Rainbow Falls (Sierra Nevada)

Rainbow Falls

2.5 miles round trip, 400 feet elevation gain
Difficulty: Easy
Access: Devils Postpile bus to trailhead (unless arriving before 7 AM), Devils Postpile National Monument entrance fee and bus fare required

At Rainbow Falls, the Middle Fork San Joaquin River makes a spectacular hundred-foot plunge down the columnar basalt characteristic of California’s Devils Postpile National Monument. One of the most significant waterfalls in the Sierra Nevada outside of Yosemite Valley, Rainbow Falls is a highlight of Devils Postpile National Monument and a must-visit for summer visitors to the Mammoth Lakes region. The hike from Reds Meadow Road down to the falls is quite easy, if fairly nondescript until the end; however, reaching the trailhead is a bit more complicated as Reds Meadow Road is restricted to bus traffic alone in the day during the summer and is closed the rest of the year. While hikers wishing to drive to the trailhead can do so if they arrive at Minaret Summit before 7 AM, most visitors will need to take a bus to reach the trailhead from Mammoth Mountain.

I hiked to Rainbow Falls on an early July morning: as the bus system was in effect, I found myself arriving at Minaret Summit at sunrise to be able to drive to the national monument. From the center of town in Mammoth Lakes, I followed Minaret Summit Road to the northwest, crossing the saddle and passing the entrance kiosk to enter the San Joaquin watershed. The entrance kiosk was not staffed at 6 AM but it is staffed later in the day- expect to stop at the kiosk on your way out to pay entrance fees. At this point, the Minaret Summit Road became the Reds Meadow Road and began descending into the Middle Fork San Joaquin River valley. While the road was paved the entire way, the stretch of road just past Minaret Summit was hairiest: here, there were no lane divides, with two-way traffic on a windy mountain road (including occasional buses) accommodated on a single lane road. After reaching the bottom of the valley and passing the Agnew Meadows turnoff, the road became an easier drive, with defined lanes the rest of the way down to the right turnoff for Rainbow Falls. I made a stop at Devils Postpile first, so I did not arrive at the Rainbow Falls Trailhead until about 8 AM, when I snagged the very last spot in the small parking lot.

From the parking lot, I followed the trail through the forest gently downhill towards Rainbow Falls, crossing the combined John Muir and Pacific Crest Trails about 200 meters after leaving the parking lot. At 0.4 miles from the trailhead, I passed a junction with a trail that headed back uphill towards Reds Meadow Lodge. The forest began to thin out after this point, opening up views of the Ritter Range rising to the west.

At two-thirds of a mile from the trailhead, I came to a junction where the right fork led to Devils Postpile and the left fork to Rainbow Falls. I took the left fork. At this point, the descent from Reds Meadow Road ended and the trail followed a flat plateau above the Middle Fork San Joaquin River. The dwarf forest here is a result of the slow recovery from the 1992 Rainbow Fire than burned through this area; in 2020, this area was just a mile away from being burned by the Creek Fire, one of the most severe fires in California history. 

Ritter Range

The thinned-out forest provided nice views of the Ritter Range to the west and Mammoth Mountain to the north. I could see the gondola station atop Mammoth Mountain from here: Mammoth's north slopes are home to one of California's premier downhill skiing areas. Mammoth Mountain is a lava dome volcano, created by the same geological forces that are responsible for Long Valley Caldera to the east and the eruptions that created the columnar basalt found at Devils Postpile and Rainbow Falls.

Mammoth Mountain

At just under one mile from the trailhead, I came to a junction with the Fish Creek Trail. Here, I took the right fork, which continued to follow the Middle Fork San Joaquin River and began descending again. The trail here approached the river close enough to provide the first views of the Middle Fork San Joaquin River just above the lip of Rainbow Falls. From here, there were nice views up the length of the river towards the Sierra crest and Two Teats.

Middle Fork San Joaquin River above Rainbow Falls

Continuing to descend, at 1.1 miles from the trailhead I  came to my first view of Rainbow Falls. The first overlook gave a lovely view over Rainbow Falls, where the Middle Fork San Joaquin River plunged a hundred feet into a pool at the base of a columnar basalt gorge. The vertical striations of the rock walls of the gorge were a pleasing aesthetic complement to the vertical drop of the falls. The columnar basalt at Rainbow Falls and at Devils Postpile was formed when cooling lava cracks and contracts, forming vertical hexagonal columns. The view here was lovely, but this wasn't the end of the hike, so I continued to follow the trail downhill.

