July 17 – Robert Treman State Park

The weather was pretty dull today but the forecast for the weekend called for a high chance of rain. I had one more place on my “Want To Do” list here so we headed about 4 miles down the road to Robert H Treman State Park to do another gorge trail.

The trail is a 4.5 mile round trip between the lower and upper parking lots in the park and the bottom to top elevation change is only about 450 feet but we went up and down so many times the GPS said we that did double that.

As a quick synopsis, we could have easily skipped the first 2 miles of the trail. During this section we only sometimes saw the creek and when we did the creek was pretty flat. There were two small waterfalls but other than that it was just exercise.

The last 1/2 mile (orange below) however was spectacular, easily rivalling Watkins Glen. When we finished our hike we met a group of girls that were about to start up. We told them to just start at the upper parking lot for a short but great hike.

At the end I did the short walk in from the parking lot (green below) to see the lower falls.

I am going to document the whole hike, even the less interesting parts, but please stick around for the end because it was amazing.

The first section of the trail had me worried. We had to climb up about 100 vertical feet and could not even really see the creek for the first 1/3 of a mile. I was worried that we had taken a Rim Trail instead.

The creek is down there somewhere.

We haven’t had a good fungus picture in a while.

The trail then went slightly back downhill while the creek rose to meet us. It looked like it might have been paved a long time ago.

When we finally did meet there was not much to look at.

Soon we were steeply heading up away from the creek. It is so much easier on the knees to not use the steps.

It was even farther down now.

We had to cross a narrow ridge, which I guess they didn’t trust us to do safely.

I assume the fungus grew around the twig. There were no flowers so I took a lot of these pictures.

When we met the creek again there was a small waterfall but this was the best view from the trail.

Just around the corner there was a platform and some steps down but you could not see the falls from here.

Jennie poked around the creek bed for a while.

I was a bad boy and worked my way along the very narrow ledges back around the corner to see the falls.

Once I was around I was a bit worried as to how I was going to get back up this section. I managed to find a toe hold halfway but it was bit nerve wracking because once again I forgot to take the knapsack off (with my wallet).

It was a very pretty little falls when you got up close.

By sneaking out on these ledges I got the best front view available.

Moving on, I lied about there being no flowers. There were some day lilies. They just annoy Jennie. She tried to grow some at home but … Here they grow like weeds everywhere.

Towards the next falls.

Then around a corner under this huge cliff face. The trail must have been washed out recently because we saw some guys making repairs when we were heading back.

So many interesting layers.

Most of it was very jagged except for the one face that was almost flat.

On past a bridge to a side trail that climbed steeply up the gorge wall to a lookout (that we did not do).

Another climb.

Then you turn a corner and there is 115 foot Lucifer Falls.

Beneath another towering cliff. This lady was painting the waterfall.

Here is the view back down from the the top of the falls. A lot of work went into the trail here.

And around another corner to a small waterfall and another towering cliff face.

I am not sure why there is a picnic table in the middle of the stream and why the parks people leave it there. Later we saw a group of people make there way out there for a picture.

Looking back down again.

On to a stone bridge over the creek.

Looking down from the bridge it was hard to believe that all the water going over Lucifer Falls went through this small slot.

Looking on from the bridge.

And we reached the top.

There was a picnic area just a little father along but we decided to start back and find a good spot with a view for lunch. Of course we sat overlooking Lucifer Falls.

A small guest joined us.

Jennie likes these close up spray shots.

Once we were back down at the bottom, I wandered over to check out the swimming area by the Lower Falls. There were signs saying that no swimming was allowed today because the water was contaminated.

There is a small dam that creates the pool for swimming. They had removed all the logs to release the water and clean it out.

As a result there was not much swimming area left. The signs said that wading was not allowed either, but do people listen?

Normally there is a 12 foot deep pool below the falls for diving.

So after an inauspicious start, this turned into a great hike.

Back at the RV we heard a bit of rain on the roof as we had our post hike nap. We will see how the weekend turns out.