Letchworth State Park

William Pryor Letchworth gifted 1,000 acres to New York State in 1907. These acres represent some of the most picturesque in the US. Coined the "Grand Canyon of the East", Letchworth features a deep gorge cut by the Genesee River, three waterfalls and miles of hiking trails. The original Glen Iris Inn, where Mr. Letchworth hosted US presidents and other influential dignitaries, is now a restaurant and popular inn for guests of the park. The park is about 35 miles south of Rochester, NY.

I can not hope to show you the magnificent beauty of the park in just a few photographs. I'll post a full gallery in the future. All these were taken on October 20, 2007, as the leaves finally came out.

Upper Falls


Middle Falls


Lower Falls


Overlooking Middle Falls from an east side trail. Notice no railings.


The 2007 Fall Explosion of Color


50th anniversary rededication plaque in front of the Glen Iris Inn overlooking Middle Falls.


Glen Iris Inn at night. Open seasonally from late March to early November.

 

These are beautiul

 

I added a couple more images showing the plaque to Mr. Letchworth and the Glen Iris Inn at night. Letchworth is about 2 hours from my home so I will be going back to Letchworth from time to time. Tim, if you ever come up, I'd be happy to be your guide. I think you'd find Letchworth worth the trip up from NJ any time of year.

 

Mapquest says it's a 6 1/2 hour trip from Atlantic City. If you use "Letchworth State Park" as a destination, Mapquest knows where it is. Be a good long weekend excursion or part of a vacation. Niagara Falls would be another 1 1/2 hours driving from Letchworth to give you an idea where in NY state it is.

Of course, it might be cheaper to fly to Rochester, NY and rent a car or rely on a fellow TMIPer to provide transportation. ;D

 

and it's every bit as scenic as these photos show, i can remember stopping at the overlooks in the early 80's if we were empty going or coming from the attica run
now there's another interesting subject, new york states older walled pens, some of them, esp attica, napanoch and danemora are really gothic, castle like in their designs, once you see those 30 foot walls there is no mistaking what they are
the old rail bridge is pretty photogenic, if memory serves me it's an old steel girder, almost erector set looking style
nice work scott

 

Gah.. all I can think of is how flat and boring Illinois is. That's not entirely fair, we do have bits of something other than prairie, but I have to go quite a distance to get to any of that. I think I'd almost have to go to Kentucky to hope to get anything like this, though.

 

To Dan and PM...thank you and I bet you can find some great places near you which would amaze me.

Thanks, Gary! Here's the Train Trestle bridge at Letchworth. The sky was overcast at the time (maybe I'll add color to it later). It spans 800 feet at a height of 234 feet over the Upper Falls. They don't go very fast over it. Must be quite a sight from up there of the gorge. You can also see it in my Middle Falls photo in the first posting but you have to know where to look as it gets lost in all the colorful trees.

 

Craig, I took all these with the 18-200VR. I only used my tripod for some of the middle falls and the night shots. Lets me be creative without having to stop and change lenses all the time. Because of the weather, many of these shots were taken at less than 1/60th of a second with very high keeper results.

 

Those are wonderful shots, Craig. Night mode? Does that use a slow or rear sync flash? 1 second, huh? I've gone as slow as 1/5th with good results. Not sure my hands are as steady as yours, VR or not. ;D

 

Oy...seeing my first post of this thread I promised a gallery link. Well, instead of giving you hundreds of images to look at I got the idea of doing a photo essay for my blog. So, I thought I'd share it with you here.

Letchworth State Park Photo Essay

I also went back to my originals and re-processed them in Aperture 2.1. Oh, interested in seeing my blog, you say? Here's the link... 52 Views of 2008