About the Hudson Mohawk Region

Forts, museums, “Great Camps,” Victorian villages, four-star restaurants, High Peaks hiking, bobsled rides, farms, shopping and modern attractions. The Hudson Mohawk region offers it all! From the capital district of Albany to the home of two winter Olympic games in Lake Placid, the Hudson Mohawk region has a variety of cultural, historical, geographical and educational opportunities.

Home to the Adirondacks which offer the nation’s longest hiking trail system, along with 3,000 lakes and ponds, this region is the place for outdoor recreation, including excellent eastern mountain skiing destinations such as the Olympic Whiteface Mountain. This region also offers renowned golf courses including the Sagamore Golf Course designed by Donald Ross. The thoroughbred racetrack at Saratoga is the nation’s oldest organized sporting venue and site of the famed Travers Stakes. The breathtaking geography of this region lends itself to biking, boating, kayaking, snowmobiling and birding.

The history of the Hudson Mohawk region is the stuff out of epic, cinematic adventures. A battleground through three wars; the national battlefields, prominent homes and burial grounds provide an in-depth tour of the role this region played in turning the tides of the Revolutionary War. The French and Indian War, which raged in the Adirondacks, is memorialized by Fort Ticonderoga, Fort William Henry, and local battlefields along the sought-after waterway of Lake Champlain and Lake George. This region has been shaped by mining, logging, medicine and tourism. Through the boom of the Victorian era, locals and visitors inherited the magnificent “Adirondack Great Camps.” Literature and movies have been created which highlight the beauty of this region. James Fenimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans, made into an Oscar-winning movie starring Daniel Day-Lewis, portrays the spectacular geography fought over by the French and English. In 1791, Thomas Jefferson wrote, "Lake George is without comparison the most beautiful water I ever saw. Its water is limpid as crystal and the mountainsides are covered with rich groves of fir, pine, aspen, and birch down to the water edge".

The Hudson Mohawk region offers many educational opportunities, including highly recognized universities and technical schools. Albany Medical College, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and Skidmore College are just a sample of what this region has to offer academically.

The cultural and fine arts offerings of the Hudson Mohawk region are exemplary. Amid talented local theatres and galleries, are iconic venues such as Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Proctor’s Theatre and The Empire State Plaza, which offers the largest collection of modern art on public display in the country. The Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, The Egg, and The Hyde Collection offer collections including works by Rembrandt, Rubens, and Renoir.

The Hudson Mohawk region is an exciting place for children. The history and culture of the region offers rich learning opportunities and the neighborhood schools and friendly communities celebrate the individual child. There are many opportunities for hands-on science, nature, history, and art exploration including the Schenectady Science Museum and Planetarium and the Adirondack Museum. Athletic opportunities for the young (and young at heart!) abound through public, private and municipal entities.

Rich with history and natural beauty, offering an exceptional quality of life, small towns, saturated with artistic venues, delightful shops and restaurants nestle among metropolitan areas that offer diverse cultural, educational, and commercial opportunities. Each season presents a new offering of activities and discovery. This region, a vacation destination for many, makes a remarkable place called, “Home!”