Taughannock Falls

Last month my wife and I took the kids to Ithaca, NY to visit my mother. My sister came up from Charlottesville. We visited Taughannock State Park. We hiked the Gorge Trail, three-quarters of a mile one way up Taughannock Creek to Taughannock Falls. My mother claimed that there were rim trails, but that they had been closed because the rim tends to collapse and it can be dangerous. Abundant signage warns folks to stay on the trail to avoid being harmed by unpredictable avalanches. The talus slopes (can’t resist the chance to use a word from geomorphology) of both sides of the canyon showed ample evidence of recent cliff failures. There are also plenty of areas where the talus, or debris field, was covered over with mature forest. Somebody claimed that Taughannock Falls is the tallest waterfall east of the Mississippi. When I looked it up online, I found that there are several places that make such a claim, and an interesting debate on exactly how you measure the height of a waterfall. Taughannock Falls is listed at 215 feet, and it appears that most of it is unobstructed. Of those making the claim, I am most impressed with Fall Creek Falls in Tennessee.


Trail map carved out of SOLID WOOD.


This is the first cascade on the trail. Educational signage explains that this is a limestone slab supported by shale. The shale is erodible and the limestone comparatively resistant. The shale erodes constantly, and, when enough of it is washed away, the limestone breaks off in larger pieces. Toughannock falls was located at the park entrance near Cayuga lake at the end of the last ice age. Since then the falls have retreated 3/4 of a mile due to this erosional process.


Cliff face, mostly shale, with some sandstone strata. Interesting how it comes off in rectilinear patterns. A simple description of the local formation layers can be found here. This creek flows into Cayuga lake, which is 435 feet deep. The actual depth to the carved rock is much deeper. The lake bed contains up to a thousand feet of glacial sediment in some places.


Two-photo panorama of a recently-augmented talus slope and cliff face with little boy for scale. After I took it I said, "OK now let's get down from there."


Most of the trail looks like this. As the signs indicate, the park personnel would really honestly prefer that you stay on the trail.


First view of the falls from the trail. This is another two-photo panorama stitched in PhotoShop. It was taken from a bridge that crosses the channel. Check out the huge talus slope on the right, the relatively small people, and the observation deck. Also the pattern of cliff erosion looks like temple carvings from other worlds.


Another view of the cascade.



Zoom in on the cliff face. I believe the white streaks are granite layers.





Rocks of various sizes and shapes in the channel



Children skipping rocks by the creek. Plenty of rocks to choose from. Trees, shrubs and grasses grow in the debris of past avalanches.


From the observation area, looking back at the bridge that takes the trail across the creek.