Lower Lick Brook Falls

There are two trailheads for the Sweedler Reserve – one off Town Line Road, and another at the junction of Routes 34 and 13 next to the bridge over Enfield Creek – these directions will assume using the latter access point. The unsigned parking area off Routes 34 / 13 can only be accessed by northbound traffic, so if traveling from Ithaca, continue south on Route 34 and make a U-turn. From the parking area, the trail traverses through a grassy field and intersects the Cayuga Inlet where it’s crossed by railroad tracks. The trail crosses the stream and picks up on the other side adjacent to the railroad bridge – there is no dedicated footbridge, so use your best judgment when crossing the stream.
Just under half a mile of hiking through tick-infested fields of chest-high grass the trail intersects Lick Brook, which may appear dry at this point depending on how much water is present. Follow the trail a short distance past the creek crossing and the falls will come into view upstream – rock hop up to its base as far as you like.Lower Lick Brook Falls is the lowermost and easiest to access of three substantial waterfalls which can be found along tiny Lick Brook in the Sweedler Preserve just outside of Ithaca, New York. Here, the brook makes its final leap to the valley floor in the form of a highly photogenic horsetail type fall with side-by-side streams that sheet 61 feet down a broad cliff face, followed by a series of scenic ledges that drop another 12 feet immediately below. During periods of higher flow, the creek sheets out across the lower cascades, creating very pleasing patterns in the water that should immediately draw the attention of photographers.
Because Lick Brook has a tiny drainage basin, covering only about 1.6 square miles, it doesn’t flow strongly for very long (basically only immediately after heavy rain or during snow melt) and almost certainly dries out entirely during the warmest months of the summer – save for periods where passing storms should replenish it. When we visited the falls in May of 2018 it was disappointingly already reduced to just a trickle.