Letchworth State Park had a canal running alongside the Genesee River gorge. Its been abandoned for over 140 years. It took 25 years and 6 million dollars to construct the Genesee Valley Canal. All for the canal to be abandoned 16 years after it was completed. Talk about throwing money in a ditch, eh? …
Allegheny Forest: Handsome Lake Campground, One of the Best Around
Disclaimer: Handsome Lake Campground is technically not in New York. It is located about 10 miles into Pennsylvania in Allegheny National Forest, which connects to Allegany State Forest in New York. (Why is “Allegany” spelled two different ways between the national forest and the state park, I don’t know). Located in Bradford, PA, Handsome Lake …
Vines Have Taken Over New York
Once you see it, you can’t unsee it; vines have covered New York. (Well, a lot of New York). There are so many different kinds of vines. I don’t know a lot about them, and fear mislabeling them, so I will generally describe them and give my guess as to what they’re called based off …
Geeking Out Over 18 Mile Creek
Water? Check. Rockin’ rocks? Check. Interesting trees? Check. 18 Mile Creek has all of my favorite “hey, before we continue, we need to stop and appreciate this” elements. Seriously. I had a hiking buddy who formed a habit of running way ahead of me, finding cool rocks, and leaving those rocks on the middle of …
What to Look at When Everything is Brown and Dead
The transitional phases. You know, that time of year in fall and spring when the dominate color of the landscape is brown. The deciduous trees are leafless. The flowers are dead, but still standing. The ground has some patches of green here and there but is dominated by mud and chlorophyll-depleted grass. What is awesome …
Chimney Bluffs: The Teeth of Lake Ontario
No bluffing here: these rocks are freakin’ cool. Located on the shore of Lake Ontario in Huron, Wayne County, lies Chimney Bluffs, a geological feature worth a trip. The seemingly huge, jagged shark teeth were formed by eroded drumlins, or glacial till hills deposited and shaped by glaciers during the most recent ice age. Waves, …
3 Ways to Find Trails
Situation: you decided to go for a walk, but you don’t know where to go. Maybe you’re new to walking/hiking as a hobby and don’t know how to find places to go to. Maybe you have done the same trail too many times and want some new scenery. Maybe you just moved somewhere and are …
Cohoes Falls: Niagara’s Eastern Wannabe
Cohoes, a six-story waterfall. Between 70-90 feet tall, Cohoes Falls is New York’s second tallest waterfall. The tallest are the American and Bridal Falls of Niagara Falls, both between 90-120 feet in height. By no means is Cohoes — or Niagara for the matter — one of the world’s tallest waterfalls, but the Mohawk River …
Meet the Dork Who’s Exploring New York
My name is Jules Hoepting (jewels/joules, hope-ting), a 21-year-old dork who has taken to walking around and testing my phone’s photo storage capacity. Canadian by birth, I grew up in the flat part of New York, the former basin of Lake Ontario. When I was one year old, my mom moved to Orleans County for …