There’s a park about 40 minutes north of the city that most New Yorkers only think about in July, when its enormous swimming pool becomes the unofficial summer headquarters for half of Westchester.
But come October, that same stretch of woods turns into something completely different, and this time, nobody’s bringing a towel!
Franklin D. Roosevelt State Park in Yorktown Heights is spread across 960 acres, and buried in its stats sheet is a title most visitors never clock: it’s home to the largest pool in the entire New York State park system, a nearly one-acre basin built to hold 3,500 swimmers at once.
This fall, that same park is lending its trails to something a little more magical.
Harry Potter™: A Forbidden Forest Experience is returning to Yorktown Heights, transforming FDR’s wooded trails into a glowing, wand-lit wizarding walk loaded with more than 4,000 individual lights and over 20 life-sized magical creatures.
22 October 2026 20:15 + more dates
Franklin D. Roosevelt State Park
Perfect for avid Harry Potter fanatics and even casual Halloween lovers, we’re already putting it on the radar as one of the season’s top trips Upstate. Here are all the details on how and why you need to add this to your end-of-year bucket list!
A park that’s already breaking records in summer
Long before anyone strung up a single fairy light, FDR State Park had already carved out a reputation of its own.
Beyond that record-holding pool, the park’s 960 acres wrap around Mohansic Lake, a 108-acre lake with more than two miles of shoreline that draws anglers chasing largemouth bass, chain pickerel, and sunfish, with rowboat rentals and a universally accessible boat launch that make it one of the more low-key fishing spots this close to the city.
There’s also a golf course, picnic groves, and enough open space that it consistently ranks among the go-to weekend escapes for Westchester families, with fall-friendly hiking trails like the FDR State Park Road Loop and Crom Pond Blue Trail offering solid options for a daytime hike before returning for the nighttime wizarding walk.
Yorktown ranks among New York’s safest towns
The park sits in Yorktown Heights, part of the Town of Yorktown, which landed at No. 8 on SafeWise’s 2026 list of New York’s safest cities.
The year’s ranking came behind fellow Westchester towns Rye, Bedford, and Scarsdale, meaning three of the state’s four safest towns are all within a short drive of each other, and all within an hour of Manhattan.
It’s the kind of quiet, tree-lined town that barely registers on a New Yorker’s radar most of the year, right up until it becomes the backdrop for one of the most talked-about wizarding-world experiences in the country.
What to actually expect inside the forest
This isn’t a static light display you drive past.
It’s a walking trail built specifically to feel like wandering into the world’s most famous forbidden woods, and this year’s run carries extra weight, since it marks the experience’s first return to New York in four years.
FDR State Park hosted its U.S. debut back in October 2022, and after selling out that original run, the trail is only now making its way back to the exact same Westchester woods.
And it’s not a repeat of the original walk.
The 2026 return introduces a brand new six-chapter storyline that guides guests chronologically through iconic forest scenes from the films, alongside interactive wand duels and a life-sized Sorting Hat that weren’t part of the first go-around.
Along the path, expect:
- Illuminated tunnels and glowing trees strung with thousands of lights
- Life-sized creatures pulled straight from the wizarding world, including magical beasts tucked into the trees and brush
- Interactive wand-lit moments scattered throughout the walk
- New characters and scenes added for this year’s return engagement
- A gift shop stop at the very end, because no wizarding experience is complete without one
Build a full fall day trip around it
Because the experience runs at night, you’ve got the entire daylight window to turn this into a proper Hudson Valley fall outing before the wands come out.
Here’s how to stretch a single Westchester night into a full day:
- Start with apples — Wilkens Fruit & Fir Farm sits less than three miles from FDR State Park, with 13 apple varieties, cider, and a bakery worth the detour. There’s also Stuart’s Fruit Farm and Harvest Moon Farm & Orchard nearby for pick-your-own outings and hayrides too.
- Squeeze in a fall hike — Ward Pound Ridge Reservation, about 20 minutes away, spans more than 4,300 acres and 35 miles of trails, making it one of the county’s best foliage spots. For more leaf peeping greatness, jot down the Teatown Lake Reservation and Croton Gorge Park.
- Grab dinner before the trail — Yorktown Heights and nearby Croton-on-Hudson have enough casual sit-down spots to fuel up before an evening walk through the woods.
- Time your entry for dusk — The lights and creatures hit differently once the sky actually goes dark, so aim for one of the later entry windows rather than the earliest slot of the night.
- Leave room for the gift shop — You will want a wand. Everyone wants a wand.
The details
📍 Franklin D. Roosevelt State Park, 2957 Crompond Road, Yorktown Heights, NY
🗓️ Running this fall through early 2027, with tickets and specific dates available through Fever’s official Forbidden Forest Experience page
🚗 About 40 miles, or roughly an hour’s drive, from Manhattan
🎟️ Book ahead, since sessions have sold quickly in previous return engagements across other cities
This is the same park that spends its summers packed with pool floats and lake fishermen, quietly holding a state record most people never think to ask about. This fall, it’s holding something else entirely: a glowing wizarding-world walk that turns one of Westchester’s most overlooked parks into one of its most talked-about nights out.