Lower Taughannock Falls

Taughannock Falls State Park is located on the west side of Cayuga Lake, about 8 miles north of the city of Ithaca. In downtown Ithaca, at the junction of Route 96 / 34 and 89, turn west onto Route 89 North. Continue approximately 8 miles on Route 89 to the park – large parking areas are found on either side of the road. Lower Taughannock Falls can be seen from the road where it crosses the creek, as well as the large grassy field next to the parking area, and the stone-walled viewpoint adjacent to the beginning of the trail to the base of Taughannock Falls.Lower Taughannock Falls is very much a secondary waterfall in Taughannock Falls State Park, being that it stands only about one-tenth the height of its upstream big brother. The lower falls tumble over a blocky ledge adjacent to a large grassy field near the lower parking areas in the State Park, replete with benches and easy access to the stream for summer refreshment. The 19-foot tall falls on average stretch to about 50 feet in width, but during periods of flooding the creek will swell to cover the entire 110+ foot breadth of the ledge which creates the falls. One of the more interesting characteristics of Taughannock Creek is its tendency to run completely dry during the summer months, despite the creek upstream from the falls draining from a basin which covers an area of approximately 66 square miles. However, because of its large drainage basin, when summer rains do pass through, the stream does often come back to life, if even just temporarily. Precipitation that passes through from tropical storms that pass up the eastern seaboard will often result in significant volumes of rain, and in such cases Taughannock Creek can quite impressively go from dry to flood stage in a matter of hours. Though little stream flow data is available for Taughannock Creek specifically, a field measurement was made in September of 2004 with a flow of over 2,300 cubic feet per second in the creek as a result of the passing of the remnants of Hurricane Frances.