waterfalls of NY

I have always loved being out doors. Growing up in Western NY, I saw beauty every day. Having a large back yard made it possible for me to sit outside on a freshly mowed lawn with a blanket and a good book. When you are in the shade of many different trees and bushes, reading out in your back yard quickly becomes a habit. Lunch at the state park takes on a different and beautiful meaning when talking about Western NY, for most of the state parks there have numerous waterfalls. Growing up, I took the awesomeness of nature for granted. Whenever I take my family to visit the town I grew up in, I take pleasure in in the fact that five minutes from my parents place is this amazing park with three big waterfalls. I also enjoy the fact that there are also three other state parks, maybe more, less than two hours away. I love New York and all of its wonder. Every year, I make it a point to go to Letchworth State Park, and since it is so close to where my parents live it isn’t hard to make that travel. Much fun has been had there, and I will always love that park.

When I was younger, my parents would always take one day out of their busy summer each year and take us girls to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. You can see more of the falls on the Canadian side, and over there they have many shops and touristy stuff to do. To get there, the four of us girls, mom, and dad would all hop in the station wagon and take the two hour drive north. It was always a fun ride and it was amazing to see the amount of water that pours over the cliff.

Last year, our family took a trip two hours south to Watkins Glenn State Park. Watkins Glenn State Park is the most popular state park around the Finger Lakes region and has about nineteen waterfalls. Watkins Glenn is insanely gorgeous when you are walking along the gorge trail. In the summer, we also went to Stony Brook State Park in Dansville, NY. Stony Brook was the first state park that we had been to that let their visitors get in the water and stand below the falls, which of course I did. Stony Brook also has a natural swimming pool at the bottom of a waterfall.

I love the state parks of NY, and I love the waterfalls. I know that we will be back to Stony Brook, and probably in later years we will go again to Watkins Glenn, but whenever we go to NY, we have a mission of finding new waterfalls. If you ever feel like traveling to some place new and have never been to any of these places, I say go. It is a long way from Northern Maine, but seeing these beautiful creations of nature is beyond worth it.