Buttermilk Falls State Park

The name comes from the water itself — a 19th-century observer described Buttermilk Creek pouring over its rocks in "thick, frothy foam," and the description stuck. Robert and Laura Treman donated the original 164 acres to New York State in 1924; the park has grown to 811 acres since. Ten waterfalls run the length of the gorge, with Buttermilk Falls as the centerpiece, and the Gorge Trail drops roughly 600 feet alongside Buttermilk Creek. The rock beneath it all is Devonian shale and sandstone, still eroding the same way it has since the glaciers pulled back.