Ithaca New York state...Home to many many water falls

Visiting Ithaca over the long Easter weekend of 2018.
Nice drive but a bit chilly.
Stopped to  see Eternal Flame at Buffalo...natural gas comes from the ground behind a waterfall and there is a fire behind the falls fed by the natural gas from underground.  We hiked and after 45 minutes of slow cautious hiking on icy slippery slope-y ground ..we gave up, without seeing the flame or the water fall 'cause too slippery and we also had to wade through icy water ...we didn't have knee length boots for that.
Eternal Flame should be visited only between June and August in my opinion!

Saw the Taughannock falls (photo above) it's over 215 feet! Taller than Niagara falls at Ithaca!
Did not  get to walk to base of falls as it was closed off due to dangers of slipping. Should visit this in summer! We did spot a few dare-devils down by the falls...they had dared defy the rules and he slipper conditions. I wish I had their guts! I have the guts to defy the weather but not my husband or the US government, both of whom clearly dont want me going down to this amazing falls.

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After checking in at our hotel, we went to the nearby 'Buttermilk Falls". Below are a few photos. Thanks to the rains and melting snow, the water was flowing with tremendous force and noise! It would have been a 3/4 mile walk uphill, next to the falls to see other falls of the same water. However the path was closed as it was winter conditions and too dangerous to walk. I did not dare to break the rules..I fear being arrested more than slipping and falling! 

See the rock formation on the right? It was so crumbly! I could break pieces of the rock with my hands. The water has 'gored' through this softish rock for years and formed the gorges all over this area. I do feel a bit worried about the houses built on these crumbly rocks in the  hills and mountains of Ithaca.  

See the layers of rock above...this is right beside the falls. It crumbled and pieces of it came in my hands when I  pressed it. This 'rock' is  not '"rock-hard" like granite. 

 Below are 2 buildings in the university area...one old and one new-fashioned. 

I forgot to mention...people who enjoy photographing dilapidated looking farm buildings, houses which appear to be crumbling/collapsing with peeling paint, barns whose wood has crumbled away, should drive through from Buffalo to Ithaca. On this route, there are many such absolutely photogenic buildings, on the verge of collapse.  I did not take these photos. If I was alone, maybe, I would have. But I was with my husband and he would have lost his temper if I had asked him to pull over, again and  again for photos!
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Below are a few more falls I saw the next day.

Above  and below is the Enfield Falls at Robert Treman State Park.

I walked to the falls...the ground was littered with stone pebbles...covered with invisible ice and slippery as hell!

Watching the running waters and falls, hearing nothing but the sound of water, seeing but a handful of other visitors, enjoying the mild sun reminded me of the English poem, 'The brook' by Alfred Lord Tennyson, I had read in a 100 year old English textbook from England which I had got second hand in India. I had loved that poem as a child and read it many times.  And for the first time, I experienced the poem here in Ithaca. I still recall the lovely black and white photo which accompanied that poem in that wonderful English text book.

I loved this bridge...the color goes with the surrounding nature and it's almost invisible. Even as I enjoy the beauty of the places I visit, I am reminded of the lack of aesthetics in India and feel sad and angry. A bridge built in India would be garishly painted and stand out like a sore thumb in natural surroundings, ruining the effects. 
There would be plastic and other debris floating in the waters in a similar brook in India. 
There would be temples at every fall and every brook, making it inaccessible for non-Hindus to enjoy the beauty of the falls and rivers. 
Below is a washroom by the waterfalls. I am putting this photo here to show how beautifully even a simple, functional place such as a washroom is so aesthetically designed to go with the surroundings.

I fell in love with these icicles. To see these icicles is worth the cold!

Observe the exposed roots of the tree after the earth has crumbled away

I saw birds flying in and out of the gaps in the rocks...maybe they nest there ...?

There is a water fall right behind this mill

I took the photo above and below, when I was standing in the Old Mill. 

I love the mixed colors of this fern growth above.

Above is interlocked bricks, I saw in one house...they keep their car here. This house is besides one of the many falls in Ithaca. These people are so lucky to have a lovely waterfall steps away from their home. The homes besides the falls were lovely. The houses are on steep hills, with winding roads, a waterfall and water running from the falls near them. There is always the sound of this fall in their ears. NOT city noises such as vehicles, people, etc but this lovely water.

Above is one of the many street art in downtown. 

the water coming from the building...produces electricity by running  the turbines in the building. This is in the University area.

 Above is the Ithaca falls in the city! Can you imagine, a powerful water fall, in the city, with roads leading right up to it and houses steps away from the falls? We could walk quite close to the fall as you can see. 
Growing up in India, my idea of a waterfall has always been that waterfalls are in the middle of forests or countrysides surrounded by plants, trees, mountains and rivers.  So it was a terrible shock to me to see Niagara falls for the first time and see  busy city life right by the falls. 
Here at Ithaca, there are many falls in the city, the river runs in front of some houses, there are houses by the falls, there are roads leading right up the falls. It's kind of unexpected to see this for the first time. Ithaca is in a hilly area. One drives up and down steep roads to get to different places; there are many water falls in the city and people have houses besides the falls; there's water flowing in front of houses; and the Cayuga Lake is also there.  The population is less and so it has a small town feel to it. It would be great to visit Ithaca in fall when the colours would enhance the beauty of this already beautiful place.

 Not paint! Lovely moss or lichen on the rocks by the Ithaca falls in Ithaca city.

 Reminds me of the forts built by 'Palegars' of Tumkur district!

 The layers of rock are not uniform...some thin, some thick

 Moss and lichen on the rocks above.

 Pieces of the rock, broken from the original, lying around. Each year, the water in the gaps, expands into ice in the winter  and weakens this rocky earth further. Each year there is more breaking.

 Above you see a section of the earth has crumbled and left a gap. I suppose there was earth where the trees are now but it's crumbled over time. The rocks which have come from the gap above are lying around here, as you can see near the tree.

 I usually see 'round' rocks and pebbles ...the edges shaped round by the flow of water. But in Ithaca, you see rocks 'broken' by water and not rounded off .

Below is the beloved poem, from my school-days, which came back to my mind as I saw the bountiful waters, waterfalls and beauty of Ithaca

Alfred Lord Tennyson's 

The Brook

I come from haunts of coot and hern

I make a sudden sally

And sparkle out among the fern,

To bicker down a valley.

By thirty hills I hurry down,

Or slip between the ridges,

By twenty thorpes, a little town, 

And half a hundred bridges.

Till last by Phillip's farm I flow

To join the brimming river,

For men may come and men may go, 

But I go on forever.

I chatter over stony ways,

In little sharps and trehles,

I bubble into eddying bays, 

I babble over pebbles.

With many a curve my banks I fret

By many a field and fallow,

And many a fairy foreland set

With willow-weed and mallow.

I chatter chatter as I flow

To join the brimming river,

For men may come and men may go,

But I go on forever.

I wind about, and in and out,

With here a blosso sailing,

And here and there a lusty trout, 

And here and there a grayling,

And here and there a foamy flake

Upon me as I travel

With many a silvery water break

Above the golden gravel,

And draw them all along, and flow

To join the brimming river

For men may come and men may go,

But I go on forever.

I steal by lawns and grassy plots,

I slide by hazel covers

I move the sweet forget-me-nots

That grow for happy lovers.

I slip I slide, I gloom, I glance,

Among my skimming swallows;

I make the netted sunbeam dance

Against my sandy shallows.

I murmur under moon and stars

In brambly wilderness;

I linger by my shingly bars;

I loiter round my cresses;

And out again I curve and flow

To join the brimming river,

For men may come and men may go,

But I go on forever.