Top Things To Do in Letchworth State Park

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Letchworth State Park is consistently voted one of the best places to visit in New York State, and even one of the best state parks in the country! It’s not hard to see why watching the water rush over the falls through the gorge while you’re standing along the Gorge Trail. There are tons of options for activities at the “Grand Canyon of the East” including hiking, rafting, visiting the on-premise William Pryor Letchworth museum and more! Here are my picks for the best things to do in Letchworth State Park, NY.

Park Entrances

Because Letchworth is so long and skinny, there are several park entrances. It can take upwards of 30-40 minutes to travel from the southern to northern tip of the park so determining which entrance you need to find can be helpful in planning your trip. The entrances from North to South are:

• Mt. Morris Entrance (North)- Best for accessing the Mt. Morris Dam
• Perry Entrance – Best for entering Highbanks campgrounds
• Castile Entrance – Best for viewing lower falls
• Portageville Entrance (South) – Best for viewing upper falls and middle falls

Letchworth State Park Hiking

With over 60 miles of trails in Letchworth State Park, there’s a ton of hiking to do! The trails are relatively moderate in difficulty except for the Finger Lakes Trail that runs the entire Eastern section of the park (about 22 miles). Many of the trails are less than a mile, so you could knock out quite a few of the 28 trails pretty easily. We were able to do a couple trails during our stay in Letchworth. Here are the ones that I recommend doing.

Gorge Trail (Trail #1)

The Gorge Trail is the most popular of the Letchworth hiking trails because it allows for some stellar views of all three waterfalls. The trail is around 7 miles long one way. Since the trail basically runs parallel to the road, there are parking areas throughout the trail that you could drop off a car to only travel part of the way.

Being close to the road is both a pro and a con: it makes it easy to get back to your vehicle but it’s hard to really enjoy nature with cars whizzing by. There’s also something to be said for hiking to places that you wouldn’t otherwise be able to reach; it’s much less fun when you could have just as easily driven up to the overlook parking lot and see the same views as you do hiking the trail.

We walked the entirety of the Gorge Trail on our trip starting from the bottom and leaving a car at the St. Helena parking area, but I’d actually recommend only walking the southern section up to around Wolf Creek. There isn’t too much to see beyond the Wolf Creek area and at times sections beyond that area of the trail were closed or covered by fallen trees that we had to find a way around. Rather park a car at the Upper Falls parking area and a second at the Wolf Creek lot and follow the trail between the two.

Lower Falls Trail (Trail #6A)

One of the other trails worth checking out is the Lower Falls Trail. This can be walked as a short detour on the Gorge Trail or separately from the Lower Falls parking lot. The end of this trail is where I got my shot of the Lower Falls below. The only thing we weren’t able to do was cross the small footbridge, as that part of the trail was closed.

Letchworth State Park Waterfalls

The star attractions of the Gorge Trail are the three main Letchworth State Park waterfalls: the Upper Falls, Middle Falls, and Lower Falls. The Genesee River is a bit unique in that it runs from south to north, meaning that you’ll find the Upper Falls towards the southern end of the park and the others farther north.

Upper Falls

If you start walking the Gorge Trail from the south or enter through the Portageville entrance, you’ll see Upper Falls first. There is a large parking area here and also is the launch point of the hot air balloons, a site for picnicking and features a small ice cream shop. The iron railroad bridge above is called the Portage Viaduct. You can learn more about the bridges that have traversed this stretch of the river at the William Pryor Letchworth Museum, which I’ll talk about a bit later.

Middle Falls

To me, the Middle Falls was the most impressive of the three and the founder of the park, William Pryor Letchworth, must have agreed since he decided to build his Glen Iris Estate along the gorge overlooking the falls. There is also a parking area here for the museum and the estate, which has been turned into the Glen Iris Inn. From May to October, you can also view the Middle Falls lit up at night.

Lower Falls

Lastly is the Lower Falls. These falls you will have to make your way considerably downriver to find, and while the falls can be seen from the Gorge Trail, the Lower Falls Trail mentioned above brings you up close and personal with the rushing water.

Popular Overlooks

Once you get past the falls, hikers and drivers alike will be able to stop at several of the overlooks above the gorge. These are the spots that really make Letchworth State Park feel like the “Grand Canyon of the East”.

