Watkins Glen State Park Warnings and Dangers

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Walking the trail gorge early in the morning is delightful to the senses. The sights, the sounds, the smells of fall. And then,,,,we heard a great big cracking sound, turned toward the sound, and saw a layer of shale give way and fall, ka-pow! to the ground. It was quite startling! It happened on the other side of the gorge, where there isn't a walking trail.
Yikes! What if that had been the layer of shale here right atop my head I thought, looking worriedly above my head. Fortunately, I could reassure myself (a little) that this would not happen to us. I had read a sign back at the beginning of the trail that there are park rangers who go about poking at loose spots of shale to make them fall in a careful nobody-in-the-line-of-fall way, before the park opens. Still.....

Most of the gorge trail is made of rock. Lots of places are damp or strewn with puddles due to the spray of the falls, or the dripping and seeping of water down the gorge walls. Wear proper shoes and keep in mind wet rock + wet leaves= double the slipping hazard.