Taughannock is the Finger Lakes park with a waterfall taller than Niagara and a lake beach at the bottom of it. The falls drop 215 feet off a shale ledge at the head of a three-quarter-mile gorge, and where Taughannock Creek runs out into Cayuga Lake the park keeps a supervised swim beach on the shore, a gravel-and-sand crescent with a roped area, lifeguards on the stand from late June through Labor Day, a bathhouse and a lawn full of picnic tables. Cayuga is the longest of the Finger Lakes and one of the deepest, and the water at the beach warms into the 70s by mid-July. The beach is on NY 89, eight miles north of Ithaca and just east of the village of Trumansburg; the park logged 914,515 visits in 2025, most of them to the falls, and the beach absorbs the rest.

Parking is the standard New York state park vehicle fee in season, paid at the booth, and there is no separate charge to swim. The beach opens for swimming when lifeguards are on duty, roughly 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the peak season, and closes to swimming outside those hours. The lakeside side of the park also has a marina with a launch ramp, boat slips and a fishing pier; the paddling from the beach north along the wooded west shore is easy and the lake bottom drops off fast enough that the water stays clear.

The Gorge Trail is the walk everyone makes: three quarters of a mile up the flat creek bed from the lower parking area on the west side of NY 89 to the plunge pool below the falls, easy enough for strollers. The North and South Rim trails, a mile and a half and a mile and a quarter, climb through hemlock to the top of the gorge and the overlook on Taughannock Park Road, where the falls and the full length of the gorge are in view. Swimming below the falls is not allowed; the beach is where you swim. In winter the park runs a sledding hill and the gorge fills with ice.

Camping is on the hill above the lake: a mix of tent and RV sites plus cabins, reservable through the state system, open May to October, with the beach a walk down the hill. The park dates to 1925 and was built out by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s, which accounts for the stone shelters and walls. Trumansburg is a five-minute drive for groceries and the Finger Lakes wineries begin just up the road, so a weekend here is usually a swim, the falls, and a tasting or two.