For our Upstate New York road trip, I envisioned a week of leisurely off-season travel through rural hills, occasionally stopping scenic views and quaint diners. However, the journey became more than a leisurely drive; it became a passage through the illustrated pages of the region’s past and present.
I had lived in Rhode Island for 25 years, more than half of my adult life, but New York for me had been mostly the big city. It was past time to see Niagara Falls, the Finger Lakes, and the countryside that was too-long neglected.
We entered the state on I-80, heading westward out of Massachusetts, with our first stop planned in the tiny town of Clayton, about a six hour drive from home. I-80 runs the entire width of the state, passing through Albany, Schenectady, Syracuse, Buffalo, and onward towards Cleveland, for the most part following the path of the Erie Canal.
Seeing the Erie Canal had been a planned part of the trip. I head heard about the Erie Canal back in 5th grade through the song about a mule named Sal who pulled a barge on the Erie Canal. The canal’s 315 miles is considerably longer than the 15 miles I had imagined when I learned the song at age 11.
I had planned to exit I-80 at one of the many Erie Canal parks and historical sites, like Syracuse’s Eried Canal Museum. The exhibits at the museum tell the story of the canal’s history, displaying tools used to build the canal, navigation gear, and personal items from people who lived along it. There are hands-on displays where you can virtually travel the canal and learn about the challenges faced by early travelers.
One exhibit explains how the canal influenced local industries and boosted the economy. The museum also highlights facts about the Erie Canal, like how it connected the East to the West and played a big role in America’s growth. Overall, it’s a simple and engaging place to learn about the canal’s impact on the past.
Instead, our experience with the canal fell right into our laps at a rest area on I-80.
The Lock E-13 Living History Rest Area in Fultonville, New York, along the Mohawk River portion of the Erie Canal, features a compelling exhibit providing insight into the canal’s history. At the rest area, visitors can explore displays showcasing the engineering and operation of the canal, with a particular focus on Lock E-13.
The lock, the part that barges traveled through to be raised or lowered as they passed through the area, was next to a structure that, while looking a lot like a bridge was actually a dam used to maintain the water of this stretch of the Mohawk River at a constant 4-foot depth.
Nearby, the outdoor exhibit offered informative panels, diagrams, and artifacts that highlight the significance of this stretch of the Erie Canal. Among the exhibits was the historic buoy boat, “Urger,” once used for maintaining the buoys that marked the channel. Overall, the rest area provided a concise and informative stop for travelers interested in the Mohawk River’s role in canal history, a chance for a pit stop, and a little bit of history about the nearby communities.
Ready to continue our trip, with three hours more ahead of us, we continued westward, past barns long disused and weathered, like something I’d expect to find upon constructing a jigsaw puzzle. The interstate wove back and forth over the Erie Canal and occasionally rose up over the valley to give scenic vistas that must have been amazing during foliage season just a few weeks earlier.
We headed north at Syracuse, along I-81. Being in November, sunset came early, and with our occasional stops and pauses along the way, dusk was settling in when we got to the northern edge of New York along the St. Lawrence River, in our first stopover in Clayton.
We were guests of the Thousand Islands Harbor Hotel for this portion of our stay, a four-diamond hotel right on the edge of the town’s tiny classic main street.
Off season! I can’t say enough about how great it is to travel off season. It’s quiet. Sure, the town’s Antique Boat Museum and other tourist attractions are closed for the season, but walking the streets was downright serene. A few shops, like the one we spent an hour or more in looking for Christmas decorations and trinkets to remember our trip, were so quiet that we could have long conversations with the proprietors and they were thrilled to chat and tell us about their town.
During out two-night stay, we also explored the Zenda Farms Preserve, a former diary farm, with several preserved buildings from the 1960’s all in a distinctive metallic finish. In its heyday, it had hundreds of cows on over 800 acres of land, but now 100 acres of grass run from the edge of the forest to the roadway, with a walking trail all the way around.
Off season, and not the weekend, we could only explore the outside of the buildings, from silos, hay storage, milking stations, and the ominously-named “manure pit”, along with what the creamery building that is now the visitor center.
We didn’t witness much wildlife at the preserve, but on occasion fox and other creatures are spotted here. Had we been birders we might been excited by the various bird calls we heard on the edge of the forest.
Being right on the St. Lawrence River, with Canada a figurative stone’s throw away, we explored the river walk and marveled at the thought that the entire Great Lakes dumps their water through this river, that it is used as a major shipping channel, and that in wintertime, it is frozen over and used by ice fishermen and the occasional daring border crossing moose to traverse on foot.
