To give perspective to the height of the falls, note the people standing at the end of the trail just to the bottom right of the pool at the base of the falls.
A sign near the overlook described the formation of the Taughannock Gorge.
We drove back down to Route 89 and parked at the Gorge Trail trailhead. The Gorge Trail winds its way along the Taughannock Creek for three-quarters of a mile up to the base of the falls. There's a smaller waterfall near its start.
The Taughannock Creek's base is made up of flat layers of rock with small waterfalls dropping from one layer of rock to the next.
It was overcast with temperatures in the upper 50's. Obviously, birding was not the priority here, and birds were few and far between. About a third of the way up the trail, I noticed a few birds on the hillside. I was surprised to find an adult male Black-throated Blue Warbler among them, especially since the warbler migration had been winding down in our area of Pennsylvania and this was in upstate New York. I got a few documentation photos of the bird before we continued on.
As we got closer to the falls, the walls of the gorge became more obvious and impressive.
A sign explained that the cliffs provided a nesting site for Peregrine Falcons, which were successfully reintroduced by nearby Cornell Univerity back in 1975.
As we started across the bridge over the creek, we got our first view of the falls from inside the gorge. I made sure to include the people at the end of the trail to show the height of the cliff face and the falls.
I took these photos of the falls at the end of the trail.
After returning to the parking lot, we walked across the highway to the section of the park along the shore of Cayuga Lake.
We drove back up Taughannock Park Road and visited the Upper Falls that are located above the main falls.
The creek then continues down to where the main falls drops over the cliff.
This hemlock tree was an interesting sight as it anchored itself to the rock wall and and then grew upward in a gradual curve.
Back in the early 1980's, I learned to fly sailplanes, or gliders, at the Kutztown Airport, eventually 'soloing' in 1981. I had driven past the National Soaring Museum near Elmira several times but never had the time to stop and see it. It was now early afternoon and the museum was only a half-hour away, so we headed there. It was well worth the trip. It was hard to get full-frame photos of the sailplanes because of their long wingspans. Here are some of the ones on display.
There was also a model of the Schweizer SGS 2-33, which was the sailplane that I learned to fly and solo in. Information on it and the specifications were also shown.
Right outside the museum is the famous Harris Hill airfield and its expansive view where many famous sailplane events have occurred.
We had dinner at the Cracker Barrel in Binghamton and then headed home.
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