Last Updated: May 2026
Leaving the warm embrace of family in Barton, Vermont, we pointed the Airstream south and west into the heart of upstate New York — a region we’d largely bypassed on previous road trips but had always meant to explore. What followed was one of the most packed and rewarding weeks of our entire 2017 New England circuit: digging for Herkimer diamonds along a rushing river, navigating the rolling vineyards of the Finger Lakes wine country, hiking through a gorge with nineteen waterfalls, and finally standing at the edge of one of the greatest natural wonders on earth.
Upstate New York surprised us at every turn. The landscape shifts dramatically as you move west — from the foothills of the Adirondacks to the long, glacier-carved lakes of the Finger Lakes region, and then north to the thundering spray of Niagara Falls on the Canadian border. If you’ve written off New York State as just a place you drive through to get somewhere else, this route will change your mind.