Rainbow Falls

Shortly after the first overlook, I came to the second overlook, where I had a slightly different angle on the waterfall; here, I was below the lip of the waterfall and could better appreciate the curtain of water formed by the falls.

Rainbow Falls from the middle overlook

Past the second overlook, I came to the top of a steep descending trail that dropped down into the gorge to visit the base of Rainbow Falls. The staircase descent was quite steep here and required negotiating some large steps, but it was thankfully short and brought me to the end of the hike at the pool at the base of Rainbow Falls. This was the ultimate viewpoint for the falls, where I could appreciate this wall of water constantly plunging over the basalt cliffs. The falls' fine mist engulfed me in a refreshing shower, even though I was still over a hundred feet from the base of the falls itself.

Base of Rainbow Falls

The return was straightforward: I retraced my steps back to the car. The return journey is uphill, so most of the physical exertion on this hike happens after you've enjoyed the hike's main attraction. On the drive back out to Mammoth Lakes, I stopped at the Minaret Summit entrance station to show my America the Beautiful Pass- visitors who come without a pass will still need to pay their entrance fee here.

Rainbow Falls is one of the loveliest waterfalls in California outside of Yosemite and a top attraction in the Mammoth Lakes area; visitors should couple a stop at Devils Postpile with this short hike to see Rainbow Falls. The area is only accessible in summer and visitors must take the Reds Meadow bus unless they arrive early enough to drive the road to the trailhead.

Tokopah Falls

Tokopah Falls

4 miles round trip, 650 feet elevation gain
Difficulty: Easy

Access: Paved road to trailhead, Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park entrance fee required

The lovely and relatively short hike to Tokopah Falls in California’s Sequoia National Park follows the Marble Fork Kaweah River through a granite-bound valley to a long, tumbling cascade down a great granite slope. Starting at the Lodgepole Campground north of the park’s main Giant Forest visitor area, this hike is exceedingly popular due to its central location, good scenery, and relative gentleness. A rockier stretch at the end of the trail presents the only rougher terrain of this hike. While a lesser destination than the park’s giant trees or High Sierra lakes and peaks, Tokopah Falls is still a satisfying day hiking destination in this second oldest of US national parks.

Anna and I hiked out to Tokopah Falls during a Memorial Day visit to Sequoia National Park, although I had first explored this trail with my parents during a visit to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks in 2005. The trailhead is inside the Lodgepole Campground: specifically, the trail starts from the north end of a bridge across the Marble Fork Kaweah River. However, there’s no parking at the true trailhead, so it’s necessary to park at the large lot just past the entrance to the campground, past the visitor center and store. There are flush toilets near the parking area. Visitor shuttle buses also serve the trailhead parking lot, although for the most part this lot is used as a launching point for visitors who are taking a bus to Giant Forest rather than the other way around.

From the trailhead parking lot, we followed the campground road two hundred meters east along the south bank of the Marble Fork Kaweah until coming to the bridge across the river that accessed the campground’s upper loop. We walked across the bridge, savoring the views of the happily cascading Marble Fork, and found the trailhead at the north end of the bridge. We hopped onto the Tokopah Falls Trail and began to follow the trail to the east along the north bank of the river.

The trail followed the Marble Fork Kaweah River, staying near the river for its entire length. Traveling through the forested valley, the trail provided occasional glimpses of the granite cliffs that hemmed in the valley, creating a miniature and less spectacular version of Kings Canyon or Yosemite Valley. Flowers bloomed on the forest floor during our late May visit, the most notable of which were mustang clover, a tiny, pink-and-yellow flower.

Mustang clover

The earliest stretch of the trail followed the Marble Fork Kaweah River closely; in fact, we were able to see across into the Lodgepole Campground on the opposite bank. After this initial stretch, the trail became a bit more distant from the river but detours from the main trail revealed many pretty cascades along this vivacious mountain stream. The trail ascended steadily at a gentle grade and never felt difficult.

Small waterfall on the Marble Fork Kaweah

Marble Fork Kaweah

The steady ascent leveled out at 0.8 miles from the trailhead, where the river entered a calm, forested valley with great granite peaks rising all around. The granite wall of the Watchtower became more easily visible on the southern side of the valley here. The calm, clear waters of the Marble Fork Kaweah here were a nice contrast to the more vigorous flow encountered earlier in the hike.

Granite walls rising over the Marble Fork Kaweah River

Marble Fork Kaweah

This flatter stretch of trail traveled through a lodgepole forest at the bottom of the valley until it began climbing gently but steadily again at 1.3 miles. As the trail returned to the banks of the cascading Marble Fork, more nice views opened up, including improving angles on the Watchtower.

The Watchtower rising over the Marble Fork Kaweah River

The trail crossed a tributary stream on a well-built bridge at 1.5 miles as it returned to the forest. Although the alternating stream-and-forest scenery along this trail was not necessarily remarkable, the lush environs still made this a very enjoyable experience.

Footbridge over Marble Fork tributary stream

At 1.7 miles, the trail finally emerged from the lodgepole pine forest, providing the first open views of Tokopah Falls at the head of the granite-bound valley. Rather than being a free-falling drop like the waterfalls of Yosemite Valley, Tokopah Falls is more of an extended tumble down a sloping granite face: the Marble Fork Kaweah River drops over a thousand feet into the valley from the Table Lands above, but the individual drops are never more than about 50 feet tall.

Tokopah Falls

The trail began to climb steadily again, now entering rockier terrain. At one point, the trail passed underneath overhanging rocks while traversing a pile of talus: this was the trickiest terrain of the hike. No true rock scrambling is needed here but the trail surface is broken up across large rocks and presents a bit more of a challenge.

Rocky final approach to Tokopah Falls

The trail smoothed out a bit as it continued traveling across a rocky talus slope, delivering open views of Tokopah Falls ahead and the Watchtower rising above. Marmots frequent the talus slopes here: I saw quite a few lazing out on these rocks when I visited during my youth.

At two miles from the trailhead, the Tokopah Falls Trail ended at the base of its namesake waterfall. From here, only one of the lowest tiers of the waterfall was visible, with snowmelt from above flowing down a large granite step. The Watchtower rose ominously above, displaying its sharp form when viewed from this angle; the high granite cliffs making up the south side of the valley behind the Watchtower were also quite impressive. The area around the end of the trail was quite crowded, as this is a popular hike; a line of people waited to take selfies of the waterfall on a large rock. Despite the busy nature of the trail, the valley was still an imposing sight and well worth the trip along the Marble Fork Kaweah.

Tokopah Falls

The Watchtower

Although the hike along the Marble Fork Kaweah up Tokopah Valley is extremely popular, I would still recommend this hike to casual visitors to Sequoia National Park: this is one of the few spots in the park where hikers can so accessibly interact up close with the granite landscape that makes the Sierra Nevada so remarkable. While the falls can certainly get crowded, there's enough room on this trail to spread out a bit and enjoy this pretty corner of the Sierra.

Canyon Creek Lakes

Thompson Peak reflect in Upper Canyon Lake

16 miles round trip, 3200 feet elevation gain
Difficulty: Moderate-strenuous
Access: Paved but narrow road to trailhead, no entrance fee required

Canyon Creek Lakes is the quintessential Trinity Alps hike, delivering views of sparkling alpine lakes, sharp and snowy granite peaks, and roaring waterfalls in an oft-overlooked corner of California. These attractions have guaranteed that the Canyon Creek Lakes hike is not overlooked though: this is one of the most popular trails in northwestern California. The pair of lakes set beneath Thompson Peak at the end of the hike are the main draw here, but visitors who come earlier in the hiking season can also admire the powerful spray of Canyon Creek Falls, which is surely one of California’s premier cascading streams outside the Sierra Nevada. Although few parts of this hike are extremely steep, the length of this hike still makes a one day journey to Canyon Creek Lakes and back quite challenging.

Canyon Creek’s long canyon resembles a sort of giant staircase, with four great steps descending from the head of the valley to its mouth. At each step, Canyon Creek tumbles over a major waterfall or cascade; the twin Canyon Creek Lakes lie atop the highest of these giant steps. This means that this hike is subdivided into stretches of fairly flat hiking punctuated by short but steep ascents up each of the steps of the staircase.

