Cayuga Lake from Taughannock
— — the lake the gorge opens onto.
Not only on a wall.
“The view from the north rim of Taughannock Gorge, where the 215-foot falls drop into a plunge pool and the creek runs west another half-mile to Cayuga Lake. The overlook stands ten miles north of Ithaca, near the village of Trumansburg. The lake reads silver-blue on clear afternoons, with the far shore eight miles east across the water. The Finger Lakes wineries climb the slopes to the south.
Cayuga Lake from Taughannock, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Taughannock Falls State Park lies on the west shore of Cayuga Lake, in the Town of Ulysses, Tompkins County, New York. The waterfall plunges 215 feet, taller than Niagara, into a glacial gorge cut through Devonian shale and sandstone. Cayuga Lake is the longest of the Finger Lakes, measuring 38 miles north to south and reaching depths of 435 feet. The North Rim Trail and South Rim Trail both lead to overlooks above the falls; the closest village is Trumansburg, and the city of Ithaca lies ten miles to the south.
The creek drops 215 feet in a single plunge, the tallest single-drop waterfall east of the Rocky Mountains. The gorge below the falls cuts 400 feet down into Devonian shale that holds marine fossils roughly 380 million years old. The plunge pool freezes hard most winters and can form a 100-foot ice cone at its base by February. Cayuga Lake at the mouth of the creek is 435 feet deep, deep enough that the main basin of the lake rarely freezes over even in the coldest Finger Lakes winters.
The falls are loudest in April after snowmelt, and again after heavy summer storms; by August the volume drops and the rock face shows through. The vineyards on the Cayuga Lake Wine Trail — Sheldrake Point, Hosmer, Lucas — climb the slopes south of the park and harvest Riesling in late September. The leaves on the gorge rim turn the first week of October, a week ahead of the lakeshore below. Bald eagles winter on the lake; the southern end at Ithaca is a known roost.