When I was home I thought about some good natural areas around my house. This place came to my mind, it is one location that I’ve spent countless hours throughout my years growing up. Taughannock Falls state park brings people to my small town from all around the world. Its funny when you grow up so close to a destination place, it is practically in my backyard and I often overlook the beauty.
I started by walking around the rim trail, the landscape changes throughout the trail. To the right is an older growth forest filled with pines and mostly deciduous trees, there was little understory growth. This reminds me a lot of the forests in the Ricker Basin. As you continue to walk I the left opens up into a large gorge.
This gorge is mostly made up of shale and granite, and it extends all the way to Cayuga Lake and opens up into Taughannock Falls. This location is drastically different from my phenology spot, but it reminds me a little of the cliffs at Rocky Point. If you continue down the trail and journey into the gorge trail you end up at the base of the waterfall.
You can see the layers of shale and it is fascinating thinking about a glacier once carved out the stone and melted to create one of the finger lakes.
After walking around for a bit I ended at the base of the park, where the falls collects into the lake.
I love Taughannock and It reminds me of home. It’s incredible how diverse a landscape can be in such a small area. Thinking about it, I could not just choose one spot to explore, I had to walk through the whole to get a feeling of how the land changes and interacts with each other. This area unlike my phenology spot, has a lot of running water and exposed rock, it is a very different landscape.