Letchworth State Park

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Middle Falls

Upper Falls in winter, with the Portage Viaduct in the background.

Letchworth State Park is a New York state park located 35 miles (56 km) south of Rochester, New York. The park is roughly 17 miles (24 km) long,^[1] covering 14,350 acres (22.42 square miles or 58.07 km²) of land along the Genesee River.^[1] Within the park there are three large waterfalls on the river and perhaps as many as 50 waterfalls found on tributaries that flow into it; the gorge formed by the river, with rock walls rising up to 550 feet in places and which narrow to 400 feet across above the middle of the three falls, prompted the area's reputation as the "Grand Canyon of the East".^[2]

The park is named after William Pryor Letchworth, whose thousand-acre estate forming the heart of the park was bequeathed to New York in 1906.^[1] The park can be entered from the towns of Mount Morris, Perry, Castile, or Portageville.

The three major waterfalls — called the Upper, Middle, and Lower Falls — are located in Portage Canyon, the southern section of the park. The Seneca nation called the land around this canyon "Seh-ga-hun-da", the "Vale of the three falls";^[3] the Middle Fall ("Ska-ga-dee") was believed to be so wondrous it made the sun stop at midday.^[1]

The only trail bridging the Genesee River across the Portage Canyon is just below the Lower Fall. The Middle Fall is the highest, and the Upper Fall has an active railroad trestle crossing immediately above it, providing an even higher vantage immediately above the fall.

The highest waterfall in New York State is located in the park. It is a spectacular ribbon waterfall that is located on a tributary creek a short distance east of the Inspiration Point Overlook, 0.4 mile (640 m) west of the park visitor center. Known as Inspiration Falls, it has a total drop of 350 feet (107 m). The falls faces to the south-southwest and has a crest that is only one foot (300 mm) wide.

The bedrock that is exposed in the gorge is Devonian in age, mostly shales, with some layers of limestone and sandstone. The rock was laid down in an ancient inland sea, and many marine fossils can be found. The landform of the section of the Genesee River valley represented by the part is geologically very young, caused by a diversion of the river from the old valley by the last continental glacier, forcing the river to cut a new section of valley.

The cliff downstream of Middle Falls, December, 2005

[edit] List of features and activities

The Glen Iris Inn, Letchworth's former home located on the top of a cliff overlooking Middle Falls, offers in-season meals and overnight accommodations.^[1] Other features of the park include pavilions, picnic tables, a playground, pool, cabins, campsites for tents, trailer sites with dumping stations, and horse-riding trails.^[2] The park is the present-day site of the grave of Mary Jemison.^[1], who is buried on the grounds of a Seneca Council House relocated there by Letchworth and rededicated in 1872.^[4]

Activities within the park include hiking, biking, fishing, hunting (turkey and deer when in season); in winter, snowmobiling, cross-country skiing, whitewater rafting and kayaking, snow tubing, ice skating, and horse-drawn sleighs.^[2]