New York’s Hudson Valley often feels like it was created with family road trips in mind. When I was a kid, we spent a lot of time driving to the region from our home in New Jersey. At some point, I figured out that the sights and activities we enjoyed there were available closer to home, without the need to drive all day. Still, there was something about the atmosphere of the valley that made the extra hours worthwhile.
For years, my older sisters and I looked forward to the annual autumn apple-picking trek. Spending warm days in the orchards using long picking poles to pluck only the best apples, competing to find the biggest ones, felt a bit like living in a postcard. A little later in the season, during the peak of fall foliage, that made-to-order impression grew even stronger, though our parents tended to avoid the area during that period. Too crowded, they would say.
