A cool wind blows through the streets as summer fades away and everyone begins preparing for winter. Colorful, dry leaves crackle beneath your feet. A thick fog rolls in along with the night. It hangs around the cemetery headstones as you walk the lonely path towards the old church. In the distance you hear the call of an owl. Then, something more. Something is following you. Something or someone. The question you have to ask yourself is does that someone have a head?
Sleepy Hollow is a fun place to visit any time of year. When summer starts fading away, though, the fun gets amped up. The town is a great fall travel destination filled with fun, family friendly things that go bump in the night.
It’s the legendary home of the famous story, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” written by Washington Irving. The town itself is small and quaint, which is odd since it’s essentially a suburb of New York City. While visiting, you can see the Old Dutch Church, that played a big part in Irving’s story. The church is an all stone church from the 17th century and has found its way into the National Register of Historic Places. In its cemetery, you will find Irving’s grave.
During the month of October, there is so much more to see and do in Sleepy Hollow than the rest of the year.
Irving's Legend is performed each year at the Old Dutch Church, where a master storyteller reads "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". The performers they use are amazing and really bring the scares of the book to life. As you listen to the story everyone knows almost by heart, all the favorite characters like Ichabod and the infamous Headless Horseman come to life. The inside of the church is dark, eerie, and there are plenty of spooky sound effects to really bring the performance home.
A block from the church is Horseman's Hollow which is an exhilarating and scary haunted trail. While children shouldn’t get too frightened during the “Irving’s Legend”, this trail is not for the faint of heart. Beware, there are monsters galore, and some of them are in pretty scary costumes!
Further up the street is the Great Jack o' Lantern Blaze. This is such a unique experience that you won’t find anywhere else. Everyone's familiar with seeing elaborate Christmas light displays that you drive or walk through where many of the lights come together to form Christmas related images, right? Imagine that same concept, but instead of Christmas lights, there are jack o' lanterns! Thousands of lanterns, all lit up, line a trail you walk to see the various displays. Last year, there were over 7000! The lanterns are made to look like Frankenstein, or Dracula, or grouped together in elaborate pumpkin tapestries to form a spider on a spider web or a tunnel of pumpkins you walk through. It's fun and not TOO creepy, making it a family-friendly favorite.
Every year, from late September through all of October and most of November, the streets of Sleepy Hollow come to life with these exciting activities. So, while the town is fun all year long and has plenty to see on a normal day, Fall brings even more fun and a bit of family-friendly creepiness!
For more info on any of these activities, check out https://hudsonvalley.org
Be sure to check out our other Travel Ideas.
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