Cascadilla Gorge: Ithaca's Most Traveled Gorge Preview

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Entrance to Cascadilla Gorge

In addition to traversing steep stairs in this "lower" section of Cascadilla Gorge, the trail continues on the other side of College Avenue and follows Cascadilla Creek along a much flatter grade to a scenic footbridge and waterfall. This trail is open year-round.

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Stair-step Waterfalls

Notice the “stair-step” shape of this waterfall. The gorge bedrock consists of two types of sedimentary rocks: shale and sandstone. The flakier and softer shale is more extensively eroded away by the water of Cascadilla Creek compared to more resistant and thicker sandstone. This forms the uneven shape of the waterfalls here. For over the past 15,000 years, the creek has been slowly washing away gorge bedrock, continually deepening and widening the gorge. Compare the falls in front of you to what it looked like in 1915 (image above).In winter, ice further loosens the gorge’s rock walls through freeze-thaw action, continually widening the gorge.

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Use the Gorges Safely

These scenic waterfalls look inviting during warm weather, but are dangerous even when little water flows over them. For your safety, please remain in the trail. Swimming is not permitted in the gorge.

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Shade-loving Plants

There are two distinct plant habitats in this relatively small gorge. The slope next to you does not receive direct sunlight because it faces north. Plants that prefer shade and moist soil such as ferns, mosses, purple flowering raspberry, hemlock, mountain maple, and striped maple grow here. Cornell Botanic Gardens staff and volunteers work hard to keep these gorge habitats healthy by removing invasive species and replacing them with native plants, which provide food and habitat for wildlife.To learn more ways Cornell Botanic Gardens staff protect and enhance biodiversity, take the Sustainable Landscapes Trail Pocketsights Tour.

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A Gazebo in the Gorge?

Look above to the rim on the opposite side of the gorge for the Adirondack-style gazebo precariously perched on a pinnacle of bedrock. This pinnacle was formed as a result of “architectural jointing,” meaning the rock was eroded along two vertical rockfaces that intersect at nearly 90-degree angles. The rock of these vertical faces was weakened, or fractured, by compression dating back millions of years when the Appalachian Mountains were forming.

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A Gift of the Gorge

This bridge was built during the construction of the gorge’s original stone staircases and paths between 1927 and 1931. Cascadilla Gorge was donated to the care of Cornell University by local philanthropist Robert H. Treman in 1909 for education and public recreation. Funding for the bridge, trail construction, and on-going maintenance was made possible by a generous financial gift from Cornell trustee Colonel Henry Sackett. Today, the trails and gorge are maintained by Cornell Botanic Gardens staff.When passing the wet gorge wall on the north side of this bridge, look for lichens—one of Earth’s most ancient groups of organisms—attached to the rock.

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The Power of Water

Maintaining trails, railings, and other structures requires constant upkeep by Cornell Botanic Gardens staff. During heavy rain events, water often floods the trails, damaging stonework. Beginning in 2008, the gorge was closed for seven years to restore the historic trail structures. Improvements included building this concrete staircase, which required moving the stairs and trail away from the overhanging gorge wall. Other repairs included new retaining walls, stone paths, railings, storm drains, and removing hazard trees and shrubs.

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An Ancient Ocean and Mountain Chain

Notice the alternating layers of blocky sandstone and thinner, flaky layers of shale of the gorge walls. These sedimentary rocks were formed during the Devonian Period, 410 – 360 million years ago, when a shallow, inland ocean covered much of what is now New York State. Streams flowing down a vast mountain chain into this ocean deposited sediments of sand, gravel, and mud, which accumulated over millions of years to form these thick stacks of sedimentary rocks. Over time, the shifting of continental plates reloacted this bedrock from around the equator to its present-day location.

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Sun-loving Plants

This side of the gorge is facing south and receives direct sunlight. Plants that prefer these sunbaked and drier areas include fragrant sumac, blackberry bushes, oaks, hickories, and forget-me-nots. Scroll the images above to help you identify these plants along the trail, especially poison ivy!

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Keep You and Your Friends Safe

The gate here was built to close the gorge during winter months, when it is not safe to hike in the gorge due to ice-covered trails. As wonderful and beautiful as our gorges and natural areas are, exploring them isn’t risk free. You can help keep yourself and your friends safe by not leaving marked trails, not swimming in the gorge, and not walking in restricted areas.

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Glaciers Set the Stage for Cascadilla Creek to Form this Gorge

Cascadilla Creek has been eroding this gorge since the retreat of the most recent glacier over 15,000 years ago. As the glacier advanced, it transformed shallow river valleys into deep and narrow lakes, today known as the Finger Lakes. The streams, including Cascadilla Creek, that once flowed into these river valleys were left “hanging” over the glacially-steepened hillsides. Since then, Cascadilla Creek has been carving a slice into the bedrock of the steepened hillside above Cayuga Lake, forming this gorge.

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Cayuga Lake Honors the Cayuga Nation

From here, Cascadilla Creek flows through the City of Ithaca for ¾-mile to reach Cayuga Lake. The name “Cayuga” acknowledges the Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ' (the Cayuga Nation) one of the six members of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, who traditional homelands precedes the establishment of Cornell University and New York State and have an on-going connection to the lands and waters here.