Autumn Fall Foliage Long Drives 2002

I’ve some more time and it’s my first day doing blogs so I’ll put down few more tid bits… This one is about fall foliage travelling I did this year. Last year I went out to 3 day trip to New Hampshire and drove through much of the state. This year I decided to went down North-east Pennsylvania. The driving route at Bucktail State Park was listed as ‘one of the most beautiful spot to be’ in foliage by Yahoo Travel newsletter. There is some 75 miles of Route 120 which passes through scenic mountainous areas and small towns. So I rented Mustang convertible and started the trip on 20th Oct. Passing through Rough 80 west from NJ to PA was absolutely stunning. Unfortunately you can’t stop on highway to take photographs and there are not many view points on Rt 80. So just look around and drive slow. While entering on Rt 120 at Lock Haven, PA I realized the peak was already passed and there was around 40% or less leafs on trees. A big sigh! But this was anyway as predicted in Foliage report at FallInPA.com. But whatever was left was still absolutely gorgeous. You can tell how beautiful the peak must have been looked like. So after passing Ronovo I decided to drive down south were peak was still expected. I took Rt 144 and I glad I did. This some 70 miles long road was continuously covered with fall colors, passing through deep forest, valleys in curvy snaky ups and down fashion. What a treat! Next year I’ll be back here with proper timing :-). Anyway this was not my first trip and not the last also for this year. The first trip I did was to Windham, NY at Catskills. It was annual ADK (www.adk.org) fall weekend with lots of hikes in around the area. I did the 3 summit hike at Thomas Kole (6 mil) and one another 4 miles hike next day. Fall colors were just starting to appear. You can look at photographs on my web site http://www.ShitalShah.com or their real host at www.dotphoto.com (the name of the album is First Of Autumn). The next fall color trip WILL be at NYC this weekend at Central Park. I’m missing Autumn at NYC since last two years and it’s hardly 40 mins away from my home! Sure NYC is jungle of building but Central Park is just a magical place. I saw some Central Park foliage shots in movie Autumn in New York (it appears just when movie starts, good because you don’t need to see rest of the crap). This weekend I guess is peak weekend in Central Park.