This is my last actual trip report for our vacation to the Finger Lakes, although my last post will discuss the finances of the vacation. In my previous posts I talked about our stay at the Staybridge Suites (Part 1), what we did while in Corning (Part 2), and our time spent in the Seneca Lake wine region (Part 3). On our final day in the Finger Lakes region, we concentrated on getting the boys outside for a hike, as well as see some additional wineries, breweries, and local establishments around Cayuga Lake.

We started out the morning splitting from my in-laws and heading up to the Watkins Glen State Park. Our goal for the day was to hike along the gorge since the weather finally broke and was warming up. I was last there probably at least 10-12 years ago and distinctly remember camping with my parents and best friend as well as hiking and swimming through the gorge, so I was excited to get to show my wife part of my childhood.

We entered the park at the south parking lot, which was surprisingly empty and the the guard house unattended. Sweet, I just saved us $8, I thought to myself. Apparently, even though it was spring break and the end of April, the park really is not fully open and staffed. We quickly learned that lesson when hiking the trails.

After talking with some local people leaving the trails and asking where was the best spot to hike with two young boys, we went off on some trails to the gorge. Basically we were only able to go approximately a quarter mile up and down stream since the trails had not been cleared yet from the winter and were closed. I was rather disappointed because I was really looking forward to this portion of the trip, but we still made a great time out of the park. My oldest son really enjoyed the idea of hiking. I carried him in a backpack as did my wife with our newborn. Besides getting to be outside enjoying nature and the fresh air, the southern parking lot also had an excellent playground that we played with our oldest son for a while.

After spending about two hours in the park area, we headed over and grabbed my coat from the Rooster Fish Brewery, which I forgot the night before, and then headed towards Cayuga Lake to meet up with our in-laws. We met for lunch at the Cayuga Lake Creamery and had hot dogs and of course ice cream.

We tried the following wineries around Cayuga Lake: Bellwether Hard Cider, Americana Vineyards, Wagner Vineyards and Brewery, 2 Goats Brewery, and Finger Lakes Distilling. Americana was probably the best of the day as they had an excellent assortment of wines. The tasting fee was $3 and you got to try up to 8 different wines. For an extra $1 we were able to sample 4 blueberry wines.

Wagner’s was extremely crowded due to the Wine and Cheese tour and had an extensive amount of drunk people present. We did not feel comfortable or welcomed having our kids with us here even though they were both well behaved.

2 Goats Brewery was disappointing from the standpoint that it really was nothing more than a fancy bar and not really a winery. They did make 3 of their own beers, but mostly sold an extensive collection of other people’s beer. The view on the patio was nice though looking out onto Seneca Lake.

Two things also worth seeing while in the area was the Muranda Cheese Company and World Famous Muranda Dairy Cows. They had an excellent assortment of small batch cheeses! We also met Mrs. Murray who was a delight to talk with about the cows and cheese making process. The best part was the excitement of our oldest son to see the “mooies,” which he came up with for the cows. I took him in the backpack up close and personal in the cow barn to get to see and touch some of the cows. I was really glad we made the trip up north for this stop.

The other must see was Hector Falls located on the east side of Seneca Lake along Route 414 in Hector.

The falls were beautiful and well worth the stop. However, there are only two small pull-offs to park and try and get out of the car while vehicles pass by at 55 MPH, so you definitely need to be careful. It would have been nice if they would have slowed down the traffic in the vicinity of the falls to make it safe for tourists to experience the falls.

So that pretty much wraps up our trip to the Finger Lakes region. I will be posting one final article discussing the financial aspect of what the trip costs and where we saved or splurged.