The many islands, some in Canadian waters, some in US waters, gave rise to the term Thousand Islands, which then gave the name to the distinct salad dressing created in this area. Of course we had to have a green salad with that dressing when dinnertime came around.
Downstream toward the Atlantic Ocean, among the Thousand Islands is Heart Island, the location of Boldt Castle, an unfinished mansion dating from the Gilded Age. In the other direction is the town of Cape Vincent and the Tibbits Point Lighthouse. From there you can stand on the edge of Lake Ontario and see fresh water all the way to the horizon.
But compared to the chance to enjoy the peace and quiet of the Thousand Island Harbor Hotel, we didn’t wander far. We were always happy to retire to our very comfortable room overlooking the river.
The hotel has a vantage point on the river, bringing life to a piece of land that had once held a factory for making snow plows. It boasts meeting space that serves the needs of the area, for weddings and business conferences. The hotel also hosts annual events like a speedboat poker rally, and the Fire and Ice in February.
We also immensely enjoyed eating in the hotel’s restaurant, the Seaway Grille for both breakfast and dinner. Of all the entrees, their super-thick frenched pork chop with spicy butter, everything mashed potatoes, and green beans stands out. While everything we tried was delicious, from the salmon to the filet, the pork chop was downright memorable.
Breakfast? Delicious too. I think I enjoyed the pancakes the best.
Alas, this was a road trip — we only had two days to relax before we had to hit the road again. I could imagine parking myself there for a week or two and never get tired of the peace and quiet, but we had to get moving.
Our next overnight stop was the town of Celoron, at the tip of Chautauqua Lake., but we had a special stop along the way – Niagara Falls.
South on I-81, hang a right at Syracuse, and off to Buffalo… and a bit farther to Niagara Falls State Park.
Of course I knew about Niagara Falls, but I had never experienced it. There is no way I could have imagined it the way it really is.
Huge torrents of water splashing over rapids rushing to a drop of 167 feet into a gorge that the falls have carved over the millennia. The old mills and decayed tenements that surrounded the falls and the gorge in the 1800’s are gone with the creation of the nation’s first State Park. It’s now a beautiful urban park, with the art deco era buildings being updated to modern facilities.
We were just one week too late to ride the “Maid of the Mist” boat to the base of the falls. The Canadian side still had boats running for those who wanted an up-close soaking.
I had always heard that the Canadian side of the falls, “Horseshoe Falls” is better, but I couldn’t’ imagine anything more spectacular. From the Canadian side, viewing is basically just from the one side of the gorge, but from the American side you can see the falls from the mainland, from Goat Island, by taking an elevator to the bottom of the falls, and from vantage points close enough to the falls that you worry about our grip on your phone as you take selfies in the spray.
For us, exploring the American side only, with plenty of time looking for souvenirs and taking pictures, it took about three hours and we had to scurry on our way to our next stop. No time for the Seneca Tribe’s casino or exploring downstream. We did, however, take ten minutes taking pictures of a solid black squirrel. Yes, a squirrel. We thought it must be a genetic fluke, but it turns out that black squirrels are common along the Great Lakes.
There were numerous opportunities to stop in both Niagara and Buffalo to see museums and other attractions, but we scurried through and only guessed at where the Erie Canal and the canal that lets ships bypass Niagara Falls must be. It wasn’t until we passed out of the city that I said “Dang it, I forgot to look for the Nikola Tesla monument!”
Just beyond Buffalo, at the town of Dunkirk, we exited the Interstate and found ourselves in small towns. That was about the time we started joking about the many places we’ve been though on this trip. Hamburg, Manchester, Jordan, Peru, Liverpool, Verona, Troy, Rotterdam, Hastings, with many more ahead of us.
This is also where we started noticing that the barns are being maintained better, indicting that the farms are still actively caring for livestock. We also started noticing vineyards, some of them huge enough to be called industrial scale.
Our navigator routed us through an older part of the city of Jamestown before arriving that the tiny village of Celoron and our lodgings for the next two nights, the Chautauqua Harbor Hotel.
Owned by the Hart Hotels group like the Thousand Islands Harbor Hotel, this four diamond hotel had much the same look and feel, but was bigger and busier. Being right outside a decent sized city in a space that in a previous era that had hosted an amusement park, it was a quiet season but by no means empty.
During the busy summer season, the restaurant and bar attracts people from all over, boaters, and folks from out of the region. They especially love the outdoor areas lining the lake, including the Carousel Bar and the hotel’s circular island that locals call “Monkey Island”, a hold-over from the days of the Celoron Park amusement park.
The restaurant, the Lakehouse Tap and Grille has the same menu as we enjoyed in its sister restaurant on the first leg of the trip, so needless to say we were incredibly well fed. The seafood scampi over linguini had crab meat instead of the Rhode Island version with clams, but who can resist shrimp, scallops, crab, and pasta in a garlicy buttery white wine sauce? Not me
On our second night I tried the 22 once porterhouse steak. Mmmmm…. But the perogies I had as a starter were even more delicious. They were potato-stuffed and served with sour cream, green onions, and bacon bits, making them pockets of baked potatoes.
By the time we finished the trip, my comfortable jeans had turned into skinny jeans.
Enjoying Celoron mostly called for getting out and about. Yes, there was a small park next door, the Luciele Ball Memorial Park, with two statues of the comedienne. She had been born in nearby Jamestown and grew up just a couple blocks away on what is now named “Lucy Street”. I was told by those who should know that Lucy had been a ticket-taker at the old amusement park before heading off to fame and fortune in the big city.
But Lucy didn’t stay away. She maintained ties to her old home town, dedicating money and time to charitable organizations and helping to establish the Luciele Ball Little Theatre in Jamestown.
The Lucy and Desi Museum in downtown Jamestown features a gift shop and two exhibit halls filled with ways to remember her and her ability to make us laugh. It also includes her time as the owner of Desilu Studios in Hollywood, where she helped initiate both Star Trek and Mission Impossible.
Also because of her influence, Jamestown hosts the National Comedy Center in what used to be the city’s train station. This extensive facility includes the George Carlin Archives and rare footage of a huge variety of comics. Keep an eye out for a chance to talk to a hologram of Desi Arnez!
Two other things to check out in the area are the many wineries on the Wine Trail and the famous Chautauqua Institute, renowned as the Ted Talk of its day, attracting people including President Grover Cleveland to lectures and intellectual discussions.
Our room at the Chautauqua Harbor Hotel, being based on the same designs and specs as its sister hotel, was just as big and luxurious as in our previous stop, all the way down to the vanity and tiled walk-in shower. This time we were on the top floor and had a patio overlooking the calm waters of Chautauqua Lake, giving us the chance to sit back and think about the days when steamships would speed travelers along the lake’s length.
It was then that I finally pieced together why cities exist at the tips of the Finger Lakes and other long glacial lakes in New York. The lakes formed a barrier to overland travel while also providing easy water travel. The intersection of the two are the tips in towns like “Skinny Atlas” Skaneateles, Ithica, and Jamestown. Or for that matter, Buffalo, Detroit, and Chicago.
The glaciers did it. The two-mile-thick ice cap during the last ice age leveled the region, more or less, while the last glaciers at the end of the era dug the long lakes between the hills. The overland travel was restricted by the lakes, but at the same time provided easy access along its length. Farmers needing to get goods to markets dug the initial canals despite a complete lack of engineering training. Cities grew up because of the canals, roads, and waterways. Trains connected the towns because of the demand and also because the flattest routes were already forged by the canals. The interstates followed for the same reason.
The glaciers created the interwoven network of transportation and the reasons for the cities in upstate New York.
Well, after a couple of days exploring the Chautauqua Lake area, we headed out, trusting our GPS system to give us the fastest route to our next stopover – Ithica. But instead of putting us on the interstate, it sent us through the most rural part of our trip yet, twisting and turning through tiny villages and past farmland.
It was pretty countryside, so I’m not complaining. Lots of farms, even some run on horsepower by Amish families. My problem is that I’ve been unable to trace out our actual route on a paper map after the fact to tell you about it.
I know we passed through Cattaraugus, “The Town Made By Cutlery”, with its American Museum of Cutlery. But when I checked the map afterwards I questioned the whole concept of ever trusting a GPS navigator again. Cattaraugus is nowhere near a direct route between Celoron and Ithica.
At the time we went through the countryside, many farms had corn still in the fields, despite it being brown. This corn was for livestock, high calorie “silage” destined to be chopped up and stored in silos for the winter.
We were also surprised to find what looked like golden pine trees. They turned out to be a variety of larch trees common to the Midwest called a tamarack, turning from green to golden every winter.
Eventually the navigator put us back on the interstate, just in time for us to make the decision whether or not to stop at the Corning Glass Museum with its exhibits of glass across the millennia. We drove on, ready to get to our third stopover, the Hotel Ithica.
