8 New York Fall Drives Locals Take to Skip the Foliage Crowds

New York received over 315 million visitors last year, and fall foliage is a big part of why people keep coming back.

A lot of that traffic funnels onto the same handful of scenic roads every October.

But many tourists miss some of the best parts of the state.

These are the fall drives New Yorkers take to dodge the out-of-state crowd.

1. Adirondack Trail

The Adirondack Trail carries Route 30 for 188 miles from Fonda to the Canadian border, running through the heart of the Adirondack Park for much of that stretch and staying well clear of the High Peaks corridor that pulls the biggest fall crowds.

That corridor centers on Route 73 near Keene, where the state banned shoulder parking along a four-mile stretch from Chapel Pond to the Rooster Comb lot.

A free hiker shuttle now covers that stretch every fall weekend.

It skips the whole mess.

Drivers follow Route 30 south from Speculator through Indian Lake, Blue Mountain Lake, and Long Lake, past ponds and sugar maples with no shuttle in sight.

Locals near Tupper Lake treat it as the default fall drive, not the backup route.

2. Route 9N

Route 9N traces Lake George’s west shore from the village up toward Bolton Landing, free the entire way.

The paid alternative sits a few miles south at the Prospect Mountain Veterans Memorial Highway, which charges $10 a car for a 5.5-mile climb that draws heavy traffic during peak leaf season.

No toll booth.

Route 9N runs past Diamond Point and Bolton Landing instead, with pull-offs the whole way for a look at the color coming off the water.

Longtime residents drive it for the view and skip Prospect Mountain’s line entirely.

3. Hemlock and Canadice Lakes

Hemlock and Canadice Lakes sit just west of the Finger Lakes’ busiest wine country, and neither one carries a single winery on its shore.

Rochester began buying out the cottages that once ringed both lakes in 1895 to protect its drinking water, clearing the shoreline for good, and the two lakes still supply the city 37 million gallons a day.

No docks break the shoreline.

Rochester-area drivers loop West Lake Road along Hemlock, or the short circuit around Canadice, calling it their own start to fall.

Seneca Lake’s wine trail, a few miles east, books tasting-room reservations three to four months out for those same fall weekends.

These two lakes never ask for a reservation.

4. River Road

River Road runs along the Hudson through Esopus, a narrow lane that stays close enough to the water to catch the Esopus Meadows Lighthouse between the trees.

Route 9W carries the same stretch a few hundred yards inland, and it’s the route every fall foliage list already names.

Not on those lists.

River Road passes old stone farmhouses and river coves where tugboats still push barges upriver, at a pace slower than 9W ever allows.

Ulster County residents use River Road as their fall commute instead of 9W, no hurry at all.

5. Upper Delaware Byway

The Upper Delaware Byway carries Route 97 along the Delaware River from Port Jervis north through Sullivan County.

Sullivan County residents drive the byway’s Hawk’s Nest stretch every fall, where engineers widened and paved the road into the cliffside above the river in the early 1930s.

The state rededicated it as the Upper Delaware Scenic Byway in 2002, cliffs and all.

Bear Mountain, the Hudson Valley’s best-known fall stop, sits far to the east on Route 9W, where entrances close and lots fill by midmorning many fall Saturdays.

Not along the byway.

It runs alongside National Park Service land the whole way, protected river frontage the Bear Mountain crowd rarely sees.

6. Catskill Scenic Byway

Once Route 30 crosses into Delaware County, it becomes the Catskill Scenic Byway, tracing the East Branch of the Delaware River for 71 miles instead of the busier Route 28 corridor to the east.

Route 28 through Phoenicia is the Catskills’ default fall drive, and it carries heavy weekend traffic by early October.

Not on the byway.

It runs through Margaretville, Roxbury, and Stamford, small river towns where the color shows up in the water as much as the trees.

Locals still get a parking spot.

7. Route 219

Route 219 runs south from Buffalo's suburbs into Cattaraugus County and ends inside Allegany State Park, New York's largest at 64,800 acres.

Letchworth State Park, Western New York's best-known fall stop, shut its gates to incoming traffic at 12:30 p.m. on a Saturday during peak color, its parking lots already full by mid-morning.

Not on Route 219.

The drive climbs through the Enchanted Mountains before dropping into the park's Red House and Quaker Run valleys, both ringed in hardwood color with room to pull over.

Locals near Salamanca treat it as their regular fall loop, gates or no gates.

8. Seaway Trail

North Country drivers take the Seaway Trail every fall, where Route 12 carries the byway across Jefferson County to the St. Lawrence River.

Clayton and Alexandria Bay, both in Jefferson County, show their color against open water instead of a packed overlook.

The byway continues north into St. Lawrence County, where it leaves Route 12 for Route 37 on the way to Ogdensburg, part of a 518-mile National Scenic Byway.

Many of the state's leaf-peeping crowds never make it this far north.

It's wide open, and empty.