NorthEast Trip: Day 3 - Day 6: A Trillion Steps, Grand Canyon, and Gorges

 

At the top of 1000 Steps!

Day 3: A Thousand Steps and Hyner View

It was a six hour drive to our next location in Pennsylvania. After working in the morning, we packed up and headed off.

To make the drive more tolerable, we stopped about halfway to do a hike called: Thousand Steps - Standing Stone Trail.

Years ago, some jerk-boss wanted his miners to quarry at the top of a mountain. There was no way to get up there, so the jerk-boss had his miners carve out what ended up being approx. 1,000 steps (it's more like 1,050) into the stone to get to the top. 

Every day, the miners had to trudge straight up a mountain on the uneven stone steps that they had carved out to get to work. And at the end of their 12 hour mining shift, they had to stumble their way back down. 

Super crazy. What is also crazy is that Paul thought it sounded like a cool first hike for our seven-week long adventure. It ended up being approx. 2 miles of hiking and it was basically straight up a mountain and back down.

Our legs could barely hold us up by the time we got to the bottom of the mountain again....maybe not the best 'warm up' hike to do. Laugh. However, it was absolutely beautiful up there and it was a great workout/hike.

We stumbled/crawled out of the car to our campground for one night at Hyner View State Park. NOTE TO SELF: come back to this state park in the future for a longer time! It was a small campground with great showers, electricity, and a perfect loud stream right next to our camp setup. We really liked the campground and wished we were there longer.

This area of Pennsylvania is absolutely beautiful (Paul was drooling over all the flyfishing streams!) with rolling green hills and streams everywhere. We are already talking about coming back for a longer time so Paul can go flyfishing and we can check out the area more.

Day 4: Hyner View Overlook and Pennsylvania's Grand Canyon

The first thing we did when we woke up was drive up the mountain to the Hyner View Overlook. When the winds are right, hanggliders fly from here. Unfortunately, the winds weren't correct on this day so we didn't get to see that. I tried to find a way for Paul to hangglide here but that didn't work out. Maybe if we come back in the future we can make that happen!

Hyner View Overlook was super beautiful. It was a great way to see the entire beautiful area of Hyner View! 

After that, we drove for a few hours to see something that is called "Pennsylvania's Grand Canyon". Our interest was piqued. We had a few options for hikes and chose one that sounded pretty cool. We drove all over the place on windy roads through the mountains. The final 20 minutes of the drive were intense gravel roads that went straight to the bottom of the mountain.

We got to the location in the directions/g.p.s. and...it was a dead-end with no trails. So we wasted about 40 minutes on this one, since we had to turn around and head back out on the same gravel road. The joys of adventuring in the unknown!

After that long waste of time, we headed to the next option on our list to see this so-called Grand Canyon. We went to the Overlook area at Leonard Harrison State Park. It was an overlook and a canyon-rim hike of about 2-3 miles. 

It was nice and very beautiful, but maybe not quite as grand as the Grand Canyon in the west...

From there, we headed for our camp for the next two nights: Watkins Glen State Park. The whole drive there, Paul was trying to figure out why he knew the name 'Watkins Glen' and then remembered JUST as we got there that it is a Nascar racing track (he knows it from video games). The track is right next to the campground so that was kinda loud. Also, after being spoiled at Hyner View campground, with it's seclusion and hot showers and such, Watkins Glen campground just couldn't compete (crowded and bad bathrooms).

We also had our first encounter with an attached tick....which was an interesting adventure as well. The northeast is supposedly covered in ticks, so we did kinda expect this to happen. 

Just a glimpse of the beauty of Watkins Glen Gorge

Day 5: Watkins Glen Gorge: AKA the Most Beautiful Place in America

Look, I can admit: I've got a bit of a strong bias here: I've always preferred Europe to America. For history, culture, and everything in between. But I'm trying to find something cool about America to wax poetically about. It's one of the reasons we're doing this trip.

And I might have finally found it. Watkins Glen Gorge is easily one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to. 

I'm embarrassed that I've never even heard of it before. So if you're like me and never heard of it, allow me to introduce you to the sheer beauty of Watkins Glen Gorge. 

Now add it to your own bucket list and savor it with your eyeballs, too. Everyone should see this beauty!

We did about 5 miles of Gorge hiking and it was a lovely day. We have been talking non-stop about doing more in Hyner View area all the way through Watkins Glen. There's just lots of beauty up here to see and many more trails to take!

Day 6: More Gorges and a Botanic Garden

Sadly, it was time to leave this area of the world and head off for the Syracuse area of New York. We'll be back, Watkins Glen! 

We started by enjoying a wine tasting at Lakewood winery, which is just outside the Watkins Glen campground. Their wine was okay.

We then headed for Robert Treman State Park to see another gorge. There was a mile long hike that went around it and in it. It was a lot of up and down and totally worth it. It was very beautiful. Not as beautiful as Watkins Glen, but still very nice.

After that, we headed for Cornell University's Botanic Garden. Their botanic garden is insanely huge. WAY bigger than what I'm used to from Clemson University. We walked through their wildflower forest/garden and herb garden and vegetable garden before running out of time and steam. We probably did about 4 miles of walking there.

I wish I had gone to a University with a garden setup like this! I probably would have majored in something that landed me a job at a University garden. And I would have walked in them all the time and probably interned there or something. It was amazing!

After that, we crashed at a hotel for the night in Syracuse. It was nice having a normal shower and toilet for a little break from campground stuff. 

Next up, we're heading for Vermont!