Ithaca: two gorges before noon, then the market at Steamboat Landing
13 playbooks shared · added to 39 trips
- 8:30 am1Taughannock Falls gorge trail from the lower lotTrumansburg
The gorge trail is three quarters of a mile, flat, and ends at a 215-foot plunge with 400-foot walls around it — taller than Niagara and nobody is there at 08:30. That flatness is the point: it is the one waterfall in the region a stroller or a bad knee can reach. If you want a walk rather than a look, the North and South Rim trails loop about three miles and cross above the falls. The $10 is per vehicle and only collected in season; the overlook lot further up Route 89 is free and gives you the postcard in thirty seconds if that is all you came for. Verified 2026-09-06: parks.ny.gov and local reporting have the park’s trails open for the 2026 season — the gorge trail closed only 2–5 June 2026 for maintenance — but it still shuts on short notice for ice and rockfall, so ring the park the morning you go rather than trusting this line.
17 min by train or taxi · 17 km - 10:20 am2Route 89 south along the lake into IthacaIthaca
Twenty-five minutes with the water on your left the whole way. Route 96 is faster and shows you nothing.
12 min walk · 900 m - 10:55 am3Ithaca Farmers Market at Steamboat LandingIthaca
Weekends, and people get this wrong constantly. Verified 2026-09-06 (ithacamarket.com): Saturdays 09:00–15:00 April through October, then 10:00–14:00 on Saturdays in November and December; Sundays 10:00–15:00 May through October and 10:00–14:00 in November. The 2026 season opened Saturday 4 April. Nothing midweek at this site — the old note’s “April through December” Saturday hours were an hour long at each end in the winter months. Build the day around it or miss it entirely. Eat here rather than downtown — the pavilion is a food court of a dozen cuisines over the water. And seven cider producers rotate under the pavilion every weekend May to December, including Redbyrd Orchard, which has no tasting room of its own anywhere, so this is the only place to drink it. Lot fills by 10:30; the free TCAT route from downtown is easier.
8 min by train or taxi · 4.9 km - 12:45 pm4Buttermilk Falls — gorge up, rim downIthaca
Ten cascades in about three quarters of a mile of climbing, then the rim trail back down as a loop. Hold rather than planned because the swimming hole at the base is closed whenever the water-quality test comes back wrong, which is several weeks a summer, and the gorge trail itself shuts in winter. Second $10 vehicle fee of the day — an Empire Pass is $80 and pays for itself in eight park days, which this region hands you in one long weekend. Verified 2026-09-06 (parks.ny.gov): the gorge trail is open early May to early November and closed November through April, and the vehicle fee is collected April through November. The 2026 swim season opened 3 July, Friday to Monday 11:00–19:00 when lifeguard staffing allowed, and has since been closed for the year on water-quality results — treat the swimming hole as gone for 2026, not as a maybe.
8 min by train or taxi · 4.2 km - 2:35 pm5Cascadilla Gorge Trail up to campusIthaca
Free, and the best half hour in the city: it climbs 400 feet through six waterfalls from downtown to the back of Cornell's Schwartz Center, so you arrive on campus instead of parking on it. Closed every winter, and sections close for repair for a year at a time — check it is open before you plan the walk up rather than the drive. Verified 2026-09-06: the trail’s posted status has the upper section between Stewart Avenue and College Avenue closed for construction with reopening announced for spring 2026, while Linn Street up to the Stewart Avenue bridge is open. That upper stretch is exactly the part that delivers you to the Schwartz Center, so this is now a hold rather than a plan: confirm the full trail is open, or treat it as an out-and-back from Treman Triangle and reach campus another way.
8 min by train or taxi · 2.9 km - 3:35 pm6Cornell Dairy Bar for ice cream made on siteIthaca
The university has a working creamery and sells the output at counter prices. It is a two-dollar detour at the top of the gorge, not a destination — take it if the walk left you on campus anyway.
8 min by train or taxi · 2.4 km - 5:45 pm7Dinner at MoosewoodIthaca
Fifty years old, fourteen cookbooks, and still a collective. The menu is rewritten daily and there is always one vegan plate and one fish, so do not arrive with a dish in mind. Dinner runs from 17:00 and the room is small — reserve on a weekend. It is not fine dining and does not want to be; the pleasure is that a place this specific is still standing on the Commons.