New York's Taughannock Falls is impressive year-round.

Byline: Bob Downing

TRUMANSBURG, N.Y.: Taughannock Falls is awesome.

I had expected to be impressed by the highest waterfalls east of the Mississippi River with a vertical drop of 215 feet. But I came away really impressed.

Water was low on my visit but what I saw was a still-stunning silvery ribbon of water as Taughannock Creek tumbled over a sheer cliff of sandstone atop shale and went airborne.

It dropped into an azure pool at the base of the cliff in the dramatically deep gorge near the west shore of Cayuga Lake and about eight miles north of Ithaca.

The falls are set in an impressive giant amphitheater of rock with steep …