Letchworth State Park Middle Falls
— — the curtain the river draws every afternoon.
Not only on a wall.
“The Middle Falls drop 107 feet over a wide shelf of Devonian shale, the loudest of the three big falls along the Genesee River as it cuts through Letchworth's gorge. The Glen Iris Inn sits just above on the lawn William Pryor Letchworth kept until he gave the land to the state in 1907. In late afternoon the spray catches the west light and the lower pool turns the colour of weak tea. People stand at the railing and don't say much. from the studio
Letchworth State Park Middle Falls, 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.
Middle Falls is the tallest of the three named waterfalls on the Genesee River inside Letchworth State Park, the long gorge sometimes called the Grand Canyon of the East. The drop is 107 feet over a sandstone and shale lip; the river then carries on through walls that reach 550 feet further downstream. The land was the estate of William Pryor Letchworth, a Buffalo industrialist who deeded it to New York State in 1907 to keep the gorge from being dammed. The Glen Iris Inn, his former home, still stands on the lawn directly above the falls.
The Genesee flows north out of Pennsylvania and reaches Letchworth still carrying silt from the farmland upstream, which is why the pool below Middle Falls reads tea-coloured rather than clear. Flow peaks in April with the snowmelt and can drop to a thin sheet by August. The falls are floodlit on summer evenings until 11 p.m., and in winter the spray builds an ice cone at the base that sometimes climbs forty feet up the cliff. The Upper Falls sit a quarter mile upstream, under the Portage Bridge; the Lower Falls a mile and a half downstream through the gorge.
The park is open year-round; the main entrances at Castile and Mount Morris charge a vehicle fee from May through October. Middle Falls Overlook is a short level walk from the Glen Iris parking area, accessible to most visitors. The Gorge Trail (Trail 1) runs 7 miles along the rim past all three falls and is the route most photographers walk. Peak colour usually arrives the second week of October. The Glen Iris Inn serves a sit-down dinner and is the only lodging directly above the falls; the Caroline's Dining Room reservation often books months ahead for fall weekends.