Anyone been to watkins glen?

Active Poster Joined: Jun 15 2011 Posts: 51

Has anyone been to watkins glen? I was planning on going tomorrow (yeah I know I'm a bit late on this) on my way to Niagara falls.
I was wondering how much time you need to spend there? and is it a difficult trail I have a little kid who isnt a great walker at all, so I was wondering if it's hard shleppy or fun & you don't realize the long walk. Is it interesting for kids?
They did say chance of showers tom so Im not sure if it'll work out but I wanted to know basically if it's har dfor little kid and how long trail takes. I'll ck in later hope I get a response.

Posted: Sun, Aug 21 2011, 4:01 am Post subject: re: Anyone been to watkins glen?

Was there when I was a kid for the car races. All I remember was lots of drunk people, beer cans everywhere, & those pull of can tops that could cut your foot to ribbons if you stepped on them. & pretty sure I was wearing flip-flops. Probably about 1974 or so.

Yes, it was lots of fun as a little kid, but I'm guessing you are not going for the stock car races. Sorry. Not so helpful for you.

Wait-- I'm sure we were camping, & I vaguely remember a picnic table, so I'll add, lots of mosquitoes. (Yes, I am a BT. How did you guess?)

Diamond Member Joined: Aug 07 2006 Posts: 2556

I've been there twice, not recently so I can't tell you exactly how long the trail is, but my parents took me there as a young child with no problems.

I was there in 2004. There were picnic tables. I thought there was more than one hiking trail but not sure. At the bottom there's a small waterfall and there were a lot of steps. I seem to recall buses that could take you back to the parking lot at the top after you had hiked down.
_________________
Don't worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you

We went with a 3 yo and 1 yo. (give or take a few months, I don't exactly remember). It was nice, very pretty and relaxing/enjoyable. The hike itself isn't very difficult and taxing but it can get long for little ones. There were flat parts and there were also many stairs. Our kids were mostly fine although at a point they did get a bit crabby and we ended up carrying them a bit. All in all, we really enjoyed it and even with the small cranky episode we did not leave regretting our experience. We thoroughly enjoyed (an hope that you do too, if you end up going).