Letchworth State Park and Campground- Castile, NY
We had heard a lot about Letchworth State Park, but we were not sure what to expect on our arrival. We were very pleasantly surprised. Letchworth State Park has been voted several different years as the best State Park in the Nation. With a reputation like that, we figured it must be pretty nice. It was one of the best we have ever visited. It was definitely one of the most beautiful parks imaginable.
Letchworth State Park was founded by a man named William Pryor Letchworth (1823-1910). Letchworth devoted his life to various charities. He built his home, Glen Iris, on former Seneca Indian land. In 1906, he donated his 1,000 acre estate to NY state. This land is now Letchworth State Park.
These are views overlooking the top of Mt Morris Dam. We had never been inside a dam before, so we really enjoyed the tour given by the US Corps Of Engineers. We actually learned a lot about the Corps itself as well. When we were there, there was not a lot of water in the Genesee River. The Dam was installed for the flood protection of Rochester, NY. It was built from 1948-1952. The area had suffered repeated, significant losses about every seven years due to major flooding prior to the dam being erected. The Genesee River is a tributary of Lake Ontario flowing northward from the Twin Tiers of PA and NY to Rochester, NY.
Looking south of the Dam is this gorgeous valley.
Lisa was in need of a rest, just curious where Sasquatch was when she borrowed his chair.
Lisa and Karma taking a break after we hiked from the Lower Falls. He takes his job of protecting mama very seriously. He has a tactical backpack he wears when we hike. He carries his water and a bowl in his backpack. The backpack also makes the big doofus look pretty serious as well. He gets excited when his backpack comes out- he knows we are going to be gone for a long time.
These are the Lower Falls on the Genesee River. We plan a lot of our hikes around local waterfalls and lighthouses. Granted, after seeing Niagara Falls, everything will now seem small in comparison.
The water levels are currently low in the pooling area below the Lower Falls.
The bottom of the Lower Falls Stone Arch Bridge, which we did not get a picture of somehow, is at the same elevation as the top of Mt Morris Dam.
Looking up at the gorge walls from Lower Falls was pretty amazing. The pictures really do not reflect the beauty and size of this area.
The views of the Upper Falls on the Genesee River were simply stunning. The Arch bridge in the background is the third one that has been built in this location. The first railroad bridge was a wooden one that caught fire while a coal train was crossing it. It is believed that an ember from the train caught the bridge on fire. There was an iron bridge built in 56 days to replace the wooden bridge. The iron bridge was used for 135 years. The current arch bridge was built in its place in 2018.
Close up views of the walls of the gorge. The slate from the area was used for a lot of the local construction.
These were some of the views of the gorge at Letchworth State Park we were fortunate enough to witness. The beauty and splendor of the park was definitely well worth the visit. There were actually very few people at the park. We typically saw very few while we were out hiking. The peace and tranquility was the perfect escape from all the ugliness in the world.
These massive picnic tables were such a unique use of natural materials from the park. There were probably 25 of these tables in the overlook area. There was no danger of these tables being stolen.
We made a 23 mile bike ride in the park. It may have not been our longest bike ride, but it was by far our most difficult. There were multiple elevation changes with up to a 10% grade. It proved to be much more strenuous than we had anticipated. Thank goodness for our electric bikes, because we could not have made it otherwise.
These are some of the stunning views of the Middle Falls in Letchworth Park. We had some amazing hikes throughout the park. We hiked and biked all over this park for nearly a week and still did not see it all. I would definitely recommend this park to anyone who enjoys the outdoors and hiking. We have seen many gorgeous parks in our travels, but this one is near the top of the list.
Our travels are not only about seeing the country, it is also about us continuing to learn. We continue to learn so much daily and see things we did not even know existed. The past few months have exceeded our expectations exponentially. Thank goodness for google and smart phones. We have looked up so many random things during our adventures. We always have plenty to talk about.
We found another spring coming out of the walls of the gorge. The area does not have the correct properties to create a "Tufa" as described above. A tufa is a travertine formation of limestone formed from carbonate minerals precipitate out of ambient temperature water.
We took a hike on the gorge trail. These pics were some of the gorgeous views we saw. Neither of us are particularly fond of heights or ledges, but these views were worth it. Karma was with us. He apparently had an itch and sat down to scratch. Of course he got this itch at the very worst possible spot. The trail was very narrow. One missed step could easily send you plummeting over the edge of the gorge. As he sat there scratching, he started to slide. He was as startled as we were. The trail got markedly more rocky, steep and narrow soon after his itching incident. We decided it was time to turn around and head back before one of us went over the edge. If one of us went over the edge, there was literally nothing any of us could do to rescue them or break their fall. This was our most adventurous and dangerous hike so far. We felt we scored a huge win though- we saw the sights and no one left the park in a body bag or cast. We do a lot of things that could easily result in one of us in a cast, but the threat of a body bag was a wee bit more than we wanted. We soon called it a day, got ice cream and watched a movie.
These trees are right on the edge of the gorge. The roots of the trees run away from the edge to hold the tree in place. Wonder how long they will be able to hold their position? Nature is an amazing thing. It manages to adapt and overcome issues on its own.
These were views of Wolf Creek Falls. We had stopped to look at them during our bike ride, but there was only a trickle of water. Overnight, we had about 1/4" of rain and the falls were flowing the next day. We were thankful for the rain that allowed us to see the falls.
While driving, we passed a sign about this veteran memorial park, so of course we had to go check it out. The memorial was located between farms out in the middle of no where. The "park" definitely was not what we were expecting, but it was a nice tribute to the fallen at this spot during the Revolutionary War.
We were on our way to tour the inside of Mt. Morris Dam.
This was the water on the downstream side of the dam.
Looking upstream from the dam, this is the Gorge at Letchworth State Park. Notice there is currently almost no water on this side of the dam.
We were on the top of the dam looking down. The small stream on the upper left side of the dam is the Genesee River. It is hard to imagine this innocent looking stream swelling high enough to almost breach the top of the dam and cause catastrophic damage, but it does.
Another view from the top of the dam. The dam is actually built deeply into the gorge walls to keep the water from being able to escape over the sides of the dam. The engineers did an amazing job designing the dam and anticipating many safety issues.
The pooling basin is located on the downstream side of the dam.
A view of the dam looking up from the bottom.
Lisa is looking at the upstream side of the dam. When one looks at these current pictures, it makes you wonder about the necessity of the dam. The Genesee River looks like such an insignificant little stream currently. The sole purpose of the dam is to prevent flooding of Rochester, NY. Since the dam was constructed, there have been two significant rainfalls that have raised the water level within 15 feet of breaching the top of the dam. This much water would fill the gorge up to a distance of approximately 8 miles upstream. Had the dam not been present, the damage and flooding would have been catastrophic to the city of Rochester and surrounding areas.
Lisa and her trusty companion, Karma, on a hike at Letchworth.
We noticed this fissure located at the top of the gorge. Wondering minds want to know when the cycle of freeze and thaws will cause this section of rock to fall into the gorge? We have not seen or heard much about rock slides and collapses here. Painted Rocks in Michigan reported areas collapsing routinely during the spring thaws. We saw lots of areas with previous rock slides along the gorges. We saw some areas that we were amazed they had not already collapsed. Nature is pretty fascinating.
This wraps up our visit at Letchworth State Park. We thoroughly enjoyed our time here. This one will be hard to beat. We highly recommend this park. A+++
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