Last Day

The rest of our vacation involved more exploration Letchworth State Park. We had seen the falls on the south side, but there was a damm on the north end that needed our attention.

We drove to the other side of the gorge to get to the damm. The damm spans across the gorge from east to west, but the east side is where you can take a tour. The Army Corps of Engineers built and control the damm. Being a part of the military, Homeland Security does not allow pictures to be taken inside the damm. The tour was fascinating. The best part was the views from the damm.

After we were done at the damm, we went back down to the south end of the park to see a the house of William Pryor Letchworth. He was the man who bought and granted the land of the state park to New York state. His personal mission was to keep this beautiful area from being developed, ruining forever the mystic of the land. in a dedication to the park in 1910 he wrote,

"God wrought for us this scene beyond compare

But one man's loving hand protected it
And gave to his fellow man to share."

His house is now a museum dedicated to him and the development of the park. Called the Glen Iris Inn, it is also adapted for the use of a hotel.

The museum has many artifacts collected by Letchworth over his life time. He was very interested in Native Americans, and many of the artifacts are from their history. There is also a very large mammoth skull that takes up much of one room. 

Up the hill from Glen Iris is the grave site of Mary Jemison a pioneer of Scots-Irish decent. At 12 years old she was captured by a French and Shawnee raiding party during the French and Indian war. Later she was adopted by a family of the Seneca People. She made the Seneca her family and lived with them the rest of her life. Her remains rest  on the grounds of the Seneca Council house.

After another happily busy day, we returned to our campsite for our last night of our vacation. One last campfire before the long drive awaiting us the next day.

Water Falls

The next morning the sun woke us up gently and we got our day started. It had rained a bit more in the night, so the air was damp and the ground soft and wet. We dug out some sweet rolls from the car and had breakfast. 

The dampness in the air left a slight haze that the sun was fighting to burn off. There was still a chill, but the warm sun would soon fix that. We decided to check out more of the park, and go down to see the water falls. 

The gorge has three waterfalls. Simply named the upper, middle and lower falls. Not a lot of creativity went into the names, but made them easier to find. 

I can't tell you which falls is which. Except to say, these two lower photos are of the same one. I was fascinated by the railroad bridge that went over it. We even saw a train pass over.

There isn't a lot I can say to add to the beauty of this park, so I'll just let the photos take over from here.

Letchworth State Park

I love camping. There is just this feeling I get when I sleep outside in a tent that I don't get anywhere else. I'm not a backwoods camper, I like at least a pit toilet to do my business in. Squatting is just not my thing. With this in mind I tend to look for state parks for camping. I knew absolutely nothing about state parks in western New York when I started planning this trip. I went to the book store and picked out two National Geographic books, one about national parks and one on state parks. I knew I wanted to be within a two hour drive of Niagara Falls, but that was all I knew. 

Finding Letchworth State Park was a fluke. It was in the National Geographic book about state parks. It was within the distance to Niagara Falls that I wanted, so I booked us a site.

The day after the rainball game in Pittsburgh, we started out for Letchworth. It was about a four hour drive, almost due north. The sun seemed to be thinking about peeking out. I hoped it would be kind and grace us with its warmth at least part of the next four days.

It was still cloudy, but not raining when we reached the park. It looked as though it had recently rained, but sunshine started poking its way through. We got the tent set up and still had a few hours before dark. We started to wander about.

The park was even better than I had hoped. It apparently had been voted as the number one state park in the US according to a readers poll in USA Today. We were starting to see why.

Letchworth has the largest gorge east of the Mississippi. It has even been called the Grand Canyon of the East. I have never seen the Grand Canyon personally, but judging by photos I've seen, that may be stretching it a bit.

The gorge has been cut out by the Genesee River. We were there when the area was in a drought, so the river seemed quite calm and unassuming. There have been floods that filled the canyon area. It was a almost impossible to believe that entire canyon could become filled with water, but it has, many times. Happily, for us, that wouldn't be an issue over the next 4 days.

We got back to camp and built a fire to start dinner. We don't own a camp stove. I probably should have one for days when it is raining and we can't get a fire started, but I don't. In all my times camping as an adult, we have never gone hungry from not being able to build a fire. Ok, I always have back up lunch meat for sandwiches, just in case, but rarely have to use it. The lunch meat is usually for lunches, and pop tarts and cereal for breakfast. I don't want to spend a lot of time starting and putting out fires when I could be exploring. I suppose a camp stove would come in handy for those. Pop tarts are still easier.

Honestly, I love cooking on a campfire. The food gets a flavor that you just can't get any other way. To me, it is a lot more relaxing, too. Although, the food can get away from you and start burning before you realize it. Or the fire will never get hot enough and never cook the food at all. Yeah, I find that relaxing. Don't ask me why, but I do. 

After dinner we sat by the fire. The best thing about camping in October is the campfire. The sun goes down earlier, and the air is crisper. The campfire's warmth and beauty kept me mesmerized. I wouldn't have traded it for the best TV in the world. 

