WATKINS GLEN New York, September 2025

Hali had a fun idea for a different trip last September... She wanted to visit the Corning Glass Museum, and that happened to be close to Watkins Glen State Park. So we packed the car a took a little road trip! Agriculture is a significant part of the economy in Western New York, and so it may not be what most non-New Yorkers would think of when they do think of "New York". And the finger lakes region is especially beautiful! It was a short trip (5 days), but we decided to put together a small web page for it anyway. We hope you enjoy the images and comments! Happy trails...

For a version of the web page that just shows you the images (with an option for a slideshow mode) you can click here. This is good for people that just want to cruise through the images without having to read our snarky comments!

As always, just click on any image to see the full size version of the image.

The room at the Watkin Glen Harbor Hotel was nice, and we really enjoyed the hotel restaurant for dinners! They had a great menu with indoor and outdoor seating options. For breakfast, we went to the Blackberry Inn Kitchen just up the road.

A Farm on the outskirts of Corning. It was a cloudy morning that promised to be a very rainy afternoon the first day we were in Watkins Glen, so it was perfect for the drive to Corning. We saw this wonderful field and farm on the way and stopped to take photos. CanonR5 with the EF24-105mm lens.

The Corning Glass Museum

The Corning Glass Museum has some amazing artwork on display, and much of it is for sale. Some reasonably priced, but some going for tens of thousands of dollars. You can also watch live demonstrations of various kinds of glass working. A truly fascinating place to visit!

On left is a phone pic of a beautiful glass pumpkin -- one of many that were for sale in the shop area. On right is a glass sculpture by Lino Tagliapietra entitled "Endeavor". The artist was apparently inspired by the gondolas of Venice. Nikon Z8, 24-70mm lens.

The top left and middle left images are both images of a borosilicate glass sculpture created in 2007 by Josepha Gasch-Muche. From any distance, the glass looks fuzzy and almost soft. The top left image was taken with the Nikon Z8, 24-70mm lens. The middle left image is a closer image and was taken with the Canon R5, EF24-105mm lens. The middle two images are from the same place near the entrance to the exhibits, It was interesting watching the gentleman study the exhibit in the other room so Hali had to take a photo of that. The bottom right: "Sheer Volume" by Michael Scheiner, who is from Central Falls - near us in Rhode Island.

Creativity with glass. Hali has been taking classes to up her creative imaging with multiple exposure photography. The first three of these photos are multiple exposures based on the "Sheer Volume" exhibit by Michael Scheiner. That installation is the lower-right black and white image from the set above. The image on the right is a "swirl" based on a different installation. All images by Hali taken with the Canon R5 and the EF24-105mm lens and edited in Photoshop.

Scenes from inside the museum. The white and off white walls really made for some great abstracts and imaging. Left: Canon R5 and the EF 24-105mm lens. Right: Nikon Z8, 24-70mm lens.

Seneca Lake

These image were all taken from the pier across the street from our hotel. On left was the calm water of Tuesday's sunset. On top right was a sunset cruise, about to come back in. On bottom right is an image of the two of us in front of the boathouse-looking-thing-that-really-isn't-a-boathouse (and there were spiders everywhere). These were all taken with the Nikon Z8, 24-70mm lens.

We got up the second morning we were there to find the lake blanketed in a thick layer of fog. It was truly an unforgettable morning as we watched the ducks and waterbirds fly across the lake and stood in almost perfect silence. You'll need to enlarge the images to really get a sense of them. The left image was taken with a Canon R5, EF24-105mm lens. The right image was taken with a Nikon Z8, 24-70mm lens.

Watkins Glen State Park

Watkins Glen State Park is a very popular park with many different activities available (you can find their website here). There are two main trails, but only one was open when we were there due to renovations. The trails are about 3 miles long and go past many different waterfalls and cascades. Pro tip: always wear waterproof boots when you hike here.

The 3 images on the left were all taken at various points along the park trail. The second from left is actually a detail of (arguably) the most famous of the park's features: Rainbow Falls. The image on the right is a B/W rendering of a waterfall that we found on the east side of Seneca Lake (Hector Falls). All 4 images were taken with a Nikon Z8, 24-70mm lens.

This image shows the full view of the famous Rainbow Falls. The only way past this point is go under the shower portion of the falls (seen on the left here), up the stairs and over the bridge. Nikon Z8, 24-70mm lens.

On left is a detail image of the shower portion of Rainbow Falls. On right is a B/W rendering of one of the many small falls along the trail. In the middle is a crazy bit of multiple exposure fun using a phone image with about 4 layers at various angle and blend modes. The other two images were taken with a Nikon Z8, 24-70mm lens.

A phone selfie at Hector Falls. Hector Falls is a roadside waterfall on the east side of Seneca Lake.

This was a short trip, but we had a lot of fun. We hope to take many more such trips in the future!

CREATED BY

Jim and Hali Sowle

Credits: