Excelsior Glen

Allan H. Treman State Marine Park

"Change the way you look at things, and the things you look at change." —Wayne Dyer

Last Saturday while we were in the Watkins Glen area we hiked to Excelsior Falls. It’s located just east of town off of Highway 414, easy to find but not visited by many. Most visitors in this area go to the amazing Watkins Glen State Park, which is very impressive. We hiked that glen in 2014 and loved it, but we like finding little gems that other people overlook. Somewhere we don’t have to fight a crowd or be rushed to move on. The trail begins right off the road with a small overgrown path that overlooks the creek about 30’ below. This trail disappears as it passes a boulder-choked chute where the river is only about a foot wide. This chute feeds a pretty good drop, but isn’t considered one of the waterfalls in this glen, although we thought the little canyon was very impressive. 

The water coming out of the narrow chute at the top of the trail.

The narrow chute at the beginning of the trail 

The water shoots through this small cut to the creek below

The Excelsior Glen trail map - the red line is the path we took

From this point we walked in the creek to the first waterfall. The only way from here to get back to the trail and on to the second waterfall was to scamper up a very steep embankment on the left side of the falls. After the initial climb, which seemed to be straight up, the trail leveled off and followed the creek; actually we walked in the creek bed much of the way. 

The first waterfall

The hill we climbed up to get to the rest of the trail...you can see the first waterfall behind the trees at the bottom right.

The trail ends at the second falls, where the surrounding cliffs rise about 90’. It was a beautiful spot to relax and enjoy the complete solitude of the area. There was even a small pool at the bottom of the falls where we could have gone for a swim. The cliffs were much too steep to continue on to the third waterfall from here, so we made our way back down the creek to our car. Maybe one afternoon we’ll come back and take the Finger Lakes Trail that goes along the top of this gorge to the third falls.

The trail

Small falls along the way 

The second waterfall at the end of the trail

Looking up at the falls from the pool

We saw this view on our way back to the car. It's from the top of the trail above the first falls...this is Seneca Lake,

This isn't my video but it gives a good feeling of the glen that the pictures fail to do.