It’s no surprise Ithaca Falls gets so many visitors with the views it offers.
“My daughter and my sister called me up this morning and said, ‘it's a nice day; let's go be adventurous and take a trip down to Ithaca,’ ” said Michelle Kremer, who made the trip from Rochester.
Michelle’s goal was to see Buttermilk Falls, but she made a pit stop at Ithaca Falls.
“I think it's great,” Kremer said. “Get out, off your couch, away from that TV, and start a walk.
“Not even a tank full of gas; I think a quarter of a tank from Rochester from here, and it’d be well worth the trip. Especially [since] I’m at the beginning of my little hike, and this falls is absolutely gorgeous.”
Hikers can see the falls from the trail or from the bridge. Emilija Balandyte and her family traveled from Massachusetts to see the area’s falls.
“It’s something that you don’t get to see every day, so that’s fun, to just get out of your comfort zone a little bit,” Balandyte said.
“A very calming environment. I do like … people are just hanging out, taking pictures. We have some good family portraits now that we can use. And it was just nice; it was good to get out of the house and touch the water, spend time with family. It was good.”
Up the road in Trumansburg is Taughannock Falls State Park. With a 215-foot drop, it's three stories higher than Niagara Falls.
Isabel Lieberman and her friends drove from Rochester to take in the view.
“I definitely wanted to be outdoors this weekend, because we’ve kinda been shut in,” Lieberman said, “and since we live in Rochester, there’s not a lot of hiking and stuff, so we just wanted to be outside, and yeah, it's really pretty.”
Visitors can see the falls from the overlook, or hike to the base of the falls.
“It feels safer, because they say the spread is less likely outside, and it's just nice to not be in such a confined space,” said University of Rochester student Alexa Uttamsingh.
With more than 150 waterfalls within 10 miles, there are plenty of spots you can check out.