New York's Grand Canyon
Renowned as the Grand Canyon of the East Letchworth State Park is renowned for its scenic magnificence where the Genesee River Roars over three major waterfalls between cliffs which rise as high as 600 feet and down through the gorge which is lined with lush forests and if one wants a unique wedding venue, that can also be found here along with nearby Letchworth Village making this a New York State don't miss
Shannon Falk
7/31/20183 min read
It's So Worth it, Wandering Long Windy Roads
Missing my Michigan Family Connection I kept mapping my way East. No Destination set in my mind
In Elmira at a cemetery crossroads I pondered, my nephew, life, death, and what it means to carry on.
Was it worth another hour and a half's drive beyond the cemetery?
Death is the starlit strip between the companionship of yesterday and the Reunion of tomorrow.
And with that epitaph I made another decision. Continue East to the remote corners, explore!
Seeing as I seem to be the one person who wasn't visited Arizona's "Grand Canyon" I had nothing to compare it to.
My first peek at the Genesee River told me I had made the right decision
Deep chasm views meant for scoping.
An otherworldly mist hung over the edge of the precipice. Spanning 14,427 acres, spanning two counties, three towns, the north spanning gorge follows a whopping 17 miles of untouched wilderness along the Genesee River making this little remote corner of New York well worth the trek.
Once inside the park? Don't miss a tour of the luscious grounds
You'll find yourself wandering the 1,000 acres bequeathed by the 1859 of Buffalo industrialist William Pryor Letchworth who began purchasing land near the Middle Falls where the Glen Iris Estate was constructed between 1823-1910, so you'll fave a myriad of architectural gems that are now the property of New York's #1 State park where rock walls rise to 550 feet and three falls, Lower, Upper, and middle flow the deep gorge below.
If you really want to sip in the views? Have tea or dine in at the Glen Iris Inn, or better yet? Spend the night and fall under a spell.
Picture yourself spending the night? Book in advance.
Picturing yourself married in Letchworth State Park?
Don't ask Amish women to opine, but do plan your spectacle in advance.
Whatever force of nature has brought you to Letchworth? Contemplate deep history of the land on which you stand.
Long before a Buffalo industrialist was donating this land to the state of New York. The ground on which you stand? Sehgahunda translated into English? Vale of the Three Falls and once the homeland of the Seneca People who of course like all natives (as in First People not "us" people) they were forced out after the first American Revolutionary War, and though the British were defeated, it doesn't seem like the Seneca won much, as their beloved Sehugahunda believed to be so wondrous that it made the midday sun stop in it's tracks? Our (America's win) over the British in the long run of things? Seems a loss for the Seneca People, whom to this day still fight for bits and pieces here and there of small tracts of land where "American's" who never learned their history place out ignorant signs which read "No Sovereign Land" in truth? In New York? Once this whole state had a whole bunch of other inhabitants with individual governments, and so if you find yourself in Letchworth "State" Park. Have great reverence.
In deference to the Seneca People on whose land on which I stand?
