About a month ago at the end of June, one of my best friends / roommate from Arizona State University came to spend a weekend with me in Syracuse during the summer! She grew up in Arizona and had never been to New York before, so I was super excited to show her my home. At first, I couldn’t think of what I wanted to show her. There had been so many instances throughout knowing her that I’ve said “When you come visit me in Syracuse, we’ll do this, or eat that, or drive there”, but I couldn’t remember anything I mentioned!

The weekend was supposed to be rainy, which at first took out all of our potential plans of going to Ithaca to see the waterfalls or having a beach day. Luckily, the rain held up, so we were still able to explore. On her first full day, we decided to make a day trip to Wellesley Island in the Thousand Islands right near Ontario, Canada and Alexandria Bay, New York. I used to go camping here at Wellesley Island every summer since I was two weeks old, but I hadn’t been back in almost 10 years! I was excited to show her Wellesley and my roots.

In this blog, I’m going to share my itinerary for a summer day trip in Upstate New York to the Thousand Islands!

Our day trip at a glance:
The drive to the Thousand Islands
Spending the day at Wellesely Island (and where to go cliff jumping)
Byrne Dairy Ice Cream
Exploring Salmon River Falls

The Drive to the Thousand Islands

We started our day at Dunkin Donuts for coffee, of course. My whole time living in Arizona for university, I think I had Dunkin once. And that was because, somehow, Dutch Bros and Starbucks were no where in sight! In Arizona, I rarely see people drink Dunkin. After we grabbed our coffee, we were on the road. It took about 1.5 hours to reach Wellesely Island, and the time flew by because we were catching up and chatting the whole time.

To reach the Thousand Islands, we had to cross a giant bridge at Collins Landing, still on SR 81 N, over the Saint Lawrence River. I had never driven over this bridge myself before since my parents would drive over it when we’d go camping and I was to young to drive. So to drive over this very steep bridge myself was actually a little scary! Only because it goes straight up, and at one point you can’t see the other side. But all was well and I just focused on the road.

After the bridge, there are a few right turns before driving up to Wellesely Island State Park. When we reached the park entrance, we had to pay $7 to get in. As soon as we entered the campground, so many memories from growing up were flooding back to me. The whole State Park seems smaller to me now that I’m older!

Wellesley Island

Inside the campground, we parked in the lot for the marina which is to the right of the beach. We first checked out the beach, then went to scope out my old cliff jumping spot. The spot was still there and accessible, so we decided to grab our lunch that we packed and eat it on the beach first to warm up in the sun.

We set up a little picnic and enjoyed pasta salad and watermelon. We thought the beach was open because there were life guards hanging out, but I guess they were officially opening for the season the next day. Eventually, they decided to open it around 1pm since there were a few families hanging out.

We decided to tan for a little and once we got hot, we walked over to my old cliff jumping spot to cool off. To find this spot, head to the back of the marina and parking lot towards the outhouse bathrooms. Keep walking straight into the peninsula with the tall trees and follow the path straight back and to the right. Before the edge of the peninsula, there’s an area with flat rocks that we used to jump from! You can see into the water so you’ll know how far to jump out.

It’s actually not that big of a jump, I used to do it when I was little all of the time and it felt much bigger then. Even though I was hyping up cliff jumping the whole time, we decided to just sit on one of the rocks in the water because the water was actually super cold.

After hanging out there for a bit, we took out our bikes and rode through the campground. The campgrounds all still looked the same to me, it was very nostalgic riding through. My favorite spot I pointed out was further back in the non-electric loop where we used to go fishing and take my dog Sparky swimming. We have this one picture of him sprinting in the water, with me standing there oblivious in front of him. It’s probably one of my favorite pictures of Sparky!

Ice Cream Stop

After riding through the campground we headed back home. Before driving too far, I wanted to stop at a Starbucks or someplace to pick up a sweet drink for the ride home, just something to give me some sugar and energy. But, we ended up going to Bryne Dairy which was perfect because honestly I love Bryne Dairy and my roommate has never seen one before! We decided to get ice cream instead, which was the perfect treat after a beach day. In my opinion, Bryne Dairy has some of the best hard ice cream around, next to Stewarts’. Their ice cream is always so creamy and smooth, almost like it’s soft ice cream! It’s my favorite.

Little Pit Stop at Salmon River Falls

One of the places I really wanted to show my roommate was Salmon River Falls! It’s easily one of my favorites in New York because I used to go swimming here during high school, and it is just so beautiful and always so quiet. So on the way back to Syracuse, we were passing the exit for the waterfall in Pulaski, and decided to take it. Salmon River Falls is about a 15 minute drive from once you take the exit, and there is a little parking lot for it too.

At the falls, you can walk right up to the edge or even walk down to the bottom and go swimming. We just explored the top of the waterfall since we had already had a long day, but our views were beautiful. I was so happy I could show her this waterfall!

Coordinates for Salmon River Falls: 43.548, -75.941.

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I hope this detailed itinerary for a day trip to the Thousand Islands in New York gives you inspiration for your next adventure! Be sure to check out my other day trip ideas in New York for more ideas!

Xx,
Carmela