Another bazaar day for the weather in Ithaca led me to Buttermilk falls today, for the first time since I’ve been at Ithaca College. Most students go to Buttermilk at the beginning of the semester when they can still dip their feet in the falls and enjoy the sunlight, however like I said the weather on this mid November day allowed us to get that same experience!
Buttermilk falls is about a ten minute drive, left out of IC. You start at the bottom of the falls and when you look up you can see the water running from all different crevices of the mountain. On the side of the road trail on the right there’s a gorge trail sign that indicates you can climb up the falls to the right and go back down a trail to the left. Me and my three friends climbed up and up and up, countless stairs-stopping at different points to look down at the new perspective we had now that we were higher up.
As we walked our layers came off in the 65 degree weather, and people passing by all seemed pleasant, possibly at the beautiful weather or the mini weekend excursion with their little kids or their significant other.
There was one spot where we stopped to put our toes in the water, close to the top, and as expected in November, the water was very cold. But the cool part was that in this one spot you could write your name in on the bottom of the falls in the moss. Being careful not to slip me and my friends all dipped our toes in and scribbled our names into the falls.
The way back down was tougher than the way up unexpectedly because there were no stairs on the right side. If you go in the autumn make sure you don’t slip on the leaves on the steep trail down!
I highly recommend going to buttermilk falls if you have an hour and a half to spare! The sights are beautiful, you’ll get your dose of exercise climbing your way to the top and you’re so close there’s no reason not to! Although I’m swamped with work today and have a lot to do, if I would have added up all of the time I procrastinated otherwise, it would have came out to be the hour and a half I spent at the falls. So take a break from the hustle and bustle for a second and go enjoy a beautiful day at Buttermilk Falls!