We visited Watkins Glen as part of Big Trip #5 in August 2026. 

So we didn’t love Ithaca. Brainstorming other nearby options that would give us similar access to gorges and state parks as we had in Ithaca, but based in a quirkier and more charming town, we landed on Watkins Glen, a half hour west on Seneca Lake.

And we loved it there! Watkins Glen has charm and quirk galore, and is small enough to be manageable but big enough to have fun bars and restaurants. We were ideally based to explore local parks and breweries near Seneca Lake, and from our campground we could walk to the beach or into town.

Rickett’s Glen, Watkins Glen… What’s the difference between a glen and a gorge, you ask? A glen is a narrow, secluded valley, usually deep in the mountains and often with a stream or river running through it. A gorge is a very deep crevice between two mountains or hills, formed by rivers running through and eroding rock over a very long period of time. But, in the Finger Lakes, per Wikipedia: “glen” refers most frequently to a narrow gorge. Clear as mud.

I have one more local nature oddity to report: Seneca Guns, mysterious booms heard a various places around Seneca Lake. We could hear them from one of our brewery stops, perched way up the hill overlooking the lake. The theory is that the booms are caused by bubbles of gas escaping through layers of sandstone beneath the lake, then exploding up to the surface. But shouldn’t someone have seen a big bubble exploding on the surface to confirm it by now? Strange. Pretty neat to hear the guns though.

Campground

We camped at Clute Memorial Park, part of a huge complex on Seneca Lake, with the campground, a community center, playground, beach, boat launch, and a dog swimming area! Our site had full hookups and easy Starlink access… and yes, we could walk across the street to the dog beach, or down the road a few blocks into town! We loved it there.

Especially Tilly! She had a dog beach across the street! We took her each day, but the water was too shallow to actually swim, and no doggy friends joined her. It was still a great way to burn off some puppy energy that persisted even after a day of hiking and exploring.

Another thing I loved about this campground, which surprised me: the horn at the nearby Cargill plant tooted four times a day, Flintstones-style, at 7am, noon, 12:30, and 3pm, to signal traditional shift changes. I guess if I were trying to sleep in I wouldn’t appreciate it, but during my three-day visit I got a kick out of each honk.

Hiking

Watkins Glen State Park is the most famous of the Finger Lakes state parks, and the Gorge Trail is the reason why, passing 19 waterfalls on an impressively engineered path through the narrow gorge. You can do an out-and-back on the Gorge Trail for just over two miles, or make it a loop with the upper Rim Trail for 4.4 miles, which is what we did.

Dogs are not allowed on the Gorge Trail, which makes sense when you see the narrow stairs and passageways. I thought I’d be annoyed by stonework mucking up the beautiful nature, but it was so thoughtfully constructed to blend in that I appreciated it.

From the top of the gorge, we could hear car noise from the racetrack. In addition to the famous gorge, Watkins Glen is also known for an international raceway and the weekend we visited was an amateur endurance race, with two days of practice laps before. This was another surprise for me: you’d think racetrack noise in the otherwise peaceful forest would be awful, but it was kind of amusing.

We also hiked a loop on the Finger Lakes Trail in a wildlife management area with Tilly. It was a bit overgrown and muddy in spots, but empty and peaceful and just what Tilly ordered. The FLT is a 580-mile trail running from the PA border up into the Catskills, and this section was a 17-minute drive from the campground.

Exploring

Watkins Glen has a walkable downtown with shops, restaurants, two breweries, a marina, and on-theme finish flag-patterned crosswalks and race cars on the street signs. It’s fantastic. I got to sit in a race car!

To really feel the race car vibe of Watkins Glen, you have to check out the racetrack if there’s an event. The track was built in 1957 and has been a fan-favorite NASCAR venue for many years. We met a gentleman in town who works logistics for the racetrack, and he said there’s something going on there most weekends, from big-time professional races, to amateurs racing or paying to run laps for fun, to buses taking old folks for a spin around the track, to festivals and concerts and non-car events. We watched about 30 minutes of the amateur endurance race and cheered for “our” car–the one that I sat in!

For a more traditional cultural outing, you can drive 30 minutes to Corning and visit the Corning Museum of Glass. It’s 1/3 art gallery, 1/3 history museum, and 1/3 science museum. Maybe the most exciting thing to us was seeing a glass sculpture from one of our favorite Asheville artists!

