Landscape photography road trip

I am trying to plan a road trip for photography starting in Springfield, MA (1.5 hrs west of Boston). Timeframe is approximately 10 days or so. The other important part to this trip is great good. Both street food and restaurants are welcomed.

So far I have the following locations in mind:
Catskills Mountains
Watkins Glen State Park
Finger Lakes
Lake Placid
Ausable Chasm
Niagara Falls
The Flume, White Mountains

I do not necessarily need to go to all of these places as I don't want to be rushed and in a hurry all the time. I would much rather enjoy myself. So with that said, could you suggest a good route to take covering some of these areas and any other locations you have in mind?

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

Perhaps the best thing about your proposed circuit of 'upstate' New York is that you have ten days to cover roughly a thousand miles, meaning that you only have to cover about a hundred miles a day to make it all work. That's a very relaxed pace and leaves plenty of time for hiking in some incredibly photogenic spots as well as savoring your meals. Mostly what I have for you are some suggestions for routes and places to add to your itinerary. Scenic roads start almost as soon as you leave your home. Skip the Mass Pike and instead use MA-23/NY-23 westbound through the Berkshires, then take the Taconic State Parkway south to NY-199 west. A short stint on US-209 south around Kingston will bring you to NY-28 through the heart of the Catskills. Next up is NY-30/NY-206 west through Bainbridge to Whitney Point, and NY-79 to Ithaca. At Ithaca there are a couple of state parks that merit your consideration, Buttermilk Falls, and Taughannock Falls. Both feature waterfalls with the one at Taughannock being higher than (but without the volume of) Niagara Falls.

NY-79 then continues west from Ithaca to Watkins Glen and the state park there is absolutely worth the hike up the glen which includes a path that goes behind a waterfall. Continuing west from Watkins Glen is a bit tricky since there are no well-positioned state highways and your best bet is to use county roads, 23/114/96/87 to Hammondsport and NY-54 to Bath. From there take I-86/I-380 up to Dansville and NY-436 west from there to Portageville and Letchworth State Park. Next take NY-19A/NY-19 up to Warsaw and US-20A/NY-400 west to the Buffalo/Niagara Falls area. At Niagara Falls it will be very handy to have your passport as you will need it to get over to the Canadian side where some of the best photo-ops are as well as the picturesque town of Niagara-on-the-Lake and Fort George National Historic Site.

As you start to head back east, US-20 across the top of the Finger Lakes offers a great alternative to the New York State Thruway. It also takes you through New York's wine country, along the route of the Erie Canal, and past a little known national park. You can use it all the way to Sangerfield where NY-12 will take you up to Forestport and NY-28 into the Adirondacks. NY-28/NY-30/NY-3/NY-86/NY-9N will take you through the Adirondacks and Lake Placid to Ausable Chasm and the shores of Lake Champlain. At that point I'd highly recommend a scenic 'cruise' across the lake to Burlington and a short run down I-89 to Stowe, (Ben and Jerry's, the Trapp Family Lodge), and then south on VT-100, a truly great scenic road, past Calvin Coolidge's home to VT-112/MA-112 and your own home.

AZBuck