Since arriving in Ithaca last year, I’ve gone on a few very nice hikes through local gorges such as Treman State Park and Buttermilk Falls, but I did not even realize that there was such a great hiking trail on campus. Last Saturday morning, I was fortunate to join Rose House Fellow Todd Bittner on a hiking tour of Cascadilla Gorge where he taught me and several other students about the formation and preservation of the gorge. Mr. Bittner started the tour by showing us a picture of the top of the gorge from over 100 years ago and asked us to compare the picture to what we currently saw today. Since 1900, there have been significant changes such as the trajectory of the waterfall, and the creation of sidewalks due to new technology such as cars. Cornell has also added safety nets, which is very important for gorge safety.

Todd additionally taught us about how parts of the gorge are made up of different kings of rocks, resulting in interesting patterns along the sediment walls due to erosion and natural geographic shifts, collisions, and erosion. I thought the most important part of the tour was when Todd talked about the preservation of the gorge’s trail and how the school spent $2.8 million to make the trail safer and more structurally sound without changing its authentic appearance. Exploring Cascadilla Gorge has encouraged me to explore other gorges in the area and consider how precious nature can be.