Tompkins County

The county in brief

A traveler's read on Tompkins County

Cornell Botanic Gardens at Cornell University span 4,300 acres on the Tompkins County hillside — the largest Ivy League botanical-garden footprint, and the only one with a dedicated mycorrhizal research facility studying plant-fungal interaction in a permanent outdoor field-lab setting. The Mundy Wildflower Garden and the F.R. Newman Arboretum anchor the campus-adjacent units; the Robison York State Herb Garden holds the largest US public-accessible collection of medicinal-plant accessions. Tompkins County covers 476 sq mi at the southern tip of Cayuga Lake — at 38 miles the longest of the Finger Lakes and the second-deepest (435 ft at the deepest point, exceeded only by Seneca Lake to the west). Ithaca (population 32,108, the county seat) sits at the lake's south end inside the gorge-and-waterfall topography that gives the region its nickname 'Gorges' (T-shirts notwithstanding, the gorges are formed by post-glacial creeks downcutting through Devonian shale).

The Finger Lakes AVA wine region — 90+ bonded wineries wrapping Tompkins, Seneca, and Yates counties — is the largest cool-climate Riesling production zone in North America per NY Farm Bureau statistics, with a microclimate moderated by the deep lake-water thermal mass that delays spring budbreak and extends fall hang-time by 2-3 weeks relative to inland New York. Robert H. Treman State Park inside Tompkins County holds Lucifer Falls (115 ft, the tallest waterfall in any state park east of the Mississippi per NY State Parks records) and the canonical Enfield Glen gorge swimming hole; the campground accepts rigs to 35 ft with electric hookups, 72 sites on the ReserveAmerica New York portal. Buttermilk Falls SP across town has a 165-ft cascade and the alternative 60-site RV-friendly loop. Stewart Park on Cayuga Lake offers day-use boat-launch access; overnight RV staging is not permitted in any Ithaca city park per municipal code. Allan H. Treman State Marine Park at Cayuga Lake's south basin is the largest inland marina in New York State.