The clocks have changed, the mercury has plunged and I’m back on the hot coffees. I think we’re nearing winter.

Thankfully when I went upstate last weekend (yes, another escape from the city), the leaves were still holding on. I concluded that, without a doubt, my favorite season in New York is autumn – I’m sorry, ‘fall’. So if you could just hold off a little longer, winter, that’d be great.

I love seeing the different colored leaves blossoming on the trees; it almost transports you into a different land. It’s beautiful. I’m not sure what people think of the leaves when they’ve practically been forced into buying a leaf blower after reading reviews from somewhere like The Best Leaf Blowers, (https://thebestleafblowers.com/) to get them off of their garden. If it was me, I would probably leave them there as surely they will look just as beautiful off the trees than they do on? After all, this is my favorite season and I want the opportunity to enjoy all it has to bring for as long as possible, without worrying about what winter will bring.

Ryan and I have been hosting a lot of guests from across the globe recently (like this one – very troublesome) and we have more to come before December, so we decided to take a weekend just to ourselves. Oh, and Georgia.

We found a little cottage on Vacation Rentals in High Falls, which is near New Paltz and two hours north of NYC. Georgia could not believe it.

Our main aim for the weekend was to do a monster hike and explore Minnewaska State Park. What we intended to be a half-an-hour stroll to ease us into it accidentally turned into a five-hour hike. But arrghhh, it was amazing.

We started by winding through the wooded trails and walking by the river – with Georgia leading the way.

At the top of the trails, there was no one in sight. The landscape here was incredible – we were walking over sheets of rocks that looked like ice.

And then best of all – those views!

While we wondered how on earth we had far overshot our intended route, we were so glad that we did. I can’t imagine there’s a better view there than this.

Perhaps even more impressive than the views was how Georgia somehow scrambled up bare rock faces. The hike included woods, water, bridges, quiet trails and rock climbing (the best kind of hike, because you don’t actually think about how tired you are) but nothing proved too tough for our George. She was all but abseiling. What a clever pup.

(And doesn’t she look happy?)

Although the lake looked miles away, we somehow made it back down the mountainside and, just as our feet were aching, we found the car.

When we finally got home, Georgia didn’t couldn’t move. We went out for dinner (at this very, very strange place) and when we returned, she was in exactly the same place. A successful day, I reckon.

Minnewaska is such a treasure. I love you New York state, for having these gems so close to the city. And we definitely went at the best time of the year – any later and we wouldn’t have had such beautiful, glowing oranges and reds en route.

Can’t it just stay autumn fall forever?

Visiting the park: See how to get from Minnewaska to the city here – we took a car, but another option is getting a train to New Paltz and then jumping in a taxi. It costs $8 to park at Minnewaska for the day. For more info about trails and hours of operation see here.

Accommodation: We stayed at High Falls Vacation Rentals (the West Wing) and it was spotless and close to everything we needed, although we think we could have found something a little more cosy. We found it – and other apartments – through Vacation Rentals.

New Paltz is also pretty great too!