Letchworth State Park – The Nature

Since we were parked near the Portage Bridge, we decided to walk down along the Upper Falls on the Gorge Trail. Have you guessed that I love bridges? So please bear with me, here’s a couple of photos of the Portage Bridge, taken from beneath the bridge.

I love the symmetry of bridges.

Here we are looking down on the Upper Falls, and a sheet of ice on the east side of the falls:

There’s interesting rock along the trail. I have to investigate this.

This is part of the trail down. We had to really watch our steps, because the stairs are uneven, and in some places are missing:

There are cool smaller falls that feed into the Genesee River:

Here’s part of the ice on the east wall I mentioned above:

We’re looking back at the Upper Falls, the Portage Bridge and the ice:

I was on the search for Bloodroot, but saw tons of Skunk Cabbages along the west bank:

I also saw an area with Coltsfoot (Tussilaga farfara), which is so exciting to see after winter!

We had lunch down near this CCC Statue (sorry the statue doesn’t show up, but I was freezing after eating outside in the cold wind) and didn’t feel like getting out of the car at this point to get a better photo:

After eating we went to the Glen Iris Inn to the gift shop to buy their new self-guided driving tour book:

And to see the Middle Falls:

This fountain:

was spraying on the evergreen, causing it to ice up:

(yes, it’s still cold in NY!)

We then hiked up the Mary Jemison trail and saw a downed Eastern Hemlock tree (wah!). Even though I was sad, I loved looking at the wood:

I love the grain, and it smelled good, too:

As my brother said, “this is pleasant,” and it truly was: