Watkins Glen State Park

This was one of our favorite summer trips. The weather was beautiful to visit this site in the summer. I am not going to lie, climbing the steps at Watkins Glen State Park put this chunky girl through her paces. We wanted to get as far as we could and you think to yourself, “how bad can the steps be?”. Bad…even worse if you are out of shape like me. Haha! You can see how tired I was from my very shaky photos. I promise I took some good ones!

Before I get to the park, I wanted to give a shout out to the hotel we booked. I wasn’t sure where to go or what to do since it was our first time in the area and I couldn’t find a lot of information. I also didn’t want to break the bank with a place to stay either. After reading a bunch of reviews on TripAdvisor, I decided to book Watkins Glen Harbor Hotel. What a great decision it was and the hotel was so beautiful. It is right on Seneca Lake which means my husband who loves to fish was in heaven. He was so excited about the view. Here are a few photos of the waterfront area…seriously, look at the views. The views alone would sell you on this hotel, but the rooms were clean with room service (always a favorite of the boys)!

We checked in, put our luggage away and decided to go into the adorable town to get a bite to eat. We ate at the Rooster Fish Brewing and the food was excellent. They also did a great job of accommodating the boys which is always nice for a tired mom and dad!

After eating, we hung around the hotel, walked along the rock jetty, ate some dinner at the hotel and decided to go to bed a bit early so the boys were rested for the climb the next day. Did I mention the boys love room service?? The room was perfect with two beds and a nice table area for the boys to eat at. In the morning, the hallways had a beverage cart set up with hot water for tea, coffee and hot chocolate. My guys were even more excited when they saw that!

I was so excited to start the climb and see the waterfalls that I woke up early ready to go. Here are pictures of our climb and shows why you MUST visit this place!

We did have a rule that the boys were not allowed to run ahead of us and on steps, around turns, they had to hold our hands. We walked on the outside with them on the inside so in case they slipped, we would be there to help them.

As I said, this climb was hard for me with all the steps, but it was so beautiful that we just stopped frequently to catch our breath, take photos, let the boys explore. It was a great family vacation and we highly recommend it. We ended up stopping at the Ben and Jerry’s in the town to get ice cream to reward ourselves. They give out samples of their flavors in addition to the scoop or two we each got! Hope you visit Watkins Glen State Park and love it as much as we did!