Forest Falls

Take Highway 34 to the north end of downtown Ithaca and exit the freeway onto East Shore Drive. Turn south (toward downtown) on East Shore Drive and continue for just over 1.1 miles to Stewart Avenue, then turn left onto Stewart and continue another quarter mile to the bridge spanning the Fall Creek gorge. Forest Falls is located just upstream from the bridge, but because it's situated deep within the gorge it isn't easily seen from the car window. There is limited parking in this area, so you may have to keep an eye out for street-side spaces, or take a right just after the bridge and continue another quarter mile to a small public lot next to the Fall Creek suspension bridge (which is a good access point for the other falls on Fall Creek in the area as well).Ithaca, New York is one of the few cities in the United States that harbors a substantial number of significant waterfalls right within its urban core. Bisecting various parts of the center of town are three major watercourses, all of which produce several waterfalls. The northernmost of the three, Fall Creek, flows through a huge, deep gorge which cuts through the middle of the Cornell University campus and drops over five large waterfalls over a run of about two-thirds of a mile. Forest Falls is the second-to-last of the five major waterfalls in Fall Creek Gorge, located at a sharp zig-zag bend in the creek just upstream from the Stewart Avenue bridge, and about one-sixth of a mile upstream from the top of Ithaca Falls. The falls drop 45 feet over a broad nearly vertical ledge which spans a breadth of about 90 feet across. Fall Creek is among the largest tributary streams that feed into Cayuga Lake, draining from a basin which covers approximately 130 square miles in area. Its substantial drainage size ensures the fall will flow all year long, but there will be a substantial fluctuation in volume as the seasons progress. By the end of summer the streamflow may just be a fraction of its wet-season equivalent, but there should be more than enough water present at any time of year to allow the falls to remain boastful in stature.