Every August, something shifts in upstate New York. The humidity breaks just enough to remind you that summer doesn’t last forever, and the grapevines strung across the hillsides around Keuka, Seneca, and Cayuga lakes start heavy with fruit. I’ve timed visits to wine regions across three continents — Mendoza, the Douro Valley, Stellenbosch — and … Read more
There’s a moment in Yellowstone’s Lamar Valley when the light turns molten around 6:45 on a late September morning. The grass has gone amber, a thin crust of frost crackes under your boots, and somewhere in the timber a bull elk lets loose a sound that starts in his chest, climbs into a high trembling … Read more
Every year, somewhere around late September, my phone starts buzzing. Friends, coworkers, distant acquaintances — they all want the same thing. “When’s peak?” “Where should I go?” “Is it worth the drive?” After three consecutive Octobers spent running the full length of the Blue Ridge Parkway with my team, I’ve stopped guessing. I have a … Read more