Ashford is a tiny rural community in northern Cattaraugus County, nestled in the rolling Allegheny foothills of western New York State. The town sits along US-219, the main corridor running south toward Ellicottville and the Pennsylvania border.
Most visitors pass through Ashford on their way to nearby Ellicottville, which has skiing at Holiday Valley and a lively village centre. But Ashford itself has a genuine draw: Griffis Sculpture Park, one of the largest outdoor sculpture parks in the United States, with over 250 large-scale works scattered across 425 acres of fields and forest, most of them interactive and designed to be climbed on. It is one of the more unexpected things you will find in rural western New York, and worth making a trip for.
The surrounding countryside is a mix of dairy farms, hardwood forest, and creek valleys — particularly beautiful in autumn when the maples turn. Cattaraugus Creek runs through the hills below town and offers kayaking and steelhead fishing in season. In winter, the area gets heavy lake-effect snow off Lake Erie, which keeps the nearby ski resorts in business and the local roads interesting.