Vaughan to Letchworth State Park: the Grand Canyon of the East by chauffeured car

Letchworth, the gorge

Letchworth is the park New York State calls the Grand Canyon of the East: the Genesee River has cut a gorge seventeen miles long and up to a hundred and eighty metres deep through the Portage escarpment, with three waterfalls in a mile at the gorge's head — the Upper Falls under a railway bridge, the Middle Falls in front of the Glen Iris Inn, the Lower Falls down a staircase — and a park road that runs the west rim's length from Portageville to Mount Morris with a dozen overlooks. It has been voted the country's best state park, it is three and a half hours from Vaughan, and it is the day that a chauffeured family sees whole because the SUV stops at every overlook and nobody is watching the road. The park's page has the entrances and the trails; the border guide has the Lewiston bridge.

The road, and the entrances

From Woodbridge the QEW, the Lewiston–Queenston Bridge and I-90 east to exit 46, then I-390 south through the Genesee valley's farms to the Mount Morris entrance at the gorge's north end, or on to Castile and the Portageville entrance at the falls' end — three and two-thirds hours by the estimate and four with the booth. The chauffeur enters at Mount Morris and drives the park road south, so the gorge deepens and the falls come last, at the day's best light.

The park road, north to south

Mount Morris dam's overlook first — the flood-control dam of 1952 across the gorge's mouth, with the visitor centre's story of the 1972 flood it held; then the Hogsback, the Great Bend and Archery Field overlooks where the gorge is deepest and the river a green line far below; Wolf Creek's cascade beside the road; Inspiration Point, where the Middle and Upper Falls appear together down the gorge with the railway bridge above them — the park's photograph; the Lower Falls' parking and the staircase of a hundred and twenty-seven steps to the footbridge across the river at the falls' foot; the Glen Iris Inn on the rim above the Middle Falls; and the Upper Falls with the Portage bridge — the new steel arch of 2017 that replaced the 1875 iron trestle — carrying the freight trains across the top of the seventy-foot drop. Twenty-five kilometres and a dozen stops, two and a half hours with the SUV at each.

The falls, on foot

The Gorge Trail runs the rim from the Lower Falls to the Upper Falls — seven kilometres with the three falls, the Inspiration Point stair and the inn's lawn on it — and a family with hiking shoes walks it one way with the chauffeur collecting at the far end; a family with young children does the Middle Falls from the inn's lawn, the Upper Falls' path under the bridge, and the Lower Falls' stairs if the legs allow. The falls are lit at night in summer from the Middle Falls' rim, the evening hour of the overnight.

The Glen Iris Inn

William Pryor Letchworth's 1859 estate house on the rim above the Middle Falls is the park's inn — the dining room with the falls below the windows, the rooms upstairs, the Pinewood Lodge and the cottages for families — and the overnight version of the trip sleeps here with the falls' sound through the window and the morning's mist in the gorge; the inn's site has the rooms, which for October weekends book in the spring, and the travel desk holds them. Dinner on the inn's porch with the falls lit is the evening the parents remember.

The balloons, and the autumn

Balloons Over Letchworth flies hot-air balloons from the Middle Falls' lawn at dawn and dusk from May to October — the gorge from above, the falls under the basket — and a family's morning flight is the trip's extravagance, booked weeks ahead through the operator's site. The autumn colour peaks in the second and third weeks of October, when the gorge's maples and oaks turn against the grey rock and the park's roads fill; a chauffeured family arrives at nine, before the lots at Inspiration Point and the Lower Falls fill, and the SUV's stops are the reason the family sees it rather than queues for it.

The day, in shape

From Woodbridge at 7:30: the Lewiston bridge at 9:10, I-390 south, the Mount Morris entrance at 11:20, the dam's overlook, the Great Bend and Archery Field, Inspiration Point at 12:30, lunch at the Glen Iris Inn's dining room at one, the Middle and Upper Falls and the Portage bridge at 2:15, the Lower Falls' stairs at 3:15, the Castile exit at four, I-390 and the Thruway, the Lewiston bridge at 6:15 with the under-24-hour declaration of nothing, Woodbridge by 8. Twelve and a half hours of the SUV on daily hire, one number in the booking engine.

