Finger Lakes

The Finger Lakes spread across central New York, eleven long, narrow lakes carved by retreating glaciers and oriented north–south like fingers across the landscape. The terrain between is rolling — drumlins, vineyards, ravines cut by tributary streams, and the deep gorges that have made Ithaca and Watkins Glen famous. The lakes run hundreds of feet deep, and Cayuga and Seneca are among the largest by volume in the eastern United States. Seven counties cover most of the region — Cayuga, Seneca, Tompkins, Schuyler, Yates, Ontario, and Steuben — with Ithaca, Geneva, Auburn, Penn Yan, Watkins Glen, Hammondsport, and Canandaigua as the anchor towns. Cornell and Ithaca College sit in Ithaca; Watkins Glen State Park concentrates the most dramatic gorge scenery; Hammondsport holds the oldest stretch of wine country. Trips here build around three threads: wine and food (more than 100 wineries on Cayuga, Seneca, Keuka, and Canandaigua lakes), waterfalls and gorges, and the slow lakeside driving that connects them. Late summer and fall are peak seasons, with the wine harvest and hardwood color overlapping through October.