We returned home from DeRuyter Lake on July 1. We made three stops on our way home.
Our first stop was at Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge, where we drove on Wildlife Drive. We saw several Great Blue Herons and a Great Egret.
Great Blue Heron and Great Egret at Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge
Crazy Hair Day
Great Blue Heron at Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge
Our second stop was for breakfast at Magee Country Diner in Waterloo NY. We ate here in May, on our way home from our week-long vacation in the Auburn NY area. It was on our route home again, so we stopped for breakfast.
Our third stop was at Letchworth State Park. Our Empire Pass provided free admission into the park. We entered via the Mt Morris entrance and exited via the Portageville entrance, stopping for photo opportunities.
Great Bend Overlook at Letchworth State Park
Inspiration Point
As we crossed the stone bridge, we saw a couple people bent down peering over the edge.
These two frogs caught their (and our) attention.
Inspiration Point
Upper Falls at Letchworth State Park
Middle Falls at Letchworth State Park
This concludes details of our DeRuyter Lake vacation.
Thursday, June 30, was our last full day at DeRuyter Lake.
We watched the sun rise from our water’s edge dock.
What a glorious sunrise!
We ate breakfast at Quincy Square Diner for the second day in a row. Bob ordered the Quincy omelet, same as the previous day. I ordered chocolate chip pancakes and bacon. Both meals were delicious.
Since our arrival at DeRuyter Lake, we have seen an elephant in a field on our daily drives into the village of DeRuyter. We stopped at the field this morning, and I took a picture of the elephant.
I Spy an Elephant
According to Syracuse.com “Concrete sculptor John P. Kennedy created the DeRuyter mastodon in 1992 when he was just starting to make life-like creatures out of foundation material. He’s since branched out into all sorts of critters, generally of the non-extinct variety…”
We visited two waterfalls in the morning. Delphi Falls is 4.2 miles from our Airbnb, and Chittenango Falls is located an additional 10 miles from Delphi Falls. This was our first visit to Delphi Falls and our second visit to Chittenango Falls.
We had a personal tour guide at Delphi Falls. A local woman stopped to talk with me, while I was waiting for Bob to complete his business in the port-a-john.
Delphi Falls County Park is located in Madison County, NY. The park used to be the home of a private person. The property was made into a park only recently. The house is still standing. The waterfall would have been visible from the backyard of the residence. Our “tour guide” walked with us the short distance to the waterfall.
Our first view of Delphi Falls The falls trail was easily navigable.
Our “tour guide” took a picture of Bob and me at Delphi Falls.
Chittenango Falls is located in Chittenango Falls State Park. The main attraction at Chittenango Falls State Park is its picturesque 167-foot waterfall.
We visited the top of the falls first. It is easy to see the top of the falls. Just walk from the parking area towards the Gorge Rd Bridge. Please note the footbridge at the end of the video. We hiked to that footbridge.
Chittenango Falls – Top of falls
It is a bit more difficult to see the bottom of the falls. We hiked down hundreds of steps, descending 170 ft into the gorge.
This video shows the falls trail to the first overlook and the trail leading away from that overlook.
First Overlook of Chittenango Falls
We hiked all the way down into the gorge.
The footbridge at the base of Chittenango Falls
Bob and I at Chittenango Falls
View of Chittenango Falls from footbridge
As I wrote earlier this was our second visit to Chittenango Falls. We visited Chittenango Falls 5 years earlier on July 2, 2017. As shown in my blog post written about that day, the water gushing over that waterfall was impressive. The trail to the base of the waterfall was only partially open in 2017. During our second visit, there was much less water falling over the waterfall. We were able to hike down to the footbridge to view the waterfall at its base. I am glad that we were able to see Chittenango Falls from that vantage point. What a beautiful view!
Before returning to our Airbnb we stopped in the village of DeRuyter for lunch at the Coal Yard, where we enjoyed deluxe cheeseburgers and onion rings.
We returned to our Airbnb, after lunch, and stayed there for the rest of the afternoon and evening.
Bob played his ukulele often, while we were on vacation.
This is the dam at the north end of DeRuyter Lake.
We enjoyed the view across DeRuyter Lake.
This is an island in DeRuyter Lake (looking south).
We enjoyed the view across DeRuyter Lake.
We enjoyed the view across DeRuyter Lake.
We enjoyed watching the activity on the lake.
This is just some of the activity on the lake. We saw several kayaks, as well as a few people swimming in the lake.
I watched the sun rise from the comfort of our dock, taking a few pictures and videos as I did so.
Sunrise at Airbnb “DeRuyter Lake NY House for 2 on Water’s Edge”
The steam rising from the water made sunrise that much more special.
The sun in all its glory
We showered and got dressed. The Airbnb has a small septic, so small that our hosts request passionately that we conserve water. The following notice was posted on the refrigerator:
“Every drop of water used to cook, clean, shower goes into a tiny septic system that has no leach field. We beg you to conserve! To help we have provided disposable eating utensils, face and body wipes and Castle Soap that can be safely used in be the lake! Yes, jump in the lake, lather up and rinse rather than fill the septic with shower run off.”
We didn’t bathe in the lake, but we were conscious of how much water we used during our 3-night stay.