This is the most popular hike in the Trinity Alps. While a far drive from any major population center, Canyon Creek Lakes has become by far the best-known hiking destination in this corner of the state and the parking area will be overflowing on an average summer weekend. Most visitors do the Canyon Creek Lakes hike as an overnight backpacking trip due to the length of the hike; backpacking in the Trinity Alps Wilderness requires a backcountry permit, which can be obtained at the USFS ranger station in Weaverville, even after hours. On my visit on a Memorial Day weekend Sunday, I saw well over a hundred hikers along the trail over the course of a day. Luckily, there’s enough room to spread out and appreciate the many lakes and waterfalls of this hike, so even though I was rarely alone the hike never felt crowded.

This trail usually melts out by Memorial Day most years; late summers have typically been a crapshoot due to the wildfires and smoke that are common in this part of the state in August and September. The Trinity Alps are a long drive from most of California’s large population centers, with Redding being the closest city and Weaverville being the closest town. To reach the Canyon Creek Lakes Trailhead from Weaverville, I followed Highway 299 west across Oregon Mountain Summit for 8 miles to Junction City, turning right onto Canyon Creek Road when I came to the Junction City Store. I then followed the paved Canyon Creek Road for 13 miles up the valley to the Canyon Creek Lakes Trailhead. Canyon Creek Road is generally easy to drive, although it got a bit narrow and had a few potholes in the final miles approaching the trailhead. The trailhead parking lot was quite large considering the relatively remote location: there were designated parking spots for at least 50 cars and a pit toilet and cars were parked alongside the road for a quarter mile leading back from the parking lot. I nabbed the very last spot in the lot when I arrived around 7 AM on a Sunday.

The trail left from the far end of the parking lot loop. Starting uphill through the forest, the Canyon Creek Trail almost immediately split, coming to a junction where the Bear Creek Trail peeled off from the canyon Creek Trail. I took the left fork to stay on the Canyon Creek Trail at this junction. The trail initially began with a gradual ascent and quickly entered the Trinity Alps Wilderness, at which point the trail began to hug a steep hillside.

Entering the Trinity Alps Wilderness on the Canyon Creek Trail

At 0.4 miles, the Canyon Creek Trail descended slightly and crossed over Bear Creek. Across the creek, the trail climbed back out into Canyon Creek’s watershed and followed the side of the canyon above the creek. The trail had just the gentlest of inclines over the next two miles as it traveled through the forest. The forest along this hike was quite attractive: it was lusher than the forests of the Sierra Nevada and other area of California further south, although not quite as verdant as those of the Pacific Northwest, a reflection of the far wetter climate here compared to points south.

There were few views to speak of the in this forested stretch of the hike save occasional glimpses of the rocky ridges across the valley and the trail stayed too far above Canyon Creek to really see the creek either, making the first three miles of the hike the least interesting stretch of the hike. This began to change after the trail came to a junction with a spur trail to McKay Camp and the Sinks at 2.9 miles from the trailhead. The Sinks refer to an area where Canyon Creek flows beneath a rockslide; while this sounded interesting, I had a long day ahead of me to reach Canyon Creek Lakes so I chose to bypass this detour and continue straight along the Canyon Creek Trail.

The Canyon Creek Trail began its first climb in earnest after passing the spur to the Sinks. The trail ascended steadily at a moderate grade through the forest and made two switchbacks before it broke out onto an open granite slope for the first real views of the hike. From this vantage point slightly above the canyon, I was able to see Sawtooth Mountain, one of the Trinity Alps’ most iconic peaks, rising ahead up the valley. Granite ridges capped the forested slopes across the valley, while I was able to catch a glimpse of the thundering Canyon Creek Falls just slightly up the valley.

Trinity Alps rise above Canyon Creek

First view of Sawtooth Peak

After the granite clearing ended, the trail crossed a minor stream and then made a rightward turn. An unmarked spur path descended from this unmarked turn down to the lowest set of falls on Canyon Creek, which is also the most impressive. This unsigned detour is an absolute highlight of this hike and should not be missed. The social path led steeply downhill through forest and bushes, dropping over 200 feet in elevation until it came to an astonishing viewpoint of the two drops that together make up Canyon Creek Falls. Even when the path itself became unclear, the roar of the water kept me going the right direction.

