A trip to Letchworth State Park, Upstate New York.

Letchworth State Park, renowned as the "Grand Canyon of the East," is one of the most scenically magnificent areas in the eastern U.S. The Genesee River roars through the gorge over three major waterfalls between cliffs--as high as 600 feet in some places--surrounded by lush forest. 

It is around 69 miles from where live in Painted Post near Corning.  We started in the morning and also took our dogs Sasha and Jazzy with us. The drive as usual was fun and the road was extremely scenic. 

It took around an hour or more to reach this point. The usual park entry was closed for road repairs, so we took the de tour and entered through the Portageville entrance. As we got down, we saw the huge canyon and the tiny river flow.

I wasn't so impressed, since I had seen the magnificent Grand Canyon in the West. There was board, which gave information of the gorge and the river, but that's it. However, I decided to hold my opinion.

After walking around the rim, with dogs, we thought of going further down. As we drew, we reached the mid point of the park, where we saw eateries and lost of hustle bustle. We decided to go further and we almost reached the tip. We saw the magnificent water fall here. It was truly spectacular. 

The width of the fall was almost like Niagara Falls and when the water falls in the river, it hits the rocks, giving high rise water droplets (Tushar) which would fall on the opposite rock and due to extreme cold winters would form ice/ snow. This was called the Upper falls.

On our way back we saw the Middle Falls, this too was gushing and indeed beautiful.

So in all there are three major waterfalls — called the Upper, Middle, and Lower Falls — are located in Portage Canyon, the southern section of the park. The only trail bridging the Genesee River in the park crosses a stone bridge just below the Lower Falls. The Middle 
Falls is the highest, and the Upper Falls has an active railroad trestle crossing immediately above it, which is seen in the 2nd picture.

Hikers can go hiking and can choose among 66 miles of hiking trails. Trails are also available for horseback riding, biking, snowmobiling and cross-country skiing. Letchworth offers nature, history and performing arts programs, guided walks, tours, a summer lecture series, whitewater rafting, kayaking, a pool for swimming and hot air ballooning. 

It was indeed a memorable trip and worth the visit.

Watkins Glen State Park

Vilas was introduced to one organization called STICA, who requested him to organize a picnic at Watkins Glen State Park and that was the first time, I went to Watkin Glen State Park. It was 13^th June 2015 a Saturday.

It is about 24.1 miles from our place and takes around 35 minutes to reach the place. So we had to purchase entry tickets to enter the Park and entrance fee for a day picnic is per car, We were at the South Entrance. The park has comfortable camping sites, as well as picnic tables and pavilions, food, playground, a gift shop, pool, dump stations, showers, recreation programs, tent and trailer sites, fishing, hiking, hunting and cross-county skiing. The park is open year-round, but not all facilities are available at all times.

Picnic Pavilion

Picnic pavilion was already booked and all food and drink arrangement was made. It was indeed a huge pavilion, with rooms on the either side. The open space had desk and benches and the rooms were equipped with refrigerators and tables to arrange food.

Outside were plain lawns on either side with tables, benches and barbecue facilities. The middle lawn was open and few of the picnickers had their cricket sessions, some played ball and few flew kites.

Behind this pavilion, were steps going down and when Vilas had some free time, we went down to see that area. We alighted quit a steps and walked by, we came across a natural pond called Lily Pond, which was surprisingly full of lotuses. Lotuses were indeed beautiful. 

cricket played on this ground

kids playing

We walked further and came across suspension bridge and to our disbelief, overlooking it, we were astounding by the beauty beneath. Its was a glen and surfing water gushing through it. 

Clicked from the suspension bridge

We also saw men and women walking along the sides. Its was indeed a scenic beauty and then we decided to walk along the gorge someday.

In July, my son had come down for a month or more and one weekend, we went to this park again. This time we had our two dogs with us, as Vilas faintly remembered that, pet were allowed in the park. However, we could only take the walking trail, which had a board specifying dogs were allowed on that trail called the South Rim Trail. Of course, it was a wonderful trail and we enjoyed every bit walking the entire trail. 

South rim trail

There were outlets to the gorge path, but we just walked around the rim, mostly it was 3 mile trail and towards the end we saw a lot of campers on the left side. This trail was leading nowhere and had a dead end sort of and at the end we reached near the a railway bridge a top us. At this point we decided to returned back the same path. 

Railway bridge atop

My son very much wanted to walk the gorge, but with dogs and the time constraint after walking one trail, we dropped off the idea.

Then on 8^th November 2015, my husband and me decided to walk the glen path. To enter this, we have to use the main entrance. Watkins Glen State Park is the most famous of the Finger Lakes State Parks, with a reputation for leaving visitors spellbound. Within two miles, the glen's stream descends 400 feet past 200-foot cliffs, generating 19 waterfalls along its course.

