Waterfall Wednesday: Foaming Falls

This is one of my favorite paintings from my recent series of 50 New York Waterfalls. I feel like I say that a lot, but each one is so beautiful and unique. Today’s waterfall is Foaming Falls, also known as Horseshoe Falls, from Fall Creek Gorge in Ithaca, New York.

Fall Creek Gorge is a mile long gorge that runs along Fall Creek from Beebe Lake to Ithaca Falls before eventually running into Cayuga Lake. There are six waterfalls along this gorge and they each get their own names – Upper Triphammer Falls, Lower Triphammer Falls, Rocky Falls, Foaming Falls (aka Horseshoe Falls), Forest Falls, and Ithaca Falls. (One last waterfall in this gorge to share about in the weeks to come.)

Foaming Falls is a 15 foot cascade that is situated right underneath the pedestrian suspension bridge that connects two sides of the Cornell University campus across Fall Creek. To get the best view of Foaming Falls, you have to descend 110 stone steps. It’s probably because I had just walked Cascadilla Gorge moments before, but this .02 mile walk seemed to be extra steep that day.

The view from below is beautiful, though. Once you descend the steps you are no longer among the busy ivy league campus and it feels so serene and secluded. There’s such lush, vegetation along the paths which adds to the feeling of being out somewhere that’s not in the middle of a city.

The suspension bridge that is right above the waterfall was designed by structural engineers William McGuire and S.C. Hollister who were professors of civil engineering at Cornell University. The current 270 foot long bridge was built in 1960, although other bridges stood in its place as early as 1913. The most recent addition to the bridge has been a wire mesh enclosure to prevent individuals from accidentally or purposefully falling from the bridge.

Painting Foaming Falls

Like I mentioned at the beginning, this ended up being one my favorite waterfalls from the series. I’m realizing that I really like the ones that feel like they’re their own little secluded world. This painting presented some fun challenges. There were so many different textures with the rushing water, lush greenery, shadowed area, and man-made stone building. I really enjoyed being able to paint the hydroelectric plant again and you can even see Rocky Falls peeking around the corner in the background (here’s the blog post about Rocky Falls if you’d like to look back at that painting or learn more about the plant).

I had a lot of fun with this particular collection of waterfalls from Ithaca Gorge and, how by the way the paintings are grouped together, it’s almost like exploring the gorge. You even get peeks at some of the other waterfalls in the background of a few of the paintings.

Have you visited this gorge?