July 21 – Chimney Bluffs State Park

On Sunday we were just not feeling it. The weather was hot but nice. There were things we could have done but nothing that I felt we shouldn’t miss so we just had a rest day.

Yesterday we did the drive north and west to a campground near Canandaigua.

I don’t normally go to KOA campgrounds because they are expensive and always busy. They are usually a destination resort for people. They come here and spend the entire time in the campground using all the facilities. We just need a parking spot.

This one just happened to be in the location I needed.

There is a lot to do here. A large fishing pond, jumping pillow, pool, mini golf, a zipline, etc.

Even mid week it is quite full and they can really pack them in.

Today we had a morning thunderstorm to wait out before we headed north to the shores of Lake Ontario and Chimney Bluffs State Park.

The bluff is a large cliff face made of compacted earth and gravel that has been eroded into a set of very tall and thin spires. There is a trail along the top of the bluff that I had read was quite buggy. You can also just walk along the shoreline below, which is what we did.

There wasn’t much beach. The wind was quite strong so with the waves crashing in there was only a narrow section of dry gravel. We both got caught a few times and had wet socks above our waterproof hiking boots.

When we first went down from the parking lot the first thing you see if a cliff with huge blocks that have fallen down on to the beach.

We weren’t sure about going around but then we saw other people coming around from down the beach. It turned out that this was the only time that you were directly under a cliff. The rest of the time the slope was more gentle right next to us.

For a day that had started out very cloudy with the thunderstorm, the clear blue sky sure was pretty.

We always like to watch the waves crashing over the rocks.

So many interesting shapes.

This seagull kept gliding up and down the beach with no effort at all.

The crescent moon was out, middle right in the picture below.

We actually had to share the beach with a father and his daughters for a short while.

This little one looked like it was about to brave the strong winds.

There was lots of tangled debris to look at and unfortunately a lot of bits of plastic.

We went as far as this tree, that had fallen across the beach.

We could have gone a bit farther but the beach soon disappeared.

This one, from this angle, looked like an animal howling.

Heading back.

Jennie was in rock collecting heaven.

And back around the landslide to the car.

It was an hour drive each way but we think it was worth it.