Ludlowville Falls

Take Route 34 north from Ithaca for 5 miles to its junction with Route 34B, then bear left onto Route 34B. Continue 2.7 miles an turn right onto Ludlowville Road (at the middle school). Follow Ludlowville Road for another mile to a T-intersection where it meets Mill Street. Directly across the street is the parking lot for Ludlowville Park. Park here and walk about 250 feet across the grass field to the fenced viewpoint overlooking the falls.Ludlowville Falls is an uncharacteristically broad waterfall for the Finger Lakes region. Salmon Creek pours 48 feet over the falls, which has a crest width that averages about 120 feet across, but can reach as much as 175 feet across during flood stage. The left side of the falls has undercut its cliff considerably, resulting in a cavernous-like overhang on the mostly-dry side of the cliff. On the opposite side a narrow flume sends a chute of water sliding down a steeply angled pitch of rock, and then blasting outward in a roostertail type formation. Salmon Creek features quite a large drainage basin, covering approximately 80 square miles. At flood stage the creek can swell to impressive scale and essentially turn the falls into a mini-Niagara. But surprisingly, despite the large drainage, the volume of water present in the creek during the summer and early autumn months can be reduced to staggeringly low levels. Based on the limited streamflow data available through the USGS, the creek typically hits its seasonal high flow in March, averages about 120 cubic feet per second between October and May, and can swell to as much as 350 cubic feet per second during the freshet. But from June through October it can be reduced to as little as less than one cubic foot per second (depending on the amount of precipitation), and the running average for those five months is only about 10 cubic feet per second - and that even seems to be bloated by one or two edge case measurements. Ultimately the chances of encountering a healthy streamflow in Salmon Creek is quite low during the summer.