Canyon Creek Falls was magnificent. Here, the roaring waters of Canyon Creek- which drains a watershed lined by the high, snowy peaks of the range- cascaded wildly and frothily down two drops, plunging into a rocky canyon hemmed in by forests and the high mountains of the Trinity Alps. Canyon Creek Falls is not the only waterfall on Canyon Creek- there were at least two more major waterfalls that I would see on this hike later in the day- but it is the largest and most significant waterfall in the valley. It is also known as Lower Canyon Creek Falls, to differentiate it from the Middle and Upper Canyon Creek Falls further upstream, but typically the unqualified name “Canyon Creek Falls” refers to this lowest and most impressive of the falls. To catch a full view of both drops of the falls, I explored around the rocky viewpoints above the canyon, finding superlative views from a slightly lower viewpoint below the main viewpoint at the end of the initial social path. Be careful here, though, as a fall into the creek would almost certainly be fatal.

 

Canyon Creek Falls (Lower Falls)

Rainbow over the lower drop of Canyon Creek Falls

The lower drop of Canyon Creek Falls

Retracing my steps up the social path to the main Canyon Creek Trail, I continued up the valley. The trail came to the side of Canyon Creek at 4 miles from the trailhead, where I was able to see a set of minor but pretty falls on the creek. 

Falls along Canyon Creek

Soon after, the canyon floor flattened out completely and the plunging creek transitioned to a placid stream, flowing leisurely by lovely old growth conifers. The next two miles of the Canyon Creek Trail were flat, a nice break from the ascent that had preceded. The trail passed to the east by the small but fairly unremarkable Canyon Creek Meadow, which had some views of the surrounding mountain walls.

Calm Canyon Creek

Canyon Creek Meadow

Beautiful old growth forest along Canyon Creek

The flat terrain ended at 5.8 miles from the trailhead. Here, as the trail was about to begin an ascent to the right, I found another unmarked spur trail that split to the left and headed towards Canyon Creek. A hundred meters through the forest along this spur trail brought me to the foot of Middle Canyon Creek Falls, another impressive and perhaps taller, albeit less powerful, cascade. The views from the base of the falls were nice, but the best views were from further up.

Unfortunately, there’s no well-defined path going up the side of the Middle Falls: if you don’t feel comfortable with rock scrambling and navigating your way back to rejoin the trail later, it is best to backtrack to the Canyon Creek Trail and to follow it uphill through a switchback ascent to the junction with the Boulder Creek Lakes Trail. However, adventurous hikers should abandon the trail briefly here and scramble up the granite boulders alongside the Middle Falls, where there are much better views of this thunderous cascade.

Middle Falls

Scrambling all the way up to the top of Middle Falls, I came to a patch of open granite slopes with views of Canyon Creek as it embarked on its drop through the falls and the snowy visage of Mount Hilton rising to the west. This was a scenic and quiet spot that is skipped over by the main trail: I took a break here to enjoy the lovely scenery.

View of Mount Hilton and the Boulder Lakes basin from above Middle Falls

There is no marked path leading from the top of Middle Falls back to the Canyon Creek Trail. The most straightforward approach- which I took- was to follow a faint path upstream along Canyon Creek until I met the Boulder Creek Lakes Trail at a point where that trail crossed Canyon Creek. Here, I turned right and followed the Boulder Creek Lakes Trail for three hundred meters back to the Canyon Creek Trail, where I rejoined the main trail at 6.3 miles from the trailhead and continued following it up the valley. The Boulder Creek Lakes Trail visits what I hear are a pair of exceptionally scenic lakes at the base of Mount Hilton; while I would certainly love to return, I didn’t have enough time for that detour on this hike.

A brief stretch of flatter hiking through the forest followed before the trail arrived at the next major step in the valley. The trail climbed out into the open as it ascended alongside Upper Canyon Creek Falls. Excellent views of this lovely cascade down the granite were now paired with views of the high peaks surrounding the valley, which included Sawtooth Mountain to the east and Mount Hilton to the west.