Entrance of the path

water fall

step leading up to Indian trail

suspension bridge above

rock above the walking path and water fall

                                                 

 

water fall, most scenic and thrilling

The gorge path winds over and under waterfalls and through the spray of Cavern Cascade. Rim trails overlook the gorge.  

Watkins Glen State Park is located outside the village of Watkins Glen, south of Seneca Lake in Schuyler County in New York's Finger Lakes region. The park's lower part is near the village, while the upper part is open woodland.

The park features three trails – open mid-May to early November – by which one can climb or descend the gorge. The Southern Rim mentioned earlier and Indian Trails run along the wooded rim of the gorge, while the Gorge Trail is closest to the stream and runs over, under and along the park's 19 waterfalls by way of stone bridges and more than 800 stone steps. The trails connect to the Finger Lakes Trail, an 800-mile (1,300 km) system of trails within New York state.

Water flowing over head

There are boards at important spots, displaying detail information about the formation of this gorge. It is said, during the Pleistocene era, a vast area was covered by ice during the maximum extent of glacial ice in the north polar area. The movement of glaciers from the Laurentide and Wisconsin ice sheets shaped the Finger Lakes region. The lakes originated as a series of northward-flowing streams. Around two million years ago the first of many continental glaciers of the Laurentide Ice Sheet moved southward from the Hudson Bay area, initiating the Pleistocene glaciation. These glaciers widened, deepened and accentuated the existing river valleys. Glacial debris, possibly including terminal moraines, left behind by the receding ice acted as dams, allowing lakes to form. Despite the deep erosion of the valleys, the surrounding uplands show little evidence of glaciation, suggesting that the ice was thin, or at least unable to cause much erosion at these higher altitudes. The deep cutting of the valleys by the ice left some tributaries hanging high above the lakes: both Seneca and Cayuga have tributaries hanging as much as 390 feet (120 m) above the valley floors.

Information Boards

One such hanging valley, overlooking the south end of the Seneca Lake valley, evolved into the deep gorge of Watkins Glen. The steep drop of Glen Creek into Seneca Valley created a powerful torrent that eroded the underlying rock, cutting further and further back towards the stream's headwaters.

marvelous rock cuts due to water falls

This erosion was not a uniform process: the rock here includes shale, limestone, and sandstone, and these types of rock erode at different rates, leaving behind a staircase of waterfalls, cascades, plunge pools and potholes. 

Rock erosion

More detail information is available on the following website.

http://nyfalls.com/waterfalls/watkins-glen/

Just close your eyes and see the beauty of this wonderful Earth!

Watched GRAVITY last Sunday. Amazing experience. However, with that kind of a fall, no one can really enjoy the earth's beauty. Here are some breath taking satellite images of the earth. Just close your eyes and think you are high up in the sky,  flying and looking below the wonderful world. Here is your dream come true.............. 


I am sure each of us has dreamt sometime or the other about flying in the clear sky and looking below the wonderful world. Here is your dream come true.............. 

14 Most Amazing Satellite Pictures You'll Ever See

1 – Ground Zero, New York City – Sept 12, 2001

This one-meter resolution satellite image of Manhattan, New York was collected at 11:43 a.m. EDT on Sept. 12, 2001 by Space Imaging's IKONOS satellite. The image shows an area of white and gray-colored dust and smoke at the location where the 1,350-foot towers of the World Trade Center once stood. Since all airplanes were grounded over the U.S. after the attack, IKONOS was the only commercial high-resolution camera that could take an overhead image at the time.

2 – Fritzler Corn Maze, Colorado

Space Imaging's IKONOS satellite took this image of the patriotic Fritzler Corn Maze near Greeley, Colorado, September 18, 2004. The design depicts the U.S. Marines raising the American Flag at The Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II.

3 – Niagara Falls

The image shows the Niagara River that connects Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, snaking around Goat Island, in the lower left of the full image. Most of the river's water plummets over the Canadian/Horseshoe Falls, but some diverted water spills over American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls downstream. Every second, more than two million liters of water plunges over the Horseshoe Falls segment of Niagara Falls creating one of the world's largest waterfalls as well as eating away as much as two meters of rock per year. The image was acquired August 2, 2004. 

4 – Hawaiian Islands

A silver swath of sunlight surrounds half of the Hawaiian Islands in this true-color Terra MODIS image acquired on May 27, 2003. Sunlight reveals turbulence in the surface waters of the Pacific Ocean. In this scene, the winds ruffling the water surface around the Hawaiian Islands create varying patterns, leaving some areas calmer than others. From lower right to upper left, the Big Island (Hawaii), Maui, Kahoolawe, Lanai, Molokai, Oahu, Kauai, and Niihau islands all make up the state of Hawaii, which lies more than 2,000 miles from any other part of the United States. The small red dot on the Big Island's southeastern side marks a hot spot on Kilauea Volcano's southern flank

5 – Palm Island, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

This IKONOS satellite image was collected on July 16, 2004. The image shows this man-made island that lies off the coast of Dubai in the Persian Gulf. The island is being built from 80 million cubic meters of land dredged from the approach channel to the Emirate's Jebel Ali Port. When complete, this resort will have approximately 1,200 single-family and 600 multi-family residences, an aquatic theme park, shopping centers, cinemas and more.