We ate breakfast at Quincy Square Diner in the village of DeRuyter. Quincy Square Diner was across the street from where we ate dinner the precious day.
Breakfast Specials at Quincy Square Diner
We both ordered a Quincy Omelet with toast. Inside the omelets were cheese, sausage, ham, green peppers and onions. I didn’t want sausage in my omelet, so my portion of sausage was added to Bob’s omelet. I ordered a glass of orange juice, and Bob ordered coffee. Both meals were delicious; service was good. We overheard a conversation shortly after being seated. A man said it is coming up on a long weekend. Another man said “everyday is a weekend”. That remark made Bob and me chuckle. Retirement is wonderful; life is good!
We spent the day at the Airbnb generally doing nothing. It was a great day of relaxation. In no particular order, this is how we spent our day.
We did our Bing searches and solved the Wordle game of the day.
Bob played his ukulele.
We ate a picnic lunch at the table on our dock. I took a nap for an hour.
I started reading a new Fern Michael’s novel “No Way Out”.
Relaxing at Airbnb “DeRuyter Lake NY House for 2 on Water’s Edge”
I shared this photograph on Facebook and had a couple people ask how I took this picture. I placed my Kindle Paperwhite E-Reader on the dock, snug against a railing. I opened my camera phone and, then, I propped my iPhone on my Kindle and flush against a railing. I sat down. Using the camera remote on my Apple watch, I took our picture.
We did leave the Airbnb a few times, after breakfast. We made two trips to the DeRuyter Lake General Store, located at the south end of the lake. The General Store is stocked with bait and tackle, camp firewood, ice, beverages, beer and wine coolers, ice cream, CBD oil and more. The General Store is where one goes to launch a boat and fill up with marine fuel. I believe kayaks can be rented there as well. I purchased a DeRuyter Lake long sleeve T-shirt on our first stop and two King Cones on our second stop. We drove to Heritage Hill Brewhouse for dinner.
Heritage Hill Brewhouse
We both ordered BBQ platters. The meals and service were good. The view from the Brewhouse was fantastic, too. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures of the view. If you scroll through the Facebook page, though, you will see pictures of the view.
We left home on Tuesday, June 28, around 6:30 am, en route DeRuyter Lake NY. DeRuyter Lake is located approximely 30 miles southeast of Syracuse.
We made two sightseeing stops on our way to DeRuyter Lake.
Our first stop was at Pratts Falls County Park in Pompey. There was a collection box for a $2.00 entrance fee at the entrance to the park.
Pratt’s Falls County Park was originally the site of Onondaga County’s first sawmill and flour mill.
The highlight of the park is Pratt’s Falls.
Located near the signage displayed in the picture shown above is the crest of Pratt’s Falls.
The best vantage point to view Pratt’s Falls is from the end of the Falls Trail.
Pratt’s Falls Trail
We crossed under Falls Trail sign and followed the trail for a few steps. We came to a split in the trail. We took the trail to the left and hiked down some steps. If we had taken the trail to the right, we would have walked the entire 0.6 miles. We shaved off a few steps taking the trail to the left. I like to save hiking steps, whenever I can!
We hiked down and back up these steps, while on the Pratt’s Falls Trail.
Bob and I at Pratt’s Falls
Here is a short video that I took, while at Pratt’s Falls.
Our second stop was at Tinker Falls in the Labrador Hollow Unique Area, located in Cortland County, NY.
There was merely a trickle of water falling off the ledge at Tinkers Falls.
Here is a very short video clip that I took, while at Tinkers Falls. You can hear the water falling (what little there is!).
We let ourselves into the Airbnb with a key, the whereabouts of which our hosts had told us. Bob carried in everything from the car. There are steps down to the house, so I carried very little inside. I did make the beds, a full size bed and a queen size bed. We were told to bring pillows, sheets and blankets. Each bed was covered by a blanket and a bedspread. Each bed had four pillows. I took the blankets and bedspread off each bed and made them with the sheets we brought. I put pillowcases on two pillows for each bed. I folded the blankets and bedspreads and placed them, along with the extra pillows on the couch in the tiny loft at the top of the stairs. We left the pillows we brought from home in the car. I believe the request to bring our own bedding is a leftover from pandemic days. After settling in, we relaxed on the dock at water’s edge, enjoying the sunshine, cool breeze and the sound of lapping water.
At 5:00 pm we drove the short distance (~3 miles) to the village of DeRuyter. We went shopping for bath towels, which we had been instructed to bring with us. Unfortunately, we left our bath towels on a chair in the kitchen at home, necessitating the purchase of new towels. We stopped for snacks too. We stopped at Dollar Tree and Big M in the village of DeRuyter NY. The stores were right next to each other.
After shopping, we ate dinner at Shelly’s Restaurant. It was Taco Tuesday, and Shelly’s had Mexican and taco specials. We decided we didn’t want Mexican. Bob ordered a Grilled Buffalo Chicken sandwich with potato wedges. I ordered a turkey tomato melt with macaroni salad. Both meals were good; service was good too.
We spent rest of the evening at the Airbnb enjoying the lake views from our dock, but also from inside the house while watching TV.
The Beauty Around Us 