I decided on going to the OG Pumpkin Blaze in Westchester County. Traveling to the pumpkin trail without a car was actually quite simple. We took the train to 42nd Street, walked over to Grand Central Station, and hopped on the Metro North to Croton-Harmon from Grand Central. It only takes about an hour to get to Croton-Harmon with plenty of train options. While we were waiting for our Uber, I took in the peacefulness of Westchester and I actually quite miss it. What’s funny is while I was at college in Westchester I never partook in the Halloween festivities that were at my fingertips. I had been to Sleepy Hollow quite a few times for college, but never during October. I don’t know where my priorities stood back then.
Ubers seemed to be scarce on Tuesday afternoons in Croton-on-Hudson, so we waited about 10 minutes for our driver to arrive instead of the 30 seconds I’m used to when calling a car in Brooklyn. On the Pumpkin Blaze website, it stated the location was a 10 minute walk from the train station, while Google maps said it was a 20 minute walk. For safety purposes, I opted for a ride share to see what the route would be like. It is actually an easy 10 minute walk with proper sidewalks along the roads. We choose to walk back to the train station later that night instead of waiting forever for another Uber.
I opted for a Tuesday night, 6:30 time slot in hopes that the trail would be less crowded. We ended up arriving early to the location with a hour to kill. The Pumpkin Blaze is right next to a grocery shopping center, so we decided to go marvel at the wide array of snacks and cereals inside the suburban ShopRite before heading over to Pronto Pizzeria. Since we were so early, it made sense for us to sit down and eat dinner so we weren’t walking the grounds on an empty stomach.
The restaurant ended having cute Halloween decorated menus and delicious pizzas! We both got our own personal pizzas, which ended up being too big for me to eat alone lol. I ordered a chicken parmigiana pizza, while Danny opted for a classic cheese pizza with Cherry Pepsis. I haven’t had a chicken cutlet pizza in years, and this one really satisfied my craving. So good! We managed to finish just in time for our time slot.
Unfortunately, I was wrong about Tuesday nights. There was still a good amount of people there at opening. I can understand families wanting to go earlier in the evening, especially with young kids having early bedtimes and older kids going to school the next morning. I wanted the earliest time slot simply because I’m old and do not want to be out that late when I have work the next day. We quickly scanned our tickets and started making our way through the trail until we reached the infamous Pumpkin Planetarium. This pumpkin tunnel is the real reason I was on this trail in the first place, and it did not disappoint. I loved it!
If you have never encountered the Pumpkin Planetarium on your social media timelines, it is a tunnel constructed of pumpkins etched with stars, shooting colorful lights across the length of the Planetarium. If you’re looking for a unique stargazing experience, I would definitely come see this magical installation in person. It was rather difficult getting an empty shot of the tunnel. As I stated before, there were a considerable amount of people entering the trails at 6:30 on a weekday, so I can’t imagine how crowded it would be on the weekends. You can still get a decent shot inside the tunnel if you are patient enough and don’t rush.
We lingered a bit near the Planetarium until we felt we had good enough shots inside the tunnel. I didn’t want to pass through until I was satisfied with my time there. Usually on these pumpkin trails, you can only go forwards, not backwards. I wasn’t as worried about people being in the background as I didn’t want to be too hung up on getting the “perfect shot.” I just wanted to enjoy my time at the Pumpkin Blaze while hoping for some good nighttime photos.
If you were to arrive early and wait for the gates to open to be the first on line, then you could potentially ran over to the Pumpkin Planetarium and capture empty shots at tunnel. In my opinion, I don’t think it’s worth it to skip out on the beginning of the trail just for photo ops. I’m more concerned with taking my time on the path and living in the moment. I’m also not an influencer. No one cares about my photos lol.
Even though my diabolical plans were to take photos in the pumpkin tunnel, I did enjoy the Pumpkin Blaze. I’m amazed this event features over 7,000 hand-carved illuminated pumpkins! The pumpkin trail has so many creative installations made entirely of Jack O’Lanterns. My favorite creations were the Pumpkin Zee Bridge and Pumpkin Carousel. There is another tunnel of sorts that is called the Headless Horseman Bridge that has illuminating bats carved into the pumpkins above, which I thought was clever and fun. I also love that they incorporated iconic New York staples into the trail with the Statue of Liberty and the subway entrance with pumpkins of rats and pigeons. 😂
I do wish there was a more imposing Ferris Wheel installation like there was at Philly’s Pumpkin Glow. I was also surprised there wasn’t many intricately carved pumpkins of portraits and movie characters. Looking back at photos (terrible quality 😆) I took at the Glow, there were impressive pumpkin carvings of the Universal classic monsters like Frankenstein and Dracula. The grounds seem rather small at the Van Cortlandt Manor as the walk through the pumpkin trails only take 45 minutes to an hour. I definitely wish it were longer, but I imagine that construction of the trail is already a lot of work to begin with.
Once we completed the trails, I made my way to the snacks and beverages. Lo and behold, they had caramel apples! I’ve been looking for caramel apples this whole season, and they were such a hot commodity at the Long Island farms that I haven’t had any luck. I wish they had hot apple cider readily available while I was on line, but they said it would be 10 minutes or so before it was ready. Danny had no idea hot apple cider was a thing, and I sometimes wonder how he’s lived his life like this.
I’m glad I crossed the Hudson Valley Pumpkin Blaze off my bucket list! The Long Island location seems to involve less travel time since Atlantic Terminal is fairly close to where we live in comparison to Grand Central. Maybe next year I will check out the Long Island trail so I can cross that location off my bucket list too. I know both locations are very similar, but I still enjoy pumpkin blazes no matter what. I always think they’re a fun activity during the Halloween season!
LOVEEEEE the photos! 😍
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