The Glen 06/24/19

Sampson State Park, Romulus, New York

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.  See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. ~ Psalm 139:23-24

Good verse for this afternoon.  I should’ve been meditating on it.  You’ll see why.  ☹

Watkins Glen State Park was a beautiful, southbound, 30 mile scenic drive – as they all seem to be around this neck of the woods.  We drove past countless wineries and their vineyards. And since I spoke with a woman on a trail the other day, we knew to leave early this morning so as to arrive before the crowds. We were in the Park by 8:30am.  😊

I love looking at flowing water, in fact, I think my favorite places to be have been around rocky rivers.  And you’d probably agree, as you’ve recently been subject to hundreds of pictures depicting that in some form or other.

So when Blaine suggested we head to Watkins Glen, half of me was excited, the other half just wanted to go back to the parks in Ithaca and sit for a couple of hours.  I mean, after all, the only thing I knew about Watkins Glen was that it was a NASCAR road race track.  Then once I’d looked it up, I expected it to be just like that beautiful walk to Lucifer Falls, because the pictures on-line looked very similar.

It was not.  (you knew that was coming, didn’t you? 😊)

It had a wonder and beauty and majesty all its own!

Now you get to venture into the gorge with us once again.  But don’t take our word for it, come see it for yourselves – as in, in person – some day. Enjoy!

From their brochure:

Water in the form of glaciers, covered New York State, dramatically transforming the land in its path.  It moved through shallow v-shaped river valleys, leaving in its place steep-sided u-shaped troughs.  When the glacier receded from this area about 10,000 years ago, meltwater filled these new troughs, creating the eleven Finger Lakes including Seneca Lake, which is over 600 feet deep! 

The water of Glen Creek that once flowed gently into the valley, now cascaded down the steep-sided trough with much greater energy, creating a hanging valley, or waterfall.  Water energy continues to cut away the sedimentary rock, forming the park’s rugged gorge and spectacular waterfalls.  Glen comes from a Greek word, meaning “small, narrow, secluded valley.”

In 1863, the gorge was first opened for tourism as a privately owned luxury resort destination.

Morvalden Ells, a local journalist, promoted and managed the attraction.  At that time, admission was $1 per person, which would be roughly $34 today!  The gorge was purchased for public use by the State of New York in 1906 to protect for all to enjoy. 

The spectacular stone trails we continue to walk on were crafted by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in the 1930’s.  The CCC program put Americans back to work during the Great Depression, creating lasting impacts on public infrastructure and lands.

Since 1924, Watkins glen has been managed by the Finger Lakes Region of the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation.  Our organization works to provide recreational and educational opportunities to all visitors and to be a responsible caretaker of our natural, historic, and cultural resources.

But there’s so much more to the history than what they state here.

Being hobbled, can be an advantage.  It forces us to slow down and look around more.  Sometimes that’s a good thing, sometimes, not so good as you’ll see in later pictures.

And when we were almost finished, we squeezed past (because now it’s getting really crowded) a woman carrying a dog.  I don’t know if it was tiredness, or being uncomfortable, or annoyed with the crowds, or just my irritation with encountering people and their dogs in places where they shouldn’t be (there were ‘NO DOGS’ signs posted everywhere before you started on the trail), but I just had to say something.  “You do realize that dogs aren’t supposed to be on the trail?”  “I know but he’s. . . .”  I didn’t allow her to finish.  I just said, “Okay”.  Frankly, I didn’t care what he was.  He wasn’t a trained seeing-eye dog, or trained anything else.  He was just a dog.  What I wanted to say was, “You knew the restriction and yet you brought your dog anyway?  What gives you the right?  Do you have special permission from the Park?”  And there were other things I thought about saying, too, but I held my tongue and kept the exit line moving.  And Blaine probably hung his head in embarrassment. Or, since he was behind me, may have mouthed “I’m sorry.” to her. 😊

So other than that brief flare-up of aggravation, it was an absolutely marvelous day!

And before we headed back, we drove over to check out Watkins Glen race track.  They weren’t offering tours though, so you got off the hook there.  😊

We had intended to sight-see all day, but it was cloudy and spitting rain every so often, so we went home.