Day 2 started early with hopes of beating the crowds to the park. A small side parking lot had a few cars in when we arrived around 0800 but we were the first car in the main lot.
Watkins Glen isn't a huge state park. It has 3 main trails. One that goes through the gorge along the river, one along the south rim and one along the north rim. The Gorge Trail which follows the river is 1.5 miles long and contains over 800 stone steps.
You enter the gorge via stone steps built through the stone wall and then head across the first of many bridges.
We zigzagged back and forth across the river, up a spiral staircase in the rock wall and behind waterfalls for the next 1.5 miles all the while climbing over 600 stairs. It feels weird to be constantly climbing but never feeling like you are getting any higher because the river is always right next to you.
Just as the path levels out and you feel like the end is in reach you come to Jacobs ladder and find out there are 180 more steep stairs to climb to get out of the gorge. As one man exclaimed at the top "At least there were several places to stop and cry on the way up."
After a rest and snack at the top we decided to take the North Rim Trail (Indian Trail) back. It was an easy decent until the last drop when you have to go down a very large set of awkward wood and earth steps. If I had it to do again I'd go back through the gorge instead. There wasn't much to see other than a suspension bridge on the upper trail.
We hit up the gift shop and picked up a few souvenirs then headed back to Corning to pick up our glass projects. Most of the day was used up by this point so we went back to the Airbnb to rest and plan dinner. Most of the restaurants in Montour and Watkins Glen were closed for the weekend by 3pm so our only option was Jerlando's Italian Restaurant in Watkins Glen. Thanks to the lack of options we had a 30 minute wait but it was definitely worth it. We started with some fried ravioli. Josh had a Grilled chicken sandwich with cheese and bacon and I had a buffalo chicken sandwich. It was really good and we had a cool window seat.
We checked out a couple stores that were still open then checked out Seneca Lake.
After another exhausting day a shower and comfortable bed felt great. Tomorrow will bring another early morning and stops at the PA Grand Canyon and Benezett.