Maple sugar tours begin Feb. 27
The Hudson Highlands Nature Museum in Cornwall will open maple sugar season on Saturday, Feb. 27, with a “sugaring off celebration” from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The opening day will include tours, a tree-tapping demonstration and taste test, crafts and games and Native American storytelling around a campfire.
The tours, in which guides explain the process of producing sugar maple (it takes 40 gallons of sap to produce a gallon of syrup), will continue each Saturday and Sunday through March 20. Sugarbush tours, which include a mile-long, moderate hike through field and forest to the sugar shack (weather permitting) begin at 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 2 p.m.; and Maple Lane tours, which include a shorter walk from the farmhouse to the sugar maple stand and are designed for smaller legs, begin at noon and 3 p.m.
Visitors are asked to dress warmly and wear appropriate footwear for snow and mud. Admission is $10 for adults ($7 for museum members) and $7 for children ages 3 to 17 ($4 for members). For more information, visit hhnm.org or call 845-534-5506, ext. 204. Tour size is limited so visitors are encouraged to sign up as soon as they arrive. The tours take place at the Outdoor Discovery Center on Muser Drive, across from 174 Angola Road.
