The Hudson River Valley: New York Roundtrip

The Hudson River Valley is a place of natural beauty, which was the scenic inspiration for the first American landscape painters. The valley also contains the historic presidential homes, a Vanderbilt mansion from America’s Gilded Age, Revolutionary War battlefields, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, stunning mountain overlooks, an artist colony frozen in the 1960scounter-culture ambiance, New York State and Federal historic sites, pristine reservoirs, and ethnic enclaves that accentuate America’s diversity of immigrant cultures.

The tour’s point of departure and conclusion is in the historical village of Warwick, only a few miles north of the New Jersey border. The surrounding landscape of gently rolling hills, vibrant patchwork quilt of villages and farms, and the notable absence of shopping malls and big box shopping outlets may inspire musically inclined riders to think they are experiencing the visual complement to Beethoven’s 6th, Pastoral Symphony. The condition of the route’s roadways is generally very good, with the exception of several roads in the state parks, which may not be in top condition. In addition to inspiring scenery, the landscape is chock full of curves and elevation changes.