Upper Falls of the Genesee River (Letchworth State Park, New York, USA)

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Upper Falls of the Genesee River (Letchworth)

The Upper Falls of the Genesee River in Letchworth State Park

The Upper Falls of the Genesee River is one of three major waterfalls on the Genesee River in Letchworth State Park in Western New York. It was the first of the three that we saw. What really makes this 40ft (at least that's all we think we saw though I've seen it reported to be 71ft) waterfall quite scenic is the rustic-looking bridge serving as a backdrop. We had a pretty easy time doing the short paved 0.3-mile walk to a spot where we can view the falls and bridge (a pairing I don't think we've seen before this easily). I believe this waterfall flows year-round so I'm sure you should be able to try to capture the scene with Autumn colors (though we were here in early June).

Directions: Since we were coming from Ithaca, we took the I-86 to the I-390, and then headed west on state highway 436 from Dansville towards Portageville.

On the way to Portageville, I recalled taking a road that became unpaved on the other side of the river (possibly causing a flat on our rental car) thanks to bad directions by the GPS, which told us to turn right on some road before we got to Portageville. it turns out that the car park for this falls is well-signed, and the way we should've taken from the start was to follow the state highway 436 through Portageville to state highway 19A.

Then, shortly after, turn right onto a signed road on the right (barely 1/4-mile later) and follow it for barely a 1/2-mile to a car park.

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Full contextual view of the falls and the portage bridge

Just focused on the Upper Falls of the Genesee River

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Quick look at the falls in motion (just the falls and not including the bridge)

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TRIP REPORTS

For more information about our experiences with this waterfall, check out the following travel stories.

June 18, 2007

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