I love having something fun to do outside. If it involves me going somewhere outside my normal area I like to try and make a day of it. I will try to cram as much activity as I can into one trip.

Recently a friend “convinced” me to take on the challenge of biking around each of the 11 Finger Lakes in New York over the course of this year. It really didn’t take any convincing. I was in as soon as it was mentioned. And we planned a trip to ride our third lake. This trip was to ride around Owasco Lake.

I knew approximately where Owasco Lake was and I knew that there was a state park nearby. A park that I have not been to many times. A park that I have been wanting to make time to get to. Fillmore Glen State Park was right close by to where we would be starting our bike ride. And that gave me an idea.

Why not combine a few things together into one trip. I could go up early and check out Filmore Glen State Park. Then ride around Owasco Lake. Then do anything else I felt like doing after if I wasn’t exhausted by them.

So I got up to Fillmore Glen State Park nice and early. I wanted to hike and photograph the gorge trail and the beautiful waterfalls, but that trail was still closed for the season. So I decided to hike the around the gorge via the South then North Rim trails for a total of nearly 3.5 miles. But I didn’t track it on my watch, because I forgot to charge it up over night and needed to have battery left for the bike ride. So I could not upload the hike to Strava, so did that hike even actually happen? But I was able to enjoy the nice woodland scenery and take some photos.

Then it was off to meet up with my biking partner for a 37 mile tour of Owasco Lake. The first half of the ride was great. The second half of the ride somehow managed to feel like we were going up hill the entire time. It didn’t help that we were buffeted by wind the entire ride. I need to figure out how to get good photos or something from our rides. I will have to try using my GoPro on the next ride

I was still feeling pretty good after our ride. I wanted to photograph some waterfalls. The drive out to Owasco Lake took my up through Ithaca and along Cayuga Lake. Prime waterfall country.

My first stop was at Ludlowville Falls. I love this waterfall and I never even knew it existed until the last few years. It is quite large for being where it is at a nice little small town park. There are plenty of angles and different ways you can photograph the falls. And it is a good spot to photograph year round.

For my next stop I decided to drop in at Ithaca Falls. The water was flowing pretty good here, as it usually is. So much white water and bright light that it was hard to get the longer exposures I like to create nice smooth flowing water in a photograph. This has become quite a busy location over the years that I have been visiting and sometimes can be challenging to photograph because of the other people and lack of actual space to walk around. But it is a beautiful waterfall none the less.

At this point I really needed to get out of my soggy bike gear and I knew where the perfect place to do that was. The Taughannock Falls State Park visitor center. After changing into some fresh clothes I walked to the falls overlook and enjoyed the view. It never fails to impress.

After that I decided to drive down to the lower park. It was still a gorgeous day outside. So, why not go for another hike. Begin the day and end the day with a hike. Sounds like a plan, right.

I hiked along the beautiful gorge trail at the park enjoying the scenery with camera and tripod in hand. I walked along the nice flat trail taking my time. I arrived at the massive waterfall that is the main attraction here. Took my time and photographed the falls from a few different angles.

As I hiked back to my car I noticed wildflowers blooming nearby the trail. At first I just enjoyed them as I walked by. Then I decided I didn’t have any reason to be in a hurry. Why not take a minute and stop and photograph a few of them. There were quite a few, including red Trillium flowers. I wasn’t really expecting to see any wildflowers yet. So I was quite pleased to see them. Then I hiked back to my car for a nice end to the day.

If you enjoyed this article you can click the link below to support the work I do here or subscribe to my email so you don’t miss out in anything I share.