Gardeau Overlook

Gardeau is the only overlook on this list that can’t be accessed from the Gorge Trail. The view isn’t quite as spectacular as some of the others, but we took a quick peek here before heading to other spots. The name Gardeau comes from the Seneca word Gah-Da-Hoh, which means “bank in front”.

Archery Field Overlook

I think Archery Field was my favorite of the Letchworth overlooks. This is the area that really give the park the nickname “The Grand Canyon of the East” in my opinion. We loved spending time watching the hawks circle the canyon below and there are a couple nice benches overlooking the gorge. There is also a huge field behind this overlook where you could easily picnic or toss a frisbee around. The one thing to note is that this is a pretty popular location. As we were hiking the Gorge Trail we saw that in the middle of the day the parking lot was completely full and many cars were parked along the side of the road.

Great Bend Overlook

Great Bend Overlook is another spot that feels a little something like a mini Grand Canyon. This is also a great spot to stop along the Gorge Trail or in your vehicle as you’re driving through the park.

Letchworth State Park Camping

There are several lodging options around Letchworth State Park including RV and tent camping, cabins, an on-site inn and homes, and somewhat nearby hotels depending on what you are interested in. We chose to camp in Letchworth State Park at the Highbanks Campground and had a blast. This was also our first chance to use our new Coleman Sundome Tent! In addition to the campsites, there is also a pool open during the summer and a recreation center with a variety of games and activities for kids and adults alike.

William Pryor Letchworth Museum

William Pryor Letchworth was an American businessman who purchased the land that has now become the park in the 1850s. As he got older, Letchworth gave his property to the state of New York to prevent anyone from commercially developing and destroying the surrounding area. As a result, Letchworth’s personal collection of artifacts from the local Native American tribes and some of his own furniture was turned into a museum.

The museum is not particularly large, so I would say you might take 30 minutes to an hour depending on how much you’d like to read about Letchworth’s life, the artifacts on display, and the story of Mary Jemison, “The White Woman of the Genesee” who was kidnapped by the Seneca people as a child in Pennsylvania and brought to live among the tribe. She assimilated quickly and lived out her life among the Seneca in the region. Her remains now rest in Letchworth State Park near the Seneca Council House.

Humphrey Nature Center

Since the first night of our stay in the park was rainy, we stopped by the Humphrey Nature Center. I was expecting to find something much larger than what we found, which was a quite small exhibit on park wildlife and a classroom style room for kids. There are several trails behind the center to visit and we ran into quite a large woodpecker which was neat, but otherwise I didn’t really see much of interest at the nature center. It may be worth looking into for families if they have specific events, but in most cases you can skip the Nature Center altogether.

Visitor Center

In the middle of Letchworth State Park is the Visitor Center and gift shop. It is here that you can check into the cabins nearby or pick up a small souvenir. Our favorite part was the wildlife spotting log, where visitors can log where they see different wildlife. They also had some pretty cool photography of the park on the wall and a topographical diorama of the park. Unless you need to pick something up from the store, there isn’t a ton to do here either.

Mt. Morris Dam Tour

We didn’t quite have time to squeeze in the Mt. Morris Dam Tour on our trip, but it’s also another option for those visiting the park. The dam isn’t quite in the park itself, but the free tours were advertised in the park where we were camping. Tours are provided by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on a first-come, first-served basis for groups of up to 30 people.

Rafting

Since all the rain we had made the water levels too high, they canceled all the rafting while we were visiting the park. I’d love to go back and do rafting sometime. Adventure Calls Outfitters offers rafting trips down the river at Lee’s Landing (far downstream of the waterfalls of course). Rafting takes a few hours and can be on rafts themselves or inflatable kayaks as the water levels typically get lower in the summer. You may also be required to wear a wetsuit depending on river temperatures in the fall and spring.

Balloons Over Letchworth

Balloons Over Letchworth is the only hot air balloon company permitted to operate in Letchworth State Park. You’ll find their launch site near the Upper Falls parking area. I feel like this 1 hour ride could be an awesome way to view the falls, but there’s no way I’d ever be getting Mike to get in a balloon that far off the ground, and I think my fear of heights might get the best of me on this one too.

Conclusion

Whether you’re planning a day trip to Letchworth State Park or a weekend camping trip, there’s something for everyone at the “Grand Canyon of the East”. Between hiking, rafting, hot air balloons or just watching the falls you’re bound to have plenty of things to do in Letchworth. Have you been to Letchworth State Park or are you planning a trip? Let me know in the comments below.

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