Five lakes. Five generations. One region's unbroken fight t to the American promise. In 1687, the French burned the largest Seneca town in the Northeast to the ground. In 1794, the new American republic returned to a table in Canandaigua and signed a treaty with the Haudenosaunee that the US government formally acknowledges as still in force today. In 1788, a genderless religious prophet led 260 followers to the Keuka Outlet and built the first organized non-Indigenous community in western New York. In 1848, five women drafted "all men and women are created equal" on a mahogany parlor table in Waterloo and took it six miles east to argue about it in a chapel. And in Auburn, a few years later, the most consequential conductor on the Underground Railroad came home and bought a house three blocks from where she is now buried.
This route does not tour the Finger Lakes. It follows the ideas, moving west to east across five lakes in the order those ideas arrived: sovereignty first, then settlement, then abolition and suffrage.
How This Trip Works
Three days, five lakes, just over 150 miles of driving. The route runs west to east without backtracking, following the geographic spine of the Finger Lakes in the order the lakes appear on the map: Canandaigua, then Keuka, then Seneca, then Cayuga, then Owasco. Day 1 covers the westernmost lakes and ends in the Keuka corridor. Day 2 moves through the Seneca watershed and ends in Geneva. Day 3 is the longest: Seneca Falls to the Cayuga east shore and into Auburn, where the itinerary closes at Fort Hill Cemetery.
Getting here: From New York City, about 5.5 hours via the New York State Thruway to exit 43 (Victor/Canandaigua). From Rochester, 30 minutes east. From Buffalo, 1 hour. From Syracuse, 45 minutes west. A car is required for the full route.
Best season: May through October for full site access. November 11 is Treaty Day in Canandaigua; if your travel dates are flexible, the annual ceremony adds a living dimension to Day 1 that cannot be replicated at any other time of year.
