peak leaf
October 21, 2018 3:14 PM Subscribe
Hi! I'm trying to figure out the best way for a handful of adults and one baby to peep some gorgeous fall foliage this coming Saturday, starting from NYC and proceeding down to some lower part of NJ where, per this map, the foliage should be "peak." But I've never done such a trip! Wondering if any local mefites can suggest a good way to go about it - is there a good destination we should choose? A train that winds its way through some particularly nice views? Any and all suggestions deeply appreciated!
I was on the Walkway Over the Hudson yesterday and the foliage was definitely not-yet-peak up there. I would second sciencegeek’s recommendation to head north rather than south.
If New Jersey is a requirement, the “cute” town in a south(ish) direction for fall strolling with adults & a baby is probably Lambertville (along with New Hope which is adjacent in PA—a two minute walk across the river). Lots of good food and shopping options. But it will be extremely busy on an October weekend and it is better accessed by car than by public transport from NYC. Princeton is also very nice in the fall and easier to access by train, although it’s not a particularly scenic ride compared to heading North along the Hudson.
posted by bcwinters at 4:43 PM on October 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
If New Jersey is a requirement, the “cute” town in a south(ish) direction for fall strolling with adults & a baby is probably Lambertville (along with New Hope which is adjacent in PA—a two minute walk across the river). Lots of good food and shopping options. But it will be extremely busy on an October weekend and it is better accessed by car than by public transport from NYC. Princeton is also very nice in the fall and easier to access by train, although it’s not a particularly scenic ride compared to heading North along the Hudson.
posted by bcwinters at 4:43 PM on October 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
I was just in Southern NJ and the leaves have not yet started to turn. Things are looking good here in Western Mass though, and definitely through CT.
posted by chaiminda at 4:47 PM on October 21, 2018
posted by chaiminda at 4:47 PM on October 21, 2018
It is still almost completely green in Northern NJ. I would recommend the Hudson Valley instead, though the Lambertville suggestion is good, as is the Delaware Water Gap area.
posted by Miko at 4:49 PM on October 21, 2018
posted by Miko at 4:49 PM on October 21, 2018
Leaves are very late this year in Morris County NJ, 30 miles west of NYC. Lambertville has very cool Halloween decorations all through the center of town, but the leaves will be even greener than N. Jersey next weekend.
posted by mermayd at 4:55 PM on October 21, 2018
posted by mermayd at 4:55 PM on October 21, 2018
If NJ isn't a specific requirement, consider one of the Hudson River cruises that leave from NYC. There are several.
posted by praemunire at 4:56 PM on October 21, 2018
posted by praemunire at 4:56 PM on October 21, 2018
Another vote for "head north". Here in coastal CT, there isn't much color at all yet. I was up visiting the in-laws two weekends ago in the hills near Greenfield, MA and it was just starting there at that time; by now it must be quite nice.
The Taconic State Parkway is supposed to be a nice drive, but I've never actually done it.
posted by Johnny Assay at 5:16 PM on October 21, 2018
The Taconic State Parkway is supposed to be a nice drive, but I've never actually done it.
posted by Johnny Assay at 5:16 PM on October 21, 2018
I think it's unclear how much actual color we're going to see here in the Northeast. It's been a warm, wet fall, which is bad for foliage.
We drove up to Pawling (Dutchess County) yesterday along the Taconic and there is pretty much no color yet through all of Westchester and Putnam counties. The previous weekend, we were in the Catskills and the color was very, very muted, with a storm having taken a lot of tree cover down. I've seen pics of much more color in the Adirondacks and New England.
There may be a surge of color change this week, with the cold nights and sunshine in the forecast, but if a big storm blows through next week (as is looking to be the case), you may get a big soggy blah. So watch the weather, and have an alternate activity.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 6:58 PM on October 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
We drove up to Pawling (Dutchess County) yesterday along the Taconic and there is pretty much no color yet through all of Westchester and Putnam counties. The previous weekend, we were in the Catskills and the color was very, very muted, with a storm having taken a lot of tree cover down. I've seen pics of much more color in the Adirondacks and New England.
There may be a surge of color change this week, with the cold nights and sunshine in the forecast, but if a big storm blows through next week (as is looking to be the case), you may get a big soggy blah. So watch the weather, and have an alternate activity.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 6:58 PM on October 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
First of all - you want a better map. This is a much more accurate as-things-actually-are foliage map for New York State, based on weather conditions and actual feedback from people in the various locations - right now, the only places with peak color are the edges of the Adirondack State Park and the Catskill Mountains. New York City is just getting started (I can confirm, I live here) and New Jersey probably is similar (if not a little behind us). Heading north from New York City is probably your best option this Saturday.
