Tag Archives: Fall Foliage Colors

Kayak Camping in the Hudson River Islands State Park

Posted on October 10, 2012 by | 94 Comments

By Vladimir Brezina

I had hoped to post this last spring, in time for the 2012 camping season. But it’s not too late! The fall, with its spectacular foliage colors, is here—to my mind, the best time of the year to go camping at this spot… and in fact, Johna and I have plans to head up there for a couple of days soon to see the show!

The length of the Hudson River between Albany and New York City offers a number of kayak camping spots. But none is so attractive as the Hudson River Islands State Park, about 20 miles south of Albany and several miles north of the town of Hudson.

I’ve paddled and camped there many times in every season over the past decade, and I never fail to stop there on through trips down the river. In this complex of islands, back bays, and creeks, rich in plant and animal life, there is always something new to see. And most of the year, except during the peak season in the summer, chances are that you’ll have it all to yourself. Although it’s quite accessible, it feels secluded, remote, almost wild…

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Travel Theme: Foliage

Posted on September 28, 2012 by | 81 Comments

By Vladimir Brezina

Ailsa‘s Travel-Themed Photo Challenge this week is Foliage.

Looking through my photos, about half of them seem to be of foliage (the other half, of course, kayaking…). So it’s very hard to choose! Still, here are a few shots of the foliage in NYC’s Central Park through the seasons…

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Sunday Post: Autumn, Take Two

Posted on September 16, 2012 by | 77 Comments

By Vladimir Brezina

This is a second post in response to Jakesprinter‘s Sunday Post theme of Autumn (the first post was here).

Fall is just starting here in New York City—but it’s unmistakably on its way. Here are some of the colors we can look forward to in a month or so…

Photos taken around New York City’s Central Park Reservoir in Fall 2011. More photos are here and here.

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Sunday Post: Autumn

Posted on September 16, 2012 by | 16 Comments

By Vladimir Brezina

For the last few days, Fall has been in the air here in New York City. The days are still warm and sunny, but crisp rather than humid, with those deep blue skies of fall. The nights are now almost chilly. And today in Central Park, I noticed for the first time some yellow and brown in the green mass of trees, and the first few fallen dry leaves scattered along the paths…

So Jakesprinter‘s Sunday Post theme of Autumn comes perfectly timed. I have many brilliantly colorful fall foliage pictures, and I’ll post a few of them, but I’ve always liked especially this more modest photo. I took it many, many years ago, in the last millenium, still in the age of film…

A second Autumn post is here.

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Best of Fall Colors 2011

Posted on November 23, 2011 by | Leave a comment

By Vladimir Brezina

Despite the hiccup of the Halloween snowstorm, Fall has had a long run this year. The colors in New York City’s Central Park have been glorious. But now, in late November, they are finally coming to an end. It’s raining, dark, gray, and the trees are rapidly losing their last leaves.

So, as farewell, here are some highlights of the Fall colors of 2011. Happy Thanksgiving!

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The individual photos, and many others, are here, here, and here.

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Around the Reservoir: A Photoessay

Posted on November 8, 2011 by | Leave a comment

By Vladimir Brezina

Yesterday I took a walk along the jogging track that encircles Manhattan’s Central Park Reservoir (more properly, I guess, the “Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir”).
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On the reservoir side of the jogging track, beyond the black cast-iron ornamental fence, is a steep embankment leading down into the water. In this micro-enviroment, just a few feet wide but 1.6 miles long, fall is in full swing…

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A Blaze of Fall Color by Kayak: A Photoessay

Posted on October 22, 2011 by | Leave a comment

By Vladimir Brezina

In New York City, the leaves are only just starting to turn. But farther north along the Hudson the fall colors must be well advanced.

For a number of years I used to go by train with my folding kayak to see the fall colors in the stretch of the Hudson just south of Albany, near Catskill and the town of Hudson.  In Ramshorn Creek, a little winding creek off the Hudson just south of Catskill, I saw, about this time in October one year, the best fall colors ever—a vivid profusion of yellows, oranges, reds, purples, reflected in the green-brown waters of the creek against a crystalline fall blue sky.

It doesn’t look like I’ll have time to go up there this year. So here are some photos from that memorable trip. Even though photos can’t do the real experience of such colors justice, they do give some idea…

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Touched By Fire: An Early-Autumn Kayak Trip Along the Palisades

Posted on October 20, 2011 by | 5 Comments

By Johna Till Johnson
Photos by Vladimir Brezina

Autumn is a time of melancholy, of dreams and mists. It’s also a time of intense beauty—and a reminder that everything in life is transient.

That’s particularly true when it comes to catching the leaves turning along the Hudson: Bare hints of color one day, blazing the next, and then fading—all in the space of a week or two.

For New York City kayakers with day jobs, the challenge is that the currents are right for a weekend trip up the Hudson only once every two weeks—which means there are only two October weekends to catch this ephemeral color.

The first weekend with a daytime flood current was October 15-16. Either weekend day would have worked, but since I’d just gotten back from an intense week of traveling, Sunday was the better fit. Plus, Saturday’s winds were pretty severe—predicted and ultimately proving to be over 20 knots. So we agreed to go Sunday.

By then, the winds had calmed somewhat. Vlad and I set off on a crystalline, perfect, early-autumn day.

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Happy Fall!

Posted on September 23, 2011 by | 10 Comments

By Vladimir Brezina

The September Equinox occurred today, September 23, 2011, at 09:04 UTC, or 5:04 a.m. in New York City. And with it, the first day of Fall!

“Autumn in New York
Why does it seem so inviting?
…
It’s autumn in New York
It’s good to live it again.”

To celebrate and anticipate the joys of fall, here is a gallery of fall foliage photos that I took in NYC’s Central Park last year on one spectacularly beautiful day, October 28 (late in the year for peak foliage color, it might seem, but not so in NYC’s urban heat island).

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The Red Vines of Autumn Along the Hudson: A Photoessay

Posted on September 14, 2011 by | Leave a comment

By Vladimir Brezina

Summer was very great (:-)). But now, according to the National Weather Service,

“[a] taste of fall is in the forecast! A strong cold front will cross the Tri-State area Thursday ushering in a Canadian airmass. Temperatures will only be in the 70s Thursday with a chance of a few showers or even a thunderstorm. Then, the much cooler air arrives by Thursday night. Temperatures will fall to near 50 degrees. High temperatures on Friday will only be in the mid to upper 60s. Dewpoints will also fall into the 30s during the day Friday making it feel like autumn.”

In New York City, the trees remain green, with no sign of fall color yet. But the city is an urban heat island, with temperatures elevated often by ten degrees or more. Outside the city, no doubt, leaves are already starting to turn. It’s time to plan fall foliage trips—by kayak, naturally!

Some of the best fall colors can be seen along the banks of the Hudson north of the city. I haven’t been up the river since our May paddle from Albany to New York City, but here, in a collection of photos from past years, is what I imagine is, or soon will be, happening…

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