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Emilie Jonas Falls

Emilie Jonas Falls features a tiered 65-foot fan and 6-foot cascade waterfall at the Emilie Jonas Nature Preserve in Lansing, New York.

Accessing Emilie Jonas Falls requires a difficult and steep hike down to and along Gulf Creek. The trail is ever-shifting because of natural erosion and loose stones, and the passage to the waterfall can be hard to follow or impossible to get to because of high water.

The nature preserve is named after Emilie Jonas, born in 1877 in Colfax County, Nebraska to recent immigrants from Czechoslovakia. Emily met Tomas Jonas, the son of homesteaders who were part of the Czech settlement in Clarkson, and emigrated to Lansing, where they farmed along Goodwin’s Mill Creek (today’s Gulf Creek).

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Emilie Jonas Falls

Emilie Jonas Falls features a tiered 65-foot fan and 6-foot cascade waterfall.

The Emilie Jonas Falls Trail is a short .4-mile in-and-out hike from the trailhead along East Shore Circle in Lansing. The trail down to Gulf Creek is difficult as it is steep and partly eroded but it becomes a little easier as the path then follows the south bank of the stream to the base of the Emilie Jonas Falls. It can be a little hard to follow the trail markers, especially where there has been erosion along the trail.

  • The trails are on private land but permission has been granted by three separate landowners thanks to the work of Lansing Pathways, a volunteer Citizen Committee that encourages the development and maintenance of paths and trails in the township.

From NY Route 13 in Ithaca, follow NY Route 34 north for 4½ miles. Turn left onto East Shore Circle. A gravel pull-off parking area for two cars is along the north side of the road.

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Comments:

  • Jack Young

    November 30, 2021

    Its actually 98 feet from the top of the main falls to the top of the lower falls, and that one is 10′ more top to bottom. We had this surveyed recently. It’s a taller falls than this website’s estimate!

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