This hotel, also one of the Hart Hotels family, had echoes of the previous hotels’ service and style. There was even some overlap on the restaurant’s menu items including the unforgettable frenched pork chop, but it was a distinctly different hotel. It had a distinctly urban feel, completely at home in cosmopolitan downtown Ithica.
Pool, state-of-the-art exercise room, business center, and meeting rooms rounded out the amenities. Our room was a corner room in the 5-story tower with a balcony overlooking the city.
Ithica isn’t the place for solitude and quiet like Clayton. It’s not a place for exploration like Celoron. Ithica is sculpted by the presence of Cornel University into a lively place full of youthful energy.
A block and a half away is Ithaca Commons, a walking mall filled with shops and other small businesses. Want crystals? Used books? Puzzles? Clothing? You name it, it’s probably there. Bars and restaurants and galleries and gift shops abound, both on the Commons and nearby.
Want sushi? Ethiopian food? Vegan? Halal? It’s in Ithica. And after dinner, seek out live music in the many night clubs, or catch a show at the State Theatre all in the immediate neighborhood.
One of our two nights, we ate at Hotel Ithaca’s restaurant Ithaca Social, a more intimate setting than in the previous hotels. This time I enjoyed herb roasted chicken in a white wine sauce with capers and artichoke hearts. My wife had salmon. Yes, we were incredibly well fed on this trip.
But Ithica isn’t just a modern urban scene. The glaciers that shaped the Finger Lakes gave Ithaca one more big gift: waterfalls in abundance.
There are 28 waterfalls in and around Ithaca, including Taughannock Falls, with a drop of 215 feet – that’s taller than Niagara Falls. There are so many waterfalls, all of which carved their own gorges like Niagara did, that the city’s slogan is “Ithaca is Gorges”.
We started our waterfall expedition at Buttermilk Falls. If you park in the lower parking area, the waterfall is right there. Our navigator sent us to the upper lot and we walked down the gorge to the falls. The experience of passing a huge series of waterfalls, rapids, and cascades was memorable, sometimes being at the level of the water and at times at overlooks above falls. But by the time we reached the lower parking lot, we knew we couldn’t manage the hike back up to the parking lot.
Buttermilk Falls isn’t a sheer drop like Taughannock Falls, it’s a washboard of strata, with water splashing along every step of shale stone along the way. In the spring during the snow melt, the falls splash so much that they are white , hence “Buttermilk Falls”.
The chasms here and at Niagara were formed when the glaciers cut a cliff face right where a strong stream flows. The water falling from a height picks up enough energy to erode the rocks. In 12,500 years, significant chasms form for us to explore and where there is a hard enough layer of rocks to resist eroding better than what lays under it, waterfalls are created.
It would have taken us a couple weeks or more to explore all of the falls, so Lucifer Falls and Ithaca Falls will have to wait for a future visit.
Wrapping up our visit to Ithaca, we explored Cornell’s campus. Some buildings were huge. Some were venerable with age. Some were both. I went to a modest state college many many years ago — I have trouble imagining the wealth that a family would need to invest in educating a child at Cornell these days where the books alone cost more than I spent on tuition.
So it was time for the last leg of our trip, home to Rhode Island via Albany. Along the way, had we been inclined, we could have stopped in Cooperstown for the Baseball Hall of Fame, but a week of traveling had us ready for home.
On this trip we experienced the part of New York we seldom think about, saw amazing waterfalls, saw the evolution of towns, rested, had long conversations with people who grew up in the area, found excitement, ate amazing food, laughed, and learned a lot about how an ice age dictated how we explored this region.
We finally made it home, where we had our chores and day to day worries, but also our dogs and family and the familiar surroundings. Happy to be home, but thinking about all of the things left to experience on our next trip into upstate New York.
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About the Author
PAUL PENCE not only writes many of the articles in the pages of this magazine, he is also the publisher and editor of all of the magazines in the Amygis Publishing’s family of travel magazines.
He loves exploring, traveling the back roads, experiencing the world, and finding what is unique and memorable about the places he visits.
And he loves writing – poetry, short stories, essays, non-fiction, news, and. of course, travel writing.
For over 20 years, he has shared his explorations with readers in a wide variety of outlets, from groundbreaking forays into the first stirrings of the dot-com boom to travel guides, local newspapers, and television, including Runner’s World, Travel Lady, Providence Journal, and Northstar Travel Media. He currently publishes and writes for Amygis Publishing’s magazines Jaunting, Northeast Traveler, and Rhode Island Roads.