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Your Ellicottville adventure, by season
Two anchor resorts, 50+ miles of trail, creeks and cliffs to paddle, and the largest state park in New York. Here is everything to get into, all four seasons.
Two anchor resorts, 50+ miles of trail, creeks and cliffs to paddle, and the largest state park in New York. Here is everything to get into, all four seasons.
Photo: HoliMont
Ellicottville has quietly become one of the best places to ride in the Northeast. HoliMont is the resort most committed to the bike park, with a growing lift-served network, and Holiday Valley adds lift-served riding on summer weekends. Out in the Rock City and McCarty Hill state forests, the Epic system holds singletrack for every level, built and maintained by WNYMBA volunteers.
Ellicottville is one of the only four-season resort towns in the United States with two ski resorts just minutes from the village. Holiday Valley is the larger public ski area, with 60 trails, night skiing, terrain parks, and a golf course, and it has been named the 3rd best ski resort in the East by Ski Magazine.
HoliMont is North America's largest private ski area, tucked in the hills of Ellicottville, NY. For over 60 years, HoliMont has been a second home for families who care about connection, tradition, and time well spent outside. It is open to the public during the week and reserved for members on weekends.
Between the two: fresh corduroy at first chair, night laps under the lights, a tubing park, cross-country and snowshoe trails, and a walkable village at the bottom.
The two mountains sell winter in completely different ways, and our ski pass guide lays out every option for 2026-27, from Holiday Valley season and night passes to HoliMont's weekday punch passes and the tubing park down the road.
Read the ski-day playbook
When the downhill crowds head to the lifts, the state forest and Nordic trails go silent and white. Kick and glide groomed track, break trail on backcountry skis, or strap on snowshoes and wander a spruce forest heavy with snow.
Warming huts and lean-tos dot the trails. Pack a thermos, take your time, and enjoy a side of Ellicottville most visitors never see.
The hiking right above town is in the Rock City and McCarty Hill state forests. The McCarty Hill loop climbs through hardwoods to open views over the rolling hills, quiet paths wind through Rock City's mossy rock formations, and the white-blazed Finger Lakes Trail runs the ridge past lean-tos and the Little Rock City boulders.
About twenty minutes south, inside Allegany State Park, the Art Roscoe area adds 20+ miles of wide, gently graded forest trail. Different park, different drive, and worth its own day.
Easy family walks, big ridge-top payoffs, and endless forest. Bring water and good shoes.
See 5 hikes for fall color
Cast the creeks and stocked ponds for trout, bass, pike, and carp on the fly. When you would rather float, bring a kayak or paddleboard and drift beneath the shale cliffs of the creek or cross the calm lakes inside the state park.
Keep fish wet, handle them gently, and let them go strong. This water stays this good because people take care of it.
Serious about the fishing? Ellicottville sits between the Lake Erie steelhead tributaries to the north and the trout water of the Southern Tier to the south. Our fall basecamp guide to fly fishing Ellicottville covers the runs, access, permits, and who to book.
Photo: Andre Carrotflower, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
Just south of town sits the largest state park in New York: about 65,000 acres of dense forest, clear lakes, sandy beaches, and winding trail. It is a hub for hiking, mountain biking, freshwater fishing, kayaking, swimming, camping, and wildlife watching.
A short drive from the village turns a day trip into a full weekend outside.
Aerial by Aldrich Aerial Photography
For a few weeks each October, the hills around Ellicottville turn gold, orange, and deep red. Ride the Holiday Valley chairlift for a summit view, hike the McCarty Hill ridge, chase fall steelhead in the creeks, or just drive the back roads with the windows down.
5 hikes for peak colorGolf on the slopes, a sculpture forest, snow-season singletrack, and the other ways to fill a day here.
Holiday Valley's 18-hole, par 70 course plays 6,500 yards through ponds on the front nine and along the base of the slopes on the back, with mountain views from every hole. Tee times →
Park golf, the easy-going cross between mini golf and the real thing: one club, a bigger ball, and 18 short holes beside the Ellicottville Distillery on Robbins Road. Clubs and balls included. Plan a round →
An 18-hole course laid out over the top of the resort, playing through the woods along the cross-country trails. Ride the lift up for $15 or hike up and play free. Course info →
A free 6,000-square-foot concrete park in the Village Park on Parkside Drive, opened in 2023: a big bowl plus a street section with rails, boxes, and a quarter pipe. Tennis courts, playgrounds, and a dog park sit next door. SK8EVL →
America's first sculpture park, 15 minutes north in East Otto: more than 250 giant sculptures along miles of hiking trails across 450 acres. Open May through October. Read the guide →
Thirty minutes west, a self-guided drive winds through New York's oldest Amish settlement: farm-stand bakeries, quilt shops, and cheese houses around Randolph and Conewango Valley. The perfect rest day or rainy day. Read the guide →
The white-blazed Finger Lakes Trail, carrying the North Country National Scenic Trail, runs through the state forests right above town, past lean-tos and the Little Rock City boulders. Read the guide →
When the snow flies, WNYMBA grooms winter singletrack and McCarty Hill State Forest becomes one of the region's favorite fat bike zones. Read the guide →
Fall brings Pumpkinville's corn maze and cider mill in Great Valley, open daily from mid September, and the Nightmare Hayrides on Sommerville Valley Road every weekend from early October. Come summer, the same road hosts the Ellicottville Championship Rodeo over the Fourth of July. See the events calendar →
Yes, and it is the reason to base yourself in Ellicottville rather than at a single mountain. Holiday Valley and HoliMont sit minutes apart on either side of the village, so you can ride or ski both in a weekend without moving your car overnight. The Rock City and McCarty Hill state forests start right above town and hold more than 50 miles of trail in the Ellicottville system, most of it built and maintained by WNYMBA volunteers. Allegany State Park is about twenty minutes south and is a separate day: 65,000 acres, its own lakes and beaches, and the 20-plus-mile Art Roscoe trail network. A common three-day shape is a resort day, a state-forest day, and an Allegany day, with dinner in the village each night.
In winter, Monday through Friday. HoliMont is North America's largest private ski area and reserves Saturdays, Sundays, Christmas week, MLK Day and Presidents Monday for members and invited guests. Tickets never sell out on weekdays and no reservation is needed. In summer the bike park is open to everyone, and pedal access to both resorts' trail networks is free year round; you only pay for the lift.
Contact HoliMont. The bike park runs the rental fleet in town, and it is the practical answer for both downhill bikes and winter fat bikes. There is no longer a standalone bike rental shop in the village, so book ahead rather than arriving and hoping.
No. A lift ticket buys you the chairlift. Pedalling up and riding down at either resort is free, as is every mile in the Rock City and McCarty Hill state forests. Buy the lift only if you want lap-after-lap descending.
About an hour south of Buffalo and Buffalo Niagara International Airport, and an easy drive from Rochester, Erie, Cleveland and Pittsburgh. Roughly 22.5 million people live within a 200-mile drive, about 5 million of them in Ontario.
Check conditions, find your way here, and see where to fuel up before and after.
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