Upper Falls

Above the Upper Falls, the trail flattened out yet again, traveling through patchy forest and occasional clearings with nice mountain views. Plentiful wildflowers- including dogwoods in the forest and shooting stars in the clearings- made this an especially beautiful stretch of the trail during my hike. At 7.2 miles from the trailhead, the Canyon Creek Trail crossed Canyon Creek itself. In late May, with the creek at nearly full flow, this was quite challenging: I was able to walk along a few logs to cross the creek without getting wet, but without fortuitously placed logs I would have had to undertake a soaking, thigh-deep ford of the stream. Hiking poles were critical in helping me cross Canyon Creek without taking a dunk. Later season visitors may find this crossing much easier, but an easier crossing here also means less impressive waterfalls along the hike up.

Shooting stars blooming in the meadows

Fording Canyon Creek

Dogwoods blooming along Canyon Creek

Across Canyon Creek, the trail continued up the valley through the forest until arriving at the base of the fourth and final step of the valley at 7.4 miles from the trailhead. Here, Canyon Creek had another impressive cascade- this one unnamed- that marked its first steps down the valley from its headwaters in the lakes above. The trail headed across open granite and began a steep final ascent to Lower Canyon Creek Lake. Superlative views down the valley with the snowy peaks of the Trinity Alps unfurled.

Cascade on Canyon Creek below Lower Canyon Creek Lake

Trinity Alps view from approach to Lower Canyon Creek Lake

Finally, 7.5 miles from the trailhead, the trail flattened out and arrived at Lower Canyon Creek Lake, a beautiful, watery blue gem nestled beneath the sharp pinnacle of Thompson Peak. At 9002 feet, Thompson Peak is the tallest summit of the Trinity Alps and lies at the heart of the range. Snow adorned the granite bench beneath the summit pyramid and usually sticks around until late summer most years (the only glacier of the Trinity Alps lies on the opposite side of Thompson Peak). The lake was delightfully cold on the extremely hot day of my hike; despite its great distance from the trailhead, there were numerous hikers here enjoying the water, although most were backpackers rather than day hikers.

Thompson Peak rising over Lower Canyon Creek Lake

A social trail followed the west shore of the lake, providing multiple access points to the lakeshore for hikers to relax and enjoy the view. This trail was idyllic and I enjoyed exploring it for a short stretch; however, to reach Upper Canyon Creek Lake, I instead followed a poorly marked trail that led up the granite benches on the west side above the lakeshore. This trail followed the spine of the granite ridge for a brief stretch before heading to the right off of the ridge and traversing through a landscape of rocks and sparse trees above the lower lake. After reaching the far end of the lower lake, the trail made a brief turn into a gully before climbing back out onto an open granite slope that overlooked the upper lake.

The upper lake was a granite-bound bowl situated directly beneath the jagged, snowy crest of the Trinity Alps. A great buttress of stone rose directly across this lake, leading up towards the snow-covered shoulders of the Trinity Alps' greatest peaks. The view of the lake was superb; I was able to see some different angles on this view by taking the trail that followed the granite divide between the upper and lower lakes. The upper lake was far quieter than the lower lake, with far fewer hikers making it up this far.

Crest of the Trinity Alps above Upper Canyon Creek Lake

The low granite ridge near the outlet of Upper Canyon Creek Lake also provided a stunning view downhill of Lower Canyon Creek Lake and the snowy, forested peaks that rose further down the valley. In fact, the view from here is perhaps one of the most iconic of the Canyon Creek Lakes and the Trinity Alps; I enjoyed this astounding landscape and had my lunch before starting the lengthy return to the trailhead.

Lower Canyon Creek Lake

This was a highly enjoyable hike. Although extremely popular, the scenic highlights of this pair of lakes and the waterfall-filled valley leading up to this location in the heart of the Trinity Alps are too spectacular to skip over. A single day was barely enough to enjoy everything this trail had to offer; while I would recommend visiting Canyon Creek Lakes whether on a day hike or backpack, this certainly would have been a great place to stay overnight to explore more.

