Watkins Glen State Park
June 24, 2004
Provided by: Kimberly Benzoni
Summary authors & editors: Jim Foster; Kimberly Benzoni
The photo above showing this scenic gorge was taken on May 31, 2004, from near Watkins Glen, New York. In terms of its geology, western New York, in the Finger Lakes region, is one of the most commanding areas of the eastern United States. Located at the southern end of Seneca Lake, Watkins Glen State Park is an amazing 1,000-acre park featuring a number of interesting rock formations, nineteen waterfalls (two of which you can walk behind), natural pools, and the erosion-sculptured chasm (shown above). In places, daunting 200-foot cliffs loom above the stream responsible for carving this chasm. The Finger Lakes were created when the Pleistocene ice sheet melted more than 10,000 years ago, converting glacially scoured canyons into narrow lakes. Gorges and waterfalls were formed when streams drained from steep hillsides into the tapered lakes.
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