Ithaca with a dog (and friends) – Treman Park, Watkins Glen, FingerLakes Cider House, Ithaca farmers market

This is our sweet pup Millie’s first trip to Ithaca and we assumed it was a dog friendly place. Generally it has been…with some surprises. No dogs allowed inside The Ithaca Farmers Market’s open air pavilion, although that didn’t deter the occasional Ithaca iconoclast. I get that it can get too crowded. And dogs can hang out outside the pavilion, for what that’s worth. Still, really?

At our favorite gorge-ous park, Treman, no problem bringing a dog although it can get a little tricky navigating the steps and narrow stone ledges overlooking the deep gorge and waterfalls with a four-legged friend (on a leash, of course.) We did our usual trick and parked one car at lower Treman and drove up to upper Treman and parked the second car, then hiked one way, the easy way, down from upper to lower.

The very popular Watkins Glen Park was packed with visitors (far more than our little secret, Treman) and we learned from the ranger at the entrance booth that dogs can’t go on the gorge trail…only the rim trail high above the gorge in the woods, which was disappointing but actually wise since the gorge trail is so narrow and busy. Even on a Tuesday midday in late September, there were many visitors including many foreign tourists. A nice Israeli family from Tel Aviv lavished Millie with petting.

On to Finger Lakes Cider House, near Trumansburg, with its spectacular on-high views of Cayuga Lake. No dogs allowed inside the rustic-chic bar-restaurant-shop or on the deck but no problem having dogs in the huge open air tent full of picnic tables (perfect during a rain storm, we discovered) next to a huge field of u pick’em dahlias and zinnias. We duly enjoyed our flights of cider, grilled cheese, homemade tomato soup, garlic cumin black beans and crunchy cornbread.