Buttermilk Falls - Tioga County

[spec]

I've not seen pictures of this falls anywhere on the net. It's a roadside falls, kinda. It sits back from the road about 25 feet, and there's a short trail that leads from the road to a clearing on the left side of the plunge pool. There are posted signs around the edge of the clearing, but no landowner information is filled in. I climbed this falls on a previous visit, before seeing the signs (my bad), and it is a fun and fairly easy climb due to the "steps" in the rock face. The falls goes around a corner at the top, and there are more drops than you can see in this picture. I've seen this listed as being 55 feet high, but if you include the upper drops it's closer to 70 or 75 feet. I would certainly consider those drops part of this falls, as there really is no "separation" between them. On my previous climb, I counted 6 more minor falls (5-10 feet) along the creek above this, going back as far as 1/2mi from the road.

I will not give any location information, due to the posted signs, but I will say that it is labeled clearly on NYS/USGS topo maps. Using the "Contours" option on Tioga County's GIS website, I confirmed my estimate of 75 feet for the height. Interestingly enough, the plot of land on which the falls resides does not have a tax parcel ID number listed on the GIS site like the surrounding parcels do. I plan to visit the Tioga County Hall of Records or the Historical Society to see if I can get more information on the history of the land and who owns it, then contacting the landowner to see what their stance on hiking/climbing is.

[img2]http://www.demonic.net/~spec/falls/butt ... /falls.jpg[/img2]

[Matt]

excellent photos and equally good information. thanks for sharing!

[frozentime]

Is this the one that is in Owego?

[spec]

Yup

[frozentime]

i have never been there, but i did see it on www.trails.com

[spec]

I live in Endicott, so it's literally a hop, skip, and a jump away from me. I've lived here all my life, and I never knew it was there. Saw it listed here and a couple other places, but found no pictures or anything. I located it on a USGS topo map, and then went there a couple weeks later.

[spec]

Some icy and cold pics of this falls. The water was flowing behind the ice, which was quite thick in some places.

[img2]http://i820.photobucket.com/albums/zz12 ... 300001.jpg[/img2]
[img2]http://i820.photobucket.com/albums/zz12 ... 300002.jpg[/img2]
[img2]http://i820.photobucket.com/albums/zz12 ... 300003.jpg[/img2]

[Bill_K]

Nice. I like the contrast of all that ice on the falls and the lack of snow in the areas around it.