On the way to our next campground, we stopped along the way in Hammondsport, also 30 minutes from Watkins Glen, a village on the shore of Keuka Lake. The tiny town has been named one of the best small lake towns in America, so we couldn’t resist. We were able to park the Airstream easily at Champlin Beach and walk through a big chili festival and around town and then continue on our way.

Eating and drinking

I’ll do the food talk and J will do the drink. We did a brewery tour as one might tour vineyards, but obviously there are so many vineyards in the area if that’s more your speed.

Food

We ate lots of food in Watkins Glen!

Seneca Lodge has been a Watkins Glen landmark since 1948. The rustic lodge has a cozy bar room where we ate a surprisingly sophisticated dinner (I had a creative and very delicious veggie burger) and got some good intel from friendly locals.

Lucky Hare is a brewery on the Watkins Glen waterfront with a dog-friendly patio. J might have things to say about the beer; all I can say is I liked my shrimp burger and it was fun to dine next to a marina.

Two Goats is also a brewery, a bit north of town with Seneca Lake views. J will talk about the beer, but they’re also known for their signature roast beef sandwich on a homemade onion bun. J felt he had to sample it, and reports that it was delicious. We were at Two Goats when we heard the repeated booms from the Seneca Guns.

Scale House is another brewery north of town overlooking the lake, and they are said to have the best pizza in the area. We got a meatball pizza for the gentleman and a broccoli and spinach pizza for the weirdo and were both very happy.

Scuteri’s Cannoli Connection: The closest food establishment (not counting Walmart) to our campground was a cannoli bakery! It was kismet. Tilly and I walked over and gawked at the array of treats, but stuck with a regular cannoli. So delicious!

Tobey’s Donuts: Obviously we had to compare a local cannoli with a local donut! We tried a couple and our favorite was the glaze sour cream, so good. My notes for both the cannoli and the donuts just say “YUMMMMM”

Other food recommendations from the Upstate Brewing bartender:

• Thai Elephants
• Harbor Hotel for martinis 
• Maria’s (too old-school to have a website) is a locals-favorite, cash-only dive bar, known for chicken wings

Beer

Our first stop in town was Upstate Brewing Company FLX, the local outpost of the large Elmira based brewery. Upstate has wide distribution–we’ve seen their beers back home in Virginia and have never really taken to them. For J, this impression held as he didn’t love any of their IPAs, but L was fond of the two sours she tried. We both loved the awesome, helpful bartender, however, and the nice patio. Upstate is dog-friendly, inside and out. 

Later that evening, we had dinner at Seneca Lodge, which actually brews four of their own beers. They didn’t have anything for L, but J enjoyed their IPA, perhaps in part due to the awesome scene.

The third brewery in town, Lucky Hare, was more of a restaurant for us than a brewery; the beer, like the food, isn’t worth mentioning; just the nice water views. [L: I stand by the shrimp burger]

Aside from the three breweries in town, there were three more intermingled with the wineries up the east coast of Seneca Lake. Grist Iron Brewing was our favorite of the bunch and our favorite brewery in the Watkins Glen area. We went there on night two and then came back on night three.

Grist Iron is a massive place with an inn and a disk golf course overlooking the lake. There are multiple large seating areas, both inside and out, and Tilly was welcome throughout. Their large beer list included a berry and a pineapple coconut sour for L and three hazy IPAs for J, two of which were sessionable.

Two Goats Brewing is a bit further up the road from Grist Iron. It probably has the best view of the bunch and the tasty roast beef sammie, but the beers weren’t our favorite. They don’t make a sour for L, and J didn’t love the IPA. The patio and live music were quite nice and Tilly was also welcome inside their somewhat cramped tasting room.  

Scale House Brewery is just north of Two Goats. We were told by the nice Upstate bartender and by a patron at Seneca Lodge that their pizza was fabulous so we went for dinner on night three. Scale House has a mid-sized restaurant / tasting room (not dog friendly) and then tables spread across their massive field sloping toward the lake. The band playing beach music was quite good and there were people and dogs everywhere. They sell cans of beer from a little stand outside, or if you want a draft beer in a glass, like J, you can go inside to the bar. Their beers were fine, but didn’t stand out as much as the pizza.

Finally, Solera Tap House isn’t a brewery, but carries local beers. It’s very dog-welcoming and wasn’t as crowded as the others, likely because it lacks lake views.

Holy moly that’s a lot of words. We loved Watkins Glen, can you tell? But we had to press on toward Canada; next stop, Letchworth State Park in western New York.