to illuminate the trees in the background.

My next stop was the Cascadilla Gorge. I haven’t walked the trail along the gorge in quite a few years. I should have known I was going to run into a roadblock when I spied repairs right at the start of the trail. The city had blocked off the trail for additional repairs further in so I was only able to explore about half of the gorge. I did manage a few interesting images aided by the sunlight reaching down into the gorge. I really liked how the leaves glowed in contrast to the darkness of the gorge walls.

My last stop in Ithaca before heading home was to see Ithaca Falls. It is a tough waterfall to photograph in the morning as it will be in shadow with the sun behind it. Based on the water flowing in the other creeks I was hoping to see the falls complete. I was not disappointed. I chose to leave the extra ND filter off and allow a faster shutter speed to highlight the power of the water falling down. Can you hear the roar?

On my way back home I stopped at Tinker Falls near Tully. I was hoping I would find similar water flowing in the creek. I was wrong. There was barely a trickle. I managed a few images but the amount of people walking the trails was disproportional to the more famous trails in Ithaca. I decided I’ll try again after we have had more rain.