What the chauffeur replaces

Three and a half hours each way with the gorge as the reward; the park road's dozen overlooks, which a driving parent sees from the lot and a chauffeured family sees from the window; the October lots, which the chauffeur manages while the family walks; and the Thruway home in the dark with the children asleep. For a couple the SUV is the treat of a day without the wheel; for a family of five or two families in a Sprinter it is one fare for the gorge.

Seasons

October for the colour and the crowds; May and June for the falls at full flow and the balloons' first flights; summer for the Lower Falls' swimming pool, the trails and the lit falls; winter for the gorge under snow and the inn closed — the park is open, the road is ploughed to the overlooks, and a chauffeured winter day is the emptiest the gorge gets, on winter tires.

Pairing it

Letchworth pairs with Rochester forty minutes north for the Strong museum weekend, with the Finger Lakes an hour east for the wine afternoon, with Darien Lake forty minutes northwest for a coaster day, and with Buffalo for the wings on the way home.

The overnight, in order

A family of four from Maple on an October Saturday: the SUV at 8, the Lewiston bridge at 9:40, the Mount Morris entrance at noon and the park road's overlooks through the afternoon with the colour at its peak, Inspiration Point at 2:30, the Glen Iris Inn's check-in at four, the Gorge Trail's mile to the Upper Falls and back before dinner, the dining room at seven with the Middle Falls lit below the window; Sunday's mist in the gorge at breakfast, the Lower Falls' stairs at ten, the Castile exit at noon, a Letchworth-to-Buffalo hour for wings, the Peace Bridge at 3:30 with the 24-hour CAD 200 exemption on the inn's shop, Maple by 5:30. One night, the SUV as a return, the travel desk holding the inn's October room from April.

The east side, and the Mount Morris dam's tour

The park's east rim — reached by the Parade Grounds entrance from Route 436 — has the Highbanks camping area, the Hogsback overlook from the other side and the quiet trails that the west rim's crowds do not reach; the Mount Morris dam's visitor centre runs tours onto the dam's crest in summer, the gorge's mouth two hundred feet below, and the Army Corps of Engineers' page has the tour's days. A family that has done the west rim's day does the east on the overnight's Sunday.

Costs, plainly

The Letchworth day is one daily hire in the booking engine, the overnight a return with the inn as the family's own bill; the park's entrance fee is the chauffeur's and inside the fare. Against it are three and a half hours each way with a dozen overlooks that a driving parent sees from the lot, the October lots and the Thruway home in the dark; a couple does the day in a car, and a family of five books the SUV for the window seats and two families book the Sprinter for one fare.

The Genesee Arch Bridge and the trains

The Portage bridge over the Upper Falls — the Genesee Arch Bridge, opened in 2017 to replace the 1875 iron trestle that had carried trains across the gorge for a hundred and forty years — carries Norfolk Southern's freight trains several times a day, and a family that waits at the Upper Falls' overlook with a child who loves trains sees one cross the top of the falls; the old trestle's stone piers still stand beside it. The Genesee Valley Greenway's trail runs the old canal and railway bed along the gorge's edge for the family's bicycle hour, and the state parks' page has the trailheads.

The Humphrey Nature Center and the Seneca story

The park's nature centre near the Trailside Lodge has the gorge's geology and the Seneca history — Mary Jemison, the "White Woman of the Genesee," whose grave and cabin stand on the Council Grounds above the Middle Falls, and the Seneca council house that William Pryor Letchworth moved there — and the Grade 7 student's hour before the falls; the Letchworth Museum beside the Council Grounds has the estate's story. The nature centre's programmes run on summer weekends and the park's page lists them.

The winter version

The park road is ploughed to the main overlooks in winter and the Glen Iris is closed, which makes a January Saturday the emptiest the gorge gets: the falls half-frozen with the spray built into ice on the rocks, the Portage bridge's trains steaming, the overlooks without another car — a chauffeured SUV day on winter tires from Vaughan with the Thruway's lake-effect snow the chauffeur's watch and Buffalo's wings as the warm stop home.

Booking it

Book a daily hire from your Vaughan address for the day or a return with the inn's night; tell us the balloon, the trail, the seats and every passenger's citizenship for the bridge, and the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before with the park's entrance chosen.

Book the Letchworth day