Vacation Planning

 Willie and I haven't had many "real" vacations in our married years, at least not with traveling involved. Heck, I've still never been on an airplane. If you don't count visiting my friend Dawn down in the St. Louis area, I think I can count two. One to South Dakota when the kids were pretty little. That was basically on an angry whim on Willie's part when he got passed over for a promotion. We took four days and saw Mt. Rushmore, The Badlands and camped at Custer State Park.

Last year, while my sister stayed with my dad for us, we went up to Minnesota. We camped at Jay Cooke State Park and also checked out a lot of other state parks along Lake Superior in Minnesota. We had very wonderful and relaxing time.

Jay Cooke State Park
Duluth, Minnesota

I decided that we were going to go on a "real" vacation again this year. I looked at the calendar and tried to find a time when we wouldn't be gone during any special occasions, like a birthday or such. I decided on the week of October 1-9. I had Willie ask for it off, and then started to figure out where to go.

I didn't want to have to spend the entire vacation in the car getting to and from wherever we went. I started looking at places. I looked at areas between a 12 to 16 hour drive away. First place I checked, the Grand Canyon. Neither of us had ever been there. It was just too far to be able to drive to and get back in a week.

I then looked at Colorado, but many of the campgrounds in the mountains close on October 1. That made that a bit more difficult, but not impossible. The same was true with Yellowstone, and most of the National Parks in the mountains. Next I looked south. We could get down to the Gulf Coast, and I'd never seen that, nor an ocean for that matter. I looked east. Niagara Falls would be awesome. I've always wanted to go to Washington DC, and Philadelphia to walk in the footsteps of our nations founders. I asked Willie what he would like to do. Never really got any kind of a real answer. I kept looking. I bought two National Geographic books, one about national parks, the other about state parks. I looked and looked. I kept prodding Willie for what he would like to do to no avail. So, one day when he was at work I decided.

"We are going to Niagara Falls for our vacation." I told Willie. He looked at me like I should have asked him first. I looked back at him and I think he realized he'd better not say that.

"Ok," he said, "what made you decide on that?" Willie loves digging and creating water features. He loves trying to incorporate waterfalls. He liked the waterfalls we had seen last year in Minnesota. I had been to Niagara before with Girl Scouts when I was in high school. That was a long time ago. I figured it was time to get him there and for me to see it again.

I looked in the National Geographic books to see if there was some place near by where we could camp. I googled New York State Parks. There were plenty, and October is not exactly peak season for vacationers. I decided I was going to reserve a campsite anyway because it would be close to peak fall colors, so the weekends might be full.

I started looking at google maps to see how far Niagara was from this campground and that. What route to take to and from our house. Would we need to stop along the way for a night, and where would be good. Then I noticed one of the longer routes to the falls was through Pittsburgh.

My husband is the biggest Pittsburgh Steelers fan ever to be put on this earth. And he lives in Iowa. Living in Iowa does not make it easy to go to a Steeler's game. He had been to one. A pre-season game against the Vikings in Minneapolis. He loved it. He never really expected to get to see them live again.

I looked up the Steelers' schedule. Now, when I do things on a whim like that, it rarely works out. I knew I had a 50-50 shot, but maybe, just maybe, they would be playing at home that first Sunday of our vacation, or even Monday night. Lo and behold! The Steelers were playing Kansas City that Sunday night AT HOME! One thing on my bucket list had been to get Willie to a home Steelers game. It'd been on the list for years. I never thought we'd ever be able to make it happen, but there it was, a home game while we would be in the area. BUT would there be tickets?

I pulled up the Steelers' website. I knew they sold out often. Maybe there was still a chance, it was only May. I clicked on "Tickets." There were some available. I was floored! Was this really going to work out? I clicked on best available, and about pooped my pants. I knew NFL tickets were expensive, but good grief. I backed down the price range and found some still ridiculously priced tickets, but ones I could bite my lip and manage. I bought the tickets!

I was going to wait until Willie got home to tell him, but I couldn't. I sent him a text. "I did something, you can't get mad, because it's already done and there's nothing you can do about it. I got tickets for a Steelers home game for October 2!" I know he doesn't check his phone while he's working so I didn't know when I would get a response. I thought he'd be at least as excited as I was.

He got home from work. I hadn't gotten a response. I asked him if he got my text. "Yeah." That's not exactly the response I had hoped for, but ok.

Next step, Hotel in Pittsburgh and campsite in New York. Hotel was easy, Google, Travelocity, done. I looked for parks around Niagara, Ontario in Canada. They don't have a park system like we do in our states. They have national parks, but I wasn't sure if I could get Willie to get a passport, so I looked again at the state parks in the NatGeo book. One was within 2 hours of the falls, Letchworth State Park. I looked it up and booked us a spot.

Never being completely sure about decisions, I kept googling Letchworth. The more I googled the more I was happy with the choice. Turns out, a USAToday readers poll voted Letchworth the number one state park in the US. It also had three waterfalls. A deep gorge went through the center of it. It was nick named the "Grand Canyon of the East." The deepest gorge east of the Mississippi. So, that would be good.

Next, waiting...