Watkins Glen

Rainbow Falls and Triple Cascades

2 miles loop, 450 feet elevation gain
Difficulty: Easy-moderate

Access: Paved road to trailhead, New York State Park fee or Empire Pass required

An intimate sandstone gorge and graceful waterfalls make Watkins Glen State Park one of the most scenic and fantastic landscapes of New York State’s Finger Lakes region and a must-visit for anyone traveling through the region. The Gorge Trail- a beautifully built stone pathway through the canyon with rock staircases and arch bridges that harmonize with the nature around it- is the best way to see this state park, which lies just outside its namesake town at the southern end of Seneca Lake. The hike described here is a loop through the park that follows the Gorge Trail through the canyon’s highlights and then returns via a smoother path on the canyon’s north rim. There are plenty of stairs and the trail is usually wet and passes underneath falling water, so come with appropriate shoes and perhaps a rain jacket.

I visited Watkins Glen on an October fall foliage trip through upstate New York. I won’t provide detailed directions here, as it’s unclear where which direction most visitors would come from; the hike starts from the large parking lot at the mouth of the gorge, which is off of Route 14 (Franklin Street) just south of downtown in the town of Watkins Glen. There is a large parking lot at the park entrance that charges $10 a day for parking (there is nearby street parking in town as well, but much of that parking is limited to 2 hours or so). A large visitor center, restrooms, an outdoor relief map, and plentiful interpretive signage were just beyond the parking area at the mouth of the canyon.

There are two separate entrances to the park as well: one on the south rim of the gorge and another on the north side, at the far end of the gorge. The most straightforward way to access the gorge is still to enter from the main entrance; it’s also the most spectacular entrance. From the visitor center area, the Gorge Trail leads directly into the gorge, while the North Rim Trail leads up to the north rim of the canyon. At the time of my visit, the opening stretch of the Gorge Trail- which passes through a rock tunnel, crosses Sentry Bridge and travels underneath Cavern Cascade- was closed. Instead, we had to initially ascend the north rim via the North Rim Trail and then descended into the canyon and join the Gorge Trail at a point slightly farther into the canyon. While this caused us to miss the famed and scenic Cavern Cascade stretch of the gorge, we still got to see the rest of the gorge, including the famous Rainbow Falls segment in the heart of the gorge. It’s unclear if Sentry Bridge will be repaired in a reasonable time frame, so conditions on the trail may change by the time you visit; either way, it’s still worth visiting the rest of the gorge if you’re in the area.

We started our hike by walking along a paved path paralleling Glen Creek through the wider mouth of the gorge to the base of the Entrance Cascade, a waterfall that tumbled out of the canyon’s narrows into a broad bowl cut into the sandstone cliffs. The wide canyon mouth was the site of a sawmill in the early nineteenth century built by Samuel Watkins, the village’s namesake, who took advantage of the gorge’s abundant hydropower for industrial purposes. The natural beauty of the gorge was later recognized and tourism in the area developed by the late nineteenth century, although the current set of paths through the gorge did not exist until the Civilian Conservation Corps built them following a massive flood on Glen Creek in the 1930s that destroyed most of the previous visitor infrastructure.

Entrance Cascade and Sentry Bridge

From the viewpoint at the base of the Entrance Cascade, the Gorge Trail continued into a tunnel; but this marked the closure point on the Gorge Trail, so we backtracked slightly to the beginning of the North Rim Trail, which led uphill via a wide staircase. Over the next 200 meters, the trail ascended 120 feet, quickly rising above the canyon mouth below and soon delivering some views out to the village of Watkins Glen and beyond to the low ridges of the Finger Lakes. For most visitors, this is the most physically strenuous stretch of the hike, as the stairs are relentless until the trail reaches the rim of gorge.

Village of Watkins Glen

Once on the north rim of the gorge, the trail flattened out a bit. At 0.4 miles from the trailhead, we came to Point Lookout, where we had a view down into the gorge; here, a connector trail left the North Rim Trail and descended into the gorge to join up with the Gorge Trail. We took this connector trail, which dropped us into the sculpted sandstone walls of the canyon and soon brought us to the Gorge Trail and the tumbling waters of Glen Creek. Upon meeting the Gorge Trail, we took the right fork to travel up the canyon.

