My husband and I took a trip to Storm King Art Center in New Windsor, NY on the last weekend in October and were treated to a gorgeous sunny day, blue skies, and fall colors as a backdrop to the giant artwork and earthworks dotted throughout the grounds. We packed charcuterie meats, fruit, bread, cheese, and a thermos of white wine into our backpacks and drove the relatively short 1 hour and 15 minutes from NYC, just past the exit to Black Rock Forest Conservatory which we’d just hiked the previous weekend.
If you arrive before 11am during the fall months, entrance is $12 per person rather than $18, and there’s a much shorter line for entry to the parking lots the earlier you go. We arrived a little after opening time at 9 as our big thing is avoiding crowds whenever possible - we get enough of them during the week! Dogs are not allowed so we left the boys to their naps at home.
In terms of amenities and dining, there’s a little cafe with a nice patio where you can grab sandwiches, drinkings (including wine and beer), food trucks (serving Mexican fare when we were there), and a couple of cafe carts with snacks. Porta-potties are scattered all over; no actual restrooms available.
We started the day by walking across a meadow lined with tall wheat fields to the cafe for coffee and our packed breakfast. It was warm enough to enjoy the uncovered portion of the patio so we hung out a bit underneath the surrounding trees.
We didn't expect to be able to see everything in one visit so we planned to zip around quickly on foot. Bikes are available for rent by the hour, but I felt that they were unnecessary as many of the sculptures are off-path and the whole park is quite walkable. In fact we zipped a bit too quickly and were ready to head home around 1:30, which worked out nicely and allowed us to still have most of a day at home.
