Letchworth State Park

It’s hard to believe, but the third annual epic road trip is underway. Day one of our trip was the drive from Ohio to New York. Also the day I fell down the stairs very publicly. We got up super early and hit the road, hoping to get a few hours to enjoy Letchworth State Park – which has apparently named itself the best state park in America.

That’s a pretty bold claim – America is a pretty big place. But it did have some epic views, gorgeous waterfalls, a long scenic drive, and multiple playgrounds.

Packing Efficiently…

The morning started with Olivia dragging the entire collection of Elephant and Piggie books down the stairs at 7 am – determined that they needed to come with us. I tried to explain that the entire storage box of books wasn’t the most economical use of space in the already tightly packed van. As you might guess I lost that round and have been constantly shuffling that bin around for the last three days.

Here’s the theme of the first few days of this trip: Shit I didn’t plan for and feral children.

After a mostly uneventful six hours in the car, we made it to New York.

This park is huge, so we only had enough time to explore the southern half of it on day one. I was feeling pretty pleased with myself when we pulled up to the first scenic overlook and both kids were impressed. 1,000 mom points to me. I also did not let either of my children climb over the retaining wall and fall into the gorge. Another 1,000 mom points.

Nature Center

One of our first stops was to the nature center. When we got there the parking lot was nearly empty, and we almost drove away thinking it was closed. I’m so glad we didn’t! There was a great area for the kids, including a cute little slide. But the best part was the helpful desk employee who told me all about Balloons over Letchworth happening that night. Sometimes the travel gods hand you an unexpected gift.

Lower Falls Area

Eventually, I managed to pry the kids away from the stuffed squirrels for some actual nature viewing. We headed to the lower falls and bridge, which is a short but stair intensive trail off the parking lot. Of course the trail was closed in the portion that would give you the best views of the falls. I was mildly disappointed but I figured there were other waterfalls in the park and it would be fine. On the plus side, the kids were in love with the waterfall and actually really appreciated the scenery. So there’s a mom win for the day.

The lower falls area is also home to an AMAZING playground. We passed it on the way down to the falls and I promised the kids that they could have some play time if they visited the falls with me. We hit the bathroom before the playground and Abby swore to me she didn’t need to go. SWORE. Refused to sit on the toilet. Can you guess who peed their pants about 4 minutes later?

Travel with kids is delightful sometimes.

Middle Falls

Here’s where it got real fun. HA. We drove on towards the middle falls, and of course I parked in the wrong lot. We hiked down a million stairs across a road and generally not in what I would have assumed was the path there. Only to notice the adjacent parking lot. That we would have seen if I had just driven one mile further down the road.

So we make it down near the falls, and there is small set of stairs leading to a great photo opp area. These beatiful, rustic stone steps were soaked from the overspray from the falls and very slippery. I made sure to point this out to the kids.

As I went flying down them.

I landed in a giant puddle in the middle of the stair, backpack still on, legs stuck under me in unnatural ways. For a brief second in my shock I though OMG I just broke my ankle and now my kids will be orphaned here. Dramatic I know, but travelling solo with kids does tend to make you feel more vulnerable.

So anyways. After the initial moment of shock passed the intense waves of pain hit. So I’m sitting there trying not to scream HOLY F* THAT F*ING HURTS and instead I calmly turned to the kids and said: “please sit down here next to me and don’t move, mommy can’t walk right now”. And they actually did.

So we sat there on those steps with people passing us awkwardly for like 10 minutes. And I tried to play it off like we were just enjoying the views… from our muddy step. Finally, I accepted it wasn’t going to require amputation and proceeded (dumbly) down the stairs to get my freaking photo.

As I was snapping that hard earned selfie Olivia stepped in a muddy hole and started to cry.

Middle Falls Letchworth State Park — This is really our finest hour

Olivia rallied for a quick dance party/posing session at the top of the stairs. Then we made the long, painful hike back up to the car. Because of course it was a million miles away and I was swelling up rapidly.

Balloons over Letchworth

We eventually hobbled back up to the car and drove out to the field they were going to launch the hot air balloons from. Honestly, I had no idea what was happening really, so I just made the kids some dinner out of the back of the van and hoped for the best.

And it was actually really amazing. I lost count but at least a dozen hot air balloons launched right in front of us. The piggie hot air balloon and the rainbow balloon were obvious favorites.