While not necessarily small, the gorge at Watkins Glen is a landscape that is beautiful on an intimate rather than a majestic scale. Here, wave-like canyon walls of eroded sandstone surrounded us, with Glen Creek happily burbling as it flowed down the canyon and autumn leaves floating down into the gorge from the hardwood canopy above. The trail itself blended in beautifully with this landscape: the Civilian Conservation Corps had built rustic rock walls and staircases that harmonized well with the sandstone and shale layers of the gorge.

Watkins Glen

Central Casccade

We followed the Gorge Trail over the next 0.6 miles until reaching the Mile Point Bridge, passing by the Lovers Lane turnoff along the way. The gorge was immensely scenic at first and only became more so as we went along, with the beauty of the gorge peaking after the junction with the Lovers Lane Trail, in a stretch that included Central Cascade, Rainbow Falls, and the Frowning Cliff. It’s advertised that there are 19 waterfalls in total in Watkins Glen; I’m a bit unsure of that number, but there are certainly over five significant drops in Glen Creek along the Gorge Trail in addition to Rainbow Falls, a tributary stream that feeds into the gorge by plunging straight down the shale and sandstone walls.

Central Cascade

Gorge above Central Cascade

Gorge below Rainbow Falls

Rainbow Falls and Triple Cascade

Behind Rainbow Falls

Watkins Glen has a complex and rich geological history. The plateaus of the Finger Lakes region are of a similar geological origin to the plateaus of West Virginia and Kentucky: they are all part of the broader Allegheny Plateau, an uplifted region of sedimentary layers. These sedimentary layers were laid down in the Paleozoic Era when a shallow sea covered much of what is now upstate New York. The resulting layers of shale and sandstone were uplifted directly during the Alleghenian Orogeny when the North American continent collided with the African plate to form Pangaea; this mountain-building event also created the more geologically complex crystalline Appalachians (the Blue Ridge, the Taconics, etc) to the east.

Frowning Cliff

In more recent geologic history, Ice Age glaciers scoured the Allegheny Plateau in the Finger Lakes region, eroding deep and wide valleys in the region that are now filled by those lakes. Smaller tributary glaciers fed into the large glacier carving out Seneca Lake’s valley, but these smaller glaciers did not leave gashes as deep as the larger glaciers; thus, after the ice retreated, hanging valleys formed above Seneca Lake. These hanging valleys created the elevation differential necessary for waterfalls to form; when Glen Creek flowed down one such hanging valley, it began cutting a gorge into the sedimentary layers of the Allegheny Plateau on its way down to Seneca Lake, creating the Watkins Glen that you see today.

 

Pluto Falls

Frowning Cliff

At a mile from the trailhead, we came to the appropriately named Mile Point Bridge, where there was a four-way junction in the trail. The Gorge Trail continued ahead, but connector trails split off to either side here, leading to the South Rim Trail and the Indian Trail. While there was about a half mile of canyon left between here and the upper entrance to the park, we chose to end our journey through the gorge here, partly because the gorge was less impressive upstream of the bridge and partly because we had spent so much time enjoying Rainbow Falls and Central Cascade that it was getting late. We took the connector for the Indian Trail to start heading back: this trail carried us uphill through some staircases to the top of the gorge’s north rim, where we joined up with the Indian Trail and turned right to start heading back towards the trailhead.

Mile Point Bridge

The Indian Trail descended steadily along the canyon’s north rim; while the trail generally stayed slightly back from the rim, a few spur staircases on the south side of the trail led to viewpoints overlooking Rainbow Falls and Central Cascade. At one point, the Indian Trail came to an unmarked junction: we took the right fork here to stay along the rim of the gorge (the left fork led to a nearby cemetery). At 1.5 miles into the hike, after a particularly steep stretch of descent, the Indian Trail came to a multi-way trail junction with the Lovers Lane Trail and a suspension bridge spanning the gorge. We walked out onto the suspension bridge here to gaze 200 feet down into the gorge, then continued along the trail along the rim until reaching Point Lookout, where we had begun our journey down into the gorge earlier. From Point Lookout, we followed the North Rim Trail downhill to the visitor center to finish this gorgeous hike.

Watkins Glen is a true highlight of the Finger Lakes region. Is it popular and crowded? Yes. But where else are you going to see such a spectacular interplay of sandstone and falling water? Avoid peak tourist times if you want to avoid crowds, but don’t miss this absolutely gorge-ous hike.