Waterfall Wednesday: Triple Cascade

Triple Cascade in Watkins Glen State Park

Triple Cascade is one of the most iconic waterfalls found within Watkins Glen State Park in Watkins Glen, New York. The bottom entrance to the park is located at 971 Franklin Street in Watkins Glen right down the main street that goes through the small town. The entire park is 778 acres and has hiking trails, camping, and picnic spots. The Gorge Trail is a mile and a half long trail (each way) that features 19 waterfalls of difference sizes.

Triple Cascade is located about halfway in the gorge just after Rainbow Falls. It is considered a tiered waterfall, which means that the water drops in sets of distinct steps – in this case, three drops. The waterfall spans roughly 26 feet with the largest tier measuring about 12 feet.

Most pictures of this section include both waterfalls within the frame similar to these two photographs. The left image is a photo taken by me earlier this summer for the Summer Mosaic project. The bottom image is an old historic photograph that I found in my research of the waterfall. The photo is an albumen silver print from the 1870’s by James Douglas Hope. For more about the historic photo, you can go here.

For the project I decided to divide up the paintings of Rainbow Falls and Triple Cascade so that I would be able to feature each waterfall individually. A 6 inch by 6 inch space didn’t feel like it would be able to give justice to the beauty of the scene (that means this scene may be on my list to paint bigger in the future). By dividing the paintings I was able to focus on featuring the rocks and bridge of Triple Cascade, and the experience of traveling behind the water for Rainbow Falls.

For the Summer Mosaic project this year I painted seven of the major waterfalls within Watkins Glen State Park. Here’s a peek at all of the paintings for this collection. I thought it would be fun if it was displayed in a star pattern. Can’t you just picture this as the feature piece on your living room wall?

As each week goes by I will be sharing about another waterfall that I painted for the project, so there will be more fun facts about Watkins Glen State Park waterfalls to come in future posts throughout the series.

Have you visited Watkins Glen State Park before? Did you have a favorite part of your trip?

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