Fortunately, there are commuter trains that run from New York City up the Hudson Valley which are inexpensive and make for nice day trips out of NYC, and one of them goes to Tarrytown - which is the next town over from Sleepy Hollow (yes, that Sleepy Hollow) and so they go all-in on the Halloween thing. Also, the Hudson Valley is flat-out gorgeous in fall - there was an entire art movement that started in the early 1800s when a painter on a boat heading up the Hudson River in fall saw the fall color.
So here's a couple of ideas, depending on if you want to drive or take a commuter train.
IF YOU WANT TO TAKE A TRAIN:
* Take the Metro-North Train out of Grand Station up to Tarrytown, NY. There will be ample color up there, and there will also be all kinds of "it's the weekend before Halloween" events - cemetery tours, hay rides, parades, etc. (The Tarrytown and Sleep Hollow event calendar is here.) You can stay there overnight if you want, or just come back to the city - it's no more than an hour each way.
* If you just want leaves and that's it, take the Metro-North train from Grand Central up to Poughkeepsie, New York, and head for the Walkway Over the Hudson. The walkway is a bridge that spans from one shore of the Hudson River to the other, and it gives you really great views of either bank and all up and down the river at that point. There should be decent color at this point of the Hudson River this Saturday. It is very day-trip-able, since all there really is to do on the Walkway is walk from one side to the other; all the restaurants/amenities seem to be on the Poughkeepsie side, so you could head up there in the morning, walk out to the middle (or if you're really ambitious, do a roundtrip all the way across and back), then hit up Poughkeepsie for lunch and head back to the city. ....If you want to do a full day of it, there are some historic houses no more than a 15-minute taxi ride from the Poughkeepsie train station (FDR lived up there), and they have extensive grounds that would be nice for a stroll as well.
* If you're up for more ambitious hiking-in-woods kinds of fall color viewing, the Old Croton Aqueduct trail would be ideal - it's level, flat, and accessible at many points along the Metro-North commuter line. It's a trail that follows an old aqueduct that used to serve New York City, and the northern parts of it would be right bang where the color is. The full trail goes all the way down to New York City, but that may take you more than a day...instead, pick a couple of towns that seem do-able for you to walk from one to the other, take the train to one town, follow the trail to the other town, hop back on the train and head back.
IF YOU WANT TO DRIVE:
* There would be fantastic wander-in-the-woods hiking and exploring on the grounds of the Mohonk Moutain House. There's a day-use fee to explore the grounds, but it's a beautiful location and the grounds are well-maintained. (You can get here via public transit too, but it's a bit of a trick to get from the transit station to the grounds.)
* Or take a scenic drive to Bear Mountain. This itinerary starts in Tarrytown, so you would need to either be staying there or add the driving to Tarrytown to your travel time.
* Any one of the little towns along the Hudson on either side would make for a lovely drive-to-a-small-town-and-then-explore opportunities, but you may as well just take a train.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:04 AM on October 22, 2018
Fortunately, there are commuter trains that run from New York City up the Hudson Valley which are inexpensive and make for nice day trips out of NYC, and one of them goes to Tarrytown - which is the next town over from Sleepy Hollow (yes, that Sleepy Hollow) and so they go all-in on the Halloween thing. Also, the Hudson Valley is flat-out gorgeous in fall - there was an entire art movement that started in the early 1800s when a painter on a boat heading up the Hudson River in fall saw the fall color.
So here's a couple of ideas, depending on if you want to drive or take a commuter train.
IF YOU WANT TO TAKE A TRAIN:
* Take the Metro-North Train out of Grand Station up to Tarrytown, NY. There will be ample color up there, and there will also be all kinds of "it's the weekend before Halloween" events - cemetery tours, hay rides, parades, etc. (The Tarrytown and Sleep Hollow event calendar is here.) You can stay there overnight if you want, or just come back to the city - it's no more than an hour each way.
* If you just want leaves and that's it, take the Metro-North train from Grand Central up to Poughkeepsie, New York, and head for the Walkway Over the Hudson. The walkway is a bridge that spans from one shore of the Hudson River to the other, and it gives you really great views of either bank and all up and down the river at that point. There should be decent color at this point of the Hudson River this Saturday. It is very day-trip-able, since all there really is to do on the Walkway is walk from one side to the other; all the restaurants/amenities seem to be on the Poughkeepsie side, so you could head up there in the morning, walk out to the middle (or if you're really ambitious, do a roundtrip all the way across and back), then hit up Poughkeepsie for lunch and head back to the city. ....If you want to do a full day of it, there are some historic houses no more than a 15-minute taxi ride from the Poughkeepsie train station (FDR lived up there), and they have extensive grounds that would be nice for a stroll as well.
