Watkins Glen State Park

I have been wanting to write this blog post for a while but work has been so busy the past few weeks. I’ve neglected this blog to an unacceptable level but I’m definitely going to try to make this blog and website a priority (after work of course). Honestly, photography hasn’t been fun for me for a while. I used to love it and would always make time for it, even in freezing cold weather. Mostly what was affecting my enjoyment of photography was letting other non-related things slide me into a mood funk so that even things I previously enjoyed brought me no joy. I’m working on not letting things get to me so much and this trip was one way to do that. This is the first time I haven’t hiked all spring/summer in a few years. That’s unheard of for me.

Over Labor Day weekend I decided to take a trip that I have been wanting to take for about 5 years, and that is to go to Watkins Glen State Park and see all of the beautiful waterfalls, particularly the popular Rainbow Falls. The park itself was absolutely amazing. The people . . . not so much. Read on for the good (and a little bad) of my trip. For the most part it was really good and I definitely enjoyed myself. I even want to come back for another long weekend at some point and see the other places I didn’t get to see while I was there this time.

I couldn’t find a decent or affordable (to me) hotel room in Ithaca, so I stayed about 25 minutes or so away in Elmira at Candlewood Suites Horseheads. The rooms were clean, comfortable, a nice size and had excellent water pressure in the shower. The front desk staff was so nice, especially Ashley.

There is a parking lot at the park (obviously) but not wanting to be bothered with the hassle of trying to get a space or pay for parking (also I get anxiety driving in a place where I've never been) I decided to Uber while I was there, which is doable for a few days but not long term. I was there for two days so it wasn't too bad.

This is the view you see when you first walk into the park. Everything looked so big, peaceful, and beautiful. Despite living in a big city, I much prefer a quieter life. Too much noise and especially too many people makes me extremely irritable and that’s putting it mildly. It’s also a bit of a sign of things to come, lol. Now, I knew that it was going to be very crowded because not only was it a weekend, but it was a holiday weekend, so I was prepared for the huge crowds. I also got there at 11:00am, so I wasn’t expecting it to be empty. It wasn’t even the crowds that bothered me. It was the self absorbed, inconsiderate behavior that really pissed me off. But we’ll get to that in a minute.

All of these pictures were taken with my beloved Fujifilm x100v. I took my x100v and my GoPro with me. I didn’t really get a lot of pictures because I always make it a point to stand out of the way and once you actually get on the trail (or stairs to be exact, 832 to the top with short walking areas in between) there really isn’t anywhere to move aside. People just stopping dead in the middle of any kind of path like they’re the only ones who exist in the world is one of my major pet peeves.

Forgive the crap quality. This was taken with my iPhone. This is the only picture that I was able to get of Rainbow Falls and it makes me sad because seeing this picture online years ago was what sparked my interest to go there. As I mentioned, the park was insanely crowded. Some people behind me barely started the hike and once they saw all the people they gave up and went back.

My issue was not with the crowds, it was not with people stopping to take pictures (that’s why a lot of us were there, after all). My issue is that they would stop at the most narrow part of the path, where it was barely single file room, and stop for minutes (yes, minutes) at a time to pose for multiple pictures. Then they would check them out and take more pictures if they didn’t like how they came out. Then the person taking the pictures would switch and pose for pictures, and repeat. For a park that is normally crowded (depending on the day/time) and was extra crowded (because of the holiday weekend) that seemed really obnoxious to me.

My last complaint observation was that people just do not wear proper footwear for these things. Now fine, it wasn’t like they were scaling a mountain, but I saw so many people in flip flops and crocs. 🤦🏻‍♀️ Another thing that blew my mind was that I saw a few people who had babies strapped in carriers around their necks and one guy was even walking down the stairs with a child sitting on his shoulders. 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️ Why?! Those stairs can get narrow and steep in places, it had rained the night before so the steps were obviously a bit slick, and considering the huge crowds, whyyyyyy would you do that?

There were huge puddles like this all over the place. I didn’t mind that, but one guy snapped at his kid because when the kid took a step, he splashed the dad’s leg a little. I’m not a kid person at all (sorry, I’m just not) and yes, a lot of times kids can splash on purpose and it’s annoying. In this case, and I saw it with my own eyes, I felt bad for the kid because he didn’t do it on purpose. He didn’t even step hard. There were huge puddles everywhere, we were all jammed uncomfortably close at times, so unless you were just going to tiptoe around for the entire hike, you were going to get splashed. Deal with it or don’t go to the park after a freaking rainstorm.

There were lots of smaller waterfalls throughout the hike (I believe there are 19 of them in total) and it was so beautiful to see and the rush and roar of the water was very relaxing. I loved the rock formations. It was just so nice to be away from the city and in this (mostly) peaceful place.

The areas between the stairs where there was a little path to walk along were less crowded than the stairs so I was able to stop and rest out of the way and take a few pictures

How’s this for a beautiful view? I believe this was at the beginning of the hike before you walked into this kind of tunnel and up the stairs to where the hike actually begins but I can’t be sure. I love waterfalls and I have so many on my list to see one day. I’m definitely glad I came here because I had been wanting to go for years and it definitely lived up to what I imagined it to be.

This one came out a bit blurry but I still like it. The crowds made it difficult to get a good shot because I didn’t want to be the a-hole blocking people so this was a snap a quick shot while we were all standing waiting for people to finally start walking again but try not to get people’s arms or heads in the picture kind of picture. The little bridge is where you would walk if you walked down a mostly dirt path that didn’t pass any of the waterfalls. I took that trail on the way back because I just didn’t know if I had the tolerance to deal with the crowds on my way back down.

I still enjoy looking at pictures of street photography, following street photography accounts on Instagram, and I even find myself thinking “that would have made such a cool shot” if I see an interesting street scene when I’m out and about, but the older I get the more exhausting I find people. Also, people seem to be a lot more confrontational now and I just don’t have the patience to deal with that. I’m just more into hiking/nature, travel, food kind of photography now. I just want to have a little slice of my life that brings me peace and enjoyment. It’s why I’m revamping the website. I deleted the “book a session” page and I have no interest into attempting to get into that again.

All in all, I really enjoyed my trip there. I got to be in nature and check something off on my list. I wish I had some food pics to show (yes, I take pictures of my food when I go out to eat) but the Thai place I really wanted to go to closed at 2:00 for the afternoon until 5:00 and I misjudged the time it would take to get back down to the main entrance and then get to the Thai place, so no food pics in this post. Maybe next year because I still have Buttermilk Falls State Park on my list.

Visiting Niagara Falls, NY

Walking to Clear My Mind