Oct. 7 - Exploring Along Lake Erie

“Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall." — F. Scott Fitzgerald

The weather later in the week looks a little iffy, so we took advantage of the little sunshine we had today to get out and explore. We drove up the lake and over to Lake Erie. The foliage is amazing, but hard to photograph while driving in a car. But take my word for it...it was spectacular.

Our first stop was at the Barcelona Lighthouse. The lighthouse was built in 1829 and was the first natural gas lighthouse in the country. It remained in service until 1859. It's now a New York State Park. It's no longer used for navigational purposes, but is still lit and visible through an agreement with the Town of Westfield.

Our next stop was at Barcelona Harbor Beach. I'm sure it's a great place to play in the summer, but today it was windy and cool...actually cold for us. It would be a nice place to watch the sun go down.

Looking south at the same beach...so many great rocks for painting.

Our second beach along the lake was just a bit south of the first one. It's called Ripley Beach and we had to climb down stairs to get to it. The lake was a little churned up by the wind and we didn't have a lot of beach to walk on.

It was a very interesting place.

Our last stop was actually on Lake Erie just over the Pennsylvania line. It was called Fishermans Beach. It was in a nice park and we had to hike from the parking lot. It was an easy walk along 20 Mile Creek.

The creek ends at the lake. We saw quite a few people fishing...no one seemed to be catching. We finished our day by having lunch and doing a little shopping in Bemus Point along Chautauqua Lake.