* If you're up for more ambitious hiking-in-woods kinds of fall color viewing, the Old Croton Aqueduct trail would be ideal - it's level, flat, and accessible at many points along the Metro-North commuter line. It's a trail that follows an old aqueduct that used to serve New York City, and the northern parts of it would be right bang where the color is. The full trail goes all the way down to New York City, but that may take you more than a day...instead, pick a couple of towns that seem do-able for you to walk from one to the other, take the train to one town, follow the trail to the other town, hop back on the train and head back.
IF YOU WANT TO DRIVE:
* There would be fantastic wander-in-the-woods hiking and exploring on the grounds of the Mohonk Moutain House. There's a day-use fee to explore the grounds, but it's a beautiful location and the grounds are well-maintained. (You can get here via public transit too, but it's a bit of a trick to get from the transit station to the grounds.)
* Or take a scenic drive to Bear Mountain. This itinerary starts in Tarrytown, so you would need to either be staying there or add the driving to Tarrytown to your travel time.
* Any one of the little towns along the Hudson on either side would make for a lovely drive-to-a-small-town-and-then-explore opportunities, but you may as well just take a train.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:04 AM on October 22, 2018
I'm back - if you want to wait until the peak color is in New York City, then there are a couple ideas there as well - and you can stay in New York City for all of them.
* The New York Botanical Garden has a native-plant forest that would be lovely when we hit peak color. The Garden is in a park right next to the Bronx Zoo as well, so you could make a day of it.
* Wave Hill is another botanic-garden-type place in the Bronx that may be a little less crowded; although it may be a bit more "sculpted".
* Fort Tryon Park is in the north of Manhattan, and is right bang across the Hudson from the Palisades. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has its branch museum The Cloisters in Fort Tryon - walking from the subway through Fort Tryon Park to the Cloisters, and then strolling the museum and peeping through windows at the fall color across the river, is a lovely day trip.
* If you want to go even further north in Manhattan, Inwood Hill park is just north of Fort Tryon (you could probably walk from one to the other) and has some of the last original forest on Manhattan Island.
* Finally - don't forget Staten Island. It's a slight pain to get to (a car may help here), but there is more green space in Staten Island than there is anywhere in the city. I've done some hiking in the Staten Island Greenbelt, a 2,800 acre series of parks and trails right bang in the center of the island; the last time I was hiking there I saw more deer than people (including an 8-point buck). The web site predicts that peak color will be this weekend, but I think that's a little ambitious; it may be just starting this weekend, though. Other options for Staten Island are the Mount Loretto Unique Area, a little-visited nature-preserve spot on the grounds of a former orphanage, and Conference House Park, a site at the very southernmost tip of Staten Island (and thus the southernmost tip of New York State) with a couple of historic houses on site as well. (The tour of the main house is free, and surprisingly informative; and if you get the guide I got, he's a hoot.) The site is tough for the rest of the city to get to, so the park is pretty quiet, and offers fantastic views of New York Harbor and the shores of Raritan Bay.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:20 AM on October 22, 2018
* The New York Botanical Garden has a native-plant forest that would be lovely when we hit peak color. The Garden is in a park right next to the Bronx Zoo as well, so you could make a day of it.
* Wave Hill is another botanic-garden-type place in the Bronx that may be a little less crowded; although it may be a bit more "sculpted".
* Fort Tryon Park is in the north of Manhattan, and is right bang across the Hudson from the Palisades. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has its branch museum The Cloisters in Fort Tryon - walking from the subway through Fort Tryon Park to the Cloisters, and then strolling the museum and peeping through windows at the fall color across the river, is a lovely day trip.
* If you want to go even further north in Manhattan, Inwood Hill park is just north of Fort Tryon (you could probably walk from one to the other) and has some of the last original forest on Manhattan Island.
* Finally - don't forget Staten Island. It's a slight pain to get to (a car may help here), but there is more green space in Staten Island than there is anywhere in the city. I've done some hiking in the Staten Island Greenbelt, a 2,800 acre series of parks and trails right bang in the center of the island; the last time I was hiking there I saw more deer than people (including an 8-point buck). The web site predicts that peak color will be this weekend, but I think that's a little ambitious; it may be just starting this weekend, though. Other options for Staten Island are the Mount Loretto Unique Area, a little-visited nature-preserve spot on the grounds of a former orphanage, and Conference House Park, a site at the very southernmost tip of Staten Island (and thus the southernmost tip of New York State) with a couple of historic houses on site as well. (The tour of the main house is free, and surprisingly informative; and if you get the guide I got, he's a hoot.) The site is tough for the rest of the city to get to, so the park is pretty quiet, and offers fantastic views of New York Harbor and the shores of Raritan Bay.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:20 AM on October 22, 2018
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I’d suggest getting on the metro north Hudson line and heading north. Sit on the left side of the train. Maybe go to the Walkway across the Hudson.
posted by sciencegeek at 3:44 PM on October 21, 2018