6 – The Great Pyramid, Giza, Egypt

This featured image is a 61-centimeter pan-sharpened image of the Great Pyramid in Giza, Egypt, collected by Quick Bird on February 2, 2002. The Great Pyramid is estimated to have been built circa 2650 B.C., and was erected as a tomb for the Egyptian pharaoh Khufu of the Fourth Dynasty. Upon the completion of its construction, the Great Pyramid stood 145.75 meters (481 feet) high, and over the millennia has lost approximately 10 meters (30 feet) off the top. It stood as the tallest structure on Earth for more than 43 centuries.

7 – Ayers Rock (Uluru), Australia

This IKONOS satellite image of Ayers Rock was collected Jan. 17, 2004. Ayers Rock is located in Kata Tjuta National Park, 280 miles (450km) southwest of Alice Springs, Australia. It is the world's largest monolith, an Aboriginal sacred site and Australia's most famous natural landmark

8 – Earth"s City Lights

This image of Earth's city lights, captured on October 19, 2000, was created with data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Operational Linescan System (OLS). The brightest areas of the Earth are the most urbanized, but not necessarily the most populated. Cities tend to grow along coastlines and transportation networks. The United States interstate highway system appears as a lattice connecting the brighter dots of city centers. In Russia, the Trans-Siberian railroad is a thin line stretching from Moscow through the center of Asia to Vladivostok. The Nile River, from the Aswan Dam to the Mediterranean Sea, is another bright thread through an otherwise dark region.

9 – Tsunami strikes the coast of Sri Lanka

This is a natural color, 60-centimeter (2-foot) high-resolution QuickBird satellite image featuring the southwestern coast of Sri Lanka. Imagery was collected on December 26, 2004 at 10:20 a.m. local time, slightly less than four hours after the 6:28 a.m. (local Sri Lanka time) earthquake and shortly after the moment of tsunami impact.

10 – Mount St. Helens, Washington

On a Space Station expedition, astronauts observed and captured this detailed image of the volcano's summit caldera. In the center of the crater sits a lava dome that is 876 feet above the crater floor and is about 3,500 feet in diameter. The dome began to form after the May 18, 1980 eruption of Mount Saint Helens. After the eruption, there was not any dome building eruptions for more than a decade. Afternoon lighting accents the flow features in the volcanic and debris flows and the steep valleys eroded into the loosely consolidated material near the summit. This picture was taken on October 25, 2002.

11 – The Nile River

This image of the northern portion of the Nile River was captured by the Multi-angle Imaging Spectroradiometer's (MISR's) nadir camera on January 30, 2001. Against the barren desert of northeastern Africa, the fertile valley of the Nile River runs northward through Egypt. The city of Cairo can be seen as a gray smudge right where the river widens into its broad fan-shaped delta. Other cities are dotted across the green landscape, giving it a speckled appearance. Where the Nile empties into the Mediterranean Sea (top) the waters are swirling with color, likely a mixture of sediment, organic matter, and possibly marine plant life. Farther west, the bright blue color of the water is likely less-organically rich sediment, perhaps sand

12 – Malosmadulu Atolls, Maldives

North and South Malosmadulu Atolls are in the Maldives, an island republic in the northern Indian Ocean, southwest of India. The Maldives are made up of a chain of 1,192 small coral islands, which are grouped into clusters of atolls. It has a total area of 298 square kilometers and a population of about 330,000. The capital and largest city is Male, with a population of about 80,000. Arguably the lowest-lying country in the world, the average elevation is just 1 meter above sea level. The natural-color ASTER image of the Malosmadulu Atolls was acquired on December 22, 2002, and is centered near 5.3 degrees North latitude, 73.9 degrees West longitude

13 – Grand Canyon

Northern Arizona and the Grand Canyon are captured in this pair of Multi-angle Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR) images from December 31, 2000. The above image is a true color view from the nadir (vertical) camera. In addition to the Grand Canyon itself, which is visible in the western (lower) half of the images, other landmarks include Lake Powell, on the left, and Humphreys Peak and Sunset Crater National Monument on the right. Meteor Crater appears as a small dark depression with a brighter rim, and is just visible along the upper right-hand edge.

14 – Noah˜s Ark Site?

Is it or isn't it? Satellite images of Mt. Ararat, Turkey have pointed to a possible sighting of Noah's Ark. Decide for yourself! Compare this image taken by Digital Globe on September 10, 2003 with Shamrock — The Trinity Corporation's image (enlarge). Also, note their image is flippe.

This came as a post to me on yahoo mail and loved the email due to the pictures, so just reproduced as it is.

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