Olean & the Enchanted Mountains — Sculpture Fields & Rock Cities

Ninety minutes south of Buffalo, near the Pennsylvania line, the Enchanted Mountains around Olean hide two of the strangest and most rewarding walks in the Northeast — one made by an artist, one made by geology. Day one wanders Griffis Sculpture Park, where hundreds of monumental steel and bronze figures rise from open meadows and forest across hundreds of hilltop acres, one of the oldest and largest sculpture parks in the country and a place made for exploring on foot. Day two moves to Rock City Park, a labyrinth of house-sized quartz-conglomerate boulders — a 'rock city' formed from an ancient seabed and split into towering canyons and passages you squeeze and scramble through. Both are hands-on, walkable, and unlike anything closer to the city. Wear sturdy shoes for the sculpture-park hills and the rock-city crevices, and give yourself time to get lost in both.