Font ResizeIt is. And it's more than just that, too.
Sitting at the south end of Cayuga Lake, the longest of New York's Finger Lakes, Ithaca can boast about more than gorges, waterfalls, forests and hiking trails. And boating, biking and beaches. And botanical gardens, notable architecture, theaters of all kinds and more restaurants than this city of nearly 30,000 could possibly need.
A little smaller than the city of York, Ithaca is divided by Fall Creek, Cascadilla Creek and Six Mile Creek, all of which have eaten their way deep into the rocks, forming gorges sometimes hundreds of feet deep.
Within the city limits, 150 waterfalls of various widths and heights rumble through the gorges toward Cayuga Lake. Within a short drive is Taughannock Falls State Park with its falls higher than Niagara Falls; Buttermilk Falls State Park; Robert H. Treman State Park with its 12 waterfalls; and the Allan H. Treman State Marine Park, one of the largest inland marinas in New York.
The best time to visit the waterfalls might be now, when most of the tourists have gone home. In warmer
Recently voted "America's Most Enlightened City" by the Utne Reader, Ithaca owes much of its variety and success to the Ivy League atmosphere of Cornell University and what some locals call the "country club atmosphere" of Ithaca College.
Known worldwide for its ornithology lab, Cornell recently opened the new Sapsucker Woods, a bird research facility and public viewing area. The Cornell Plantations is billed as a museum of plants that takes visitors on trails throughout the campus for nature study and hiking.
The Circle Greenway is a 10-mile multipurpose trail that takes bikers or hikers through downtown Ithaca, the Cornell campus, gorges and the waterfront. The Cayuga Waterfront Trail is a hard surface 2-mile trail that hugs the southern inlet into Cayuga Lake. Plans are being made to lengthen it to six miles by next fall.
For those visitors seeking a quieter stay, the Ithaca area offers ballet, a jazz club, theaters and concerts. Many performances are part of the music or theater departments of the two colleges. The diversity of restaurants rivals that of much larger cities. Named one of the 13 most influential restaurants of the 20th century by Bon Appetit magazine, the Moosewood Restaurant specializes in vegetarian dishes but offers fish on weekends. It has published 10 cookbooks. Another notable is The Station Restaurant, located downtown in the historic railroad station. Thai, Mexican, Japanese/Korean and Mediterranean restaurants cook up their specialties, and a dinner cruise on Cayuga Lake is available during summer and early fall. The Cayuga Wine Trail features 14 wineries, located all along the shores of the lake.
Because of its location near the lake and its architecture, Cornell has been called one of the most beautiful college campuses in the country. Walking tours are available. Students sometimes wander along the creeks and through the gorges to reach classes or dorms.
But T-shirts they wear bragging that "Ithaca is Gorges" are rather incomplete. The entire list of what's here wouldn't fit.
To get there
To reach Ithaca, visitors from York County can take two different routes. The quickest - north on Interstate 81 to about 17 miles north of Binghamton, N.Y. Exit at state Route 79 and drive 25 miles west to Ithaca. That drive is about 259 miles and will take about 4.5 hours.
Another route is more scenic, but will take about 5.5 hours, despite being 20 miles shorter. Take Route 15 north along the Susquehanna River and into New York state. Take Route 17 (Southern Tier Expressway) east to Route 13.
For more information
· For state parks: http://www.nysparks.state.ny.us/parks.
· For general Ithaca information: http://www.visitithaca.com.
· For the wine trail: www.cayugawinetrail.com.
· For the Moosewood Restaurant: www.moosewoodrestaurant.com.
· For Sapsucker Woods: http://www.birds.cornell.edu.
· For Cornell University: http://www.cornell.edu.
· For Ithaca College: www.ithaca.edu.
