The Iroquois’ name for it means “Canoe Landing.” While early settlers dubbed it “the Crooked Lake” because of its unique “Y” shape, and its natural beauty quickly earned it the nickname “Lady of the Lakes.” Whatever you call it, the clear, glacial waters of Keuka Lake makes it the most unique lake of all the Finger Lakes in New York.
Originally, Keuka’s two branches of this “Y” lake were one. Over time, glaciers carved out a major tributary to the main river, transforming it into what is now the East branch of the lake. This glacial action also created a reverse flow of drainage, South-to-North. To this day, Keuka Lake is the only lake in the country, and one of few in the world, that flows both North and South! Keuka Lake is 19.6 miles long, 1.9 miles wide, and reaches a maximum depth of 183 feet. The third largest Finger Lake, it is surrounded by the communities of Hammondsport, Branchport, and Penn Yan. Named “the world’s most beautiful wine region,” by readers of Budget Travel magazine, there are many outstanding, world-class Finger Lakes wineries located in the hills along Keuka Lake.
Sunrise over Keuka Lake, as a Great-blue Heron soars past us.
We spent a relaxing week on the east bluff of the lake a couple weeks ago-exploring the area, fishing, boating, and of course, visiting a few of the dozens of local wineries (and supporting their tasty operations). Visiting the Finger Lakes region in mid-June can be hit or miss with the weather, with warm days, cool nights and rain at any time. But in spite of the unpredictable weather, we enjoyed catching many fish, tubing, hiking at Watkin’s Glen State Park and sampling a few of the local reds and whites.
A Mayfly rests on a lakeside plant and a mama Wood Duck calls in her ducklings
Every day we fished a little. Mostly, we cast our lines from the dock, and we caught a lot of fish-one of the great things about the house, and Keuka Lake. The coolest thing is that the lake has many different fish species. Throughout the week, we caught Smallmouth Bass, Largemouth Bass, Yellow Perch, Chain Pickerel, Rock Bass, Bluegill and Pumpkinseed Sunfish. Several of them were good size fish!
Tyler with a nice Rock Bass, Darby shows of her big Pumpkinseed and Yoni holds his big Smallmouth Bass-great fishing!
The fishing was going pretty good until Tyler and I tried fishing from one of the peddle boats the lake house provides. Have you ever tried one of these challenging little watercraft? You peddle like crazy until your legs almost fall off, and they steer like a 100’ barge! I get the “hands free” concept, but it just doesn’t work. It didn’t help that it took us 10 minutes to figure out the rudder on our little vessel was broke, so we were going in circles as we peddled furiously to try and straighten it out.
But the harder we peddled, the faster we spun, until Tyler figured out that if only one of us peddled, the boat would only zig-zag, instead of “orbiting” in the water. I was fine with that (him peddling) since my legs felt like rubber after our 8th lap. It was like an episode of Gilligan’s Island, as we tried to guide our SS Minnow to some nearby docks to fish. After 30 minutes of peddling, we managed to travel about 100’ from where we launched. The last straw was when we lost our favorite lure 20’ feet above us in an overhanging tree, and then my rod tip broke off as I tried pulling it down. It was time to limp back to our own dock, defeated by the hopeless peddle boat, and fishless to boot! It was time for a short road trip.
We took a break from fishing to visit Watkins Glen State Park. Although we’ve been here a few times in the past, it’s still one of our favorite destinations. The park sits in the town of Watkin’s Glen, at the southern end of Seneca Lake, largest (38 miles long) of the Finger Lakes. Its natural beauty comes from the 2-mile gorge that Glen Creek has carved out of the landscape over thousands of years.
The main Gorge Trail takes you past 200’ towering cliffs covered in lush ferns and overhanging trees. As you venture upward, you’ll be sprayed by the wet, cool mist of 19 waterfalls that you walk by, and behind. The trail brings you to natural features such as Couch’s Staircase, Cavern Cascade, The Narrows, Glen Cathedral and Rainbow Falls. Each step gives you a different angle to view, and photograph, the cascading stream, as the glen seems to invite you to explore every rock, water droplet and singing bird it has to offer. It’s a very cool, 2-mile walk through one of nature’s wonders, and still one of our favorites!
As our tranquil week came to a close, we couldn’t leave without taking a few hours to enjoy what the region has increasingly being renowned for-dozens of world class wineries. Take a short drive around Keuka Lake and the first thing you’ll notice are the acres and acres of rolling hills covered in vineyards. Each have their specialties and you could spend several days visiting (and sampling) loads of them. One of our favorites was Heron Hill Winery. Maybe it was their name or their facility, maybe it was their award-winning wines, or maybe it was just because I liked the names of a few of their wines, including the Game Bird Series (Ring-necked Pheasant, Wild Turkey and Wood Duck). The bonus was they also offered a few other “non-grape” beverages to sample/sell, such as their apple pie moonshine! No matter what your flavor, the wineries around Keuka Lake are worth discovering!
The Finger Lakes region of central New York is a great outdoors destination. Along with the many beautiful lakes to enjoy, there are several scenic parks to explore, abundant restaurants to sample, and enough wineries to visit to satisfy your taste for an entire season! And right in the heart of the area is our favorite, Keuka Lake, the “Crooked Lake.” We already miss watching the sunrise each morning over Keuka’s rippling waters, enjoying our coffee dockside waiting for that next fish to bite!
