COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — There’s far more to Cooperstown than baseball once the final pitch of summer is thrown and the calendar tips toward fall.

During my visit last week, I discovered how much this quaint central New York village of 1,794 souls changes after Labor Day. Locals told me there are really two seasons here: baseball season and the off-season.

That makes autumn the perfect time to come for everything that isn’t baseball. Leaf-peepers arrive to see hillsides burst into scarlet maples and golden birches. Families wander the Fly Creek Cider Mill & Orchard, where proprietor Bill Michaels still presses apples into cider and wine with equipment essentially unchanged since the late 1800s.

There’s a biblical resonance in this seasonal blaze — leaves fall like fleeting vanities, yet their glory points heavenward.

Cooperstown sits in the foothills of the Catskills at the southern tip of Otsego Lake, the long, narrow lake that James Fenimore Cooper immortalized as Glimmerglass in his “Leatherstocking Tales” series. The same shimmering waters and wooded hills also appeared in paintings by Thomas Cole and other artists of the Hudson River School, who helped define the first truly American landscape tradition.

Much of the village, founded by Cooper’s father, is well-preserved with a mix of architecture, including antebellum mansions. Then there’s The Otesaga. The grand, colonnaded hotel built in 1909 overlooks the lake and is a destination in itself.

Another landmark worth exploring is Christ Church (Episcopal), which the younger Cooper helped transform from a plain meeting house-style church into a textbook example of high Victorian Gothic Revival. Cooper’s grave lies in the churchyard.

The drive from Cooperstown, the seat of Otsego County, to Schoharie, the seat of Schoharie County, is a little more than 40 miles and takes just under an hour. The most picturesque route passes through several small towns and villages, each with one or two historic churches. Most are or were Methodist, a reflection of the circuit riders who seemingly planted a church at every crossroads.

With 916 residents, the village of Schoharie is smaller than Cooperstown and sits well off the tourist trail. For me, that was precisely the appeal. While both counties are rural at heart, Schoharie’s blend of farms, forest and foothills has a distinctive character shaped by the people who first settled there.

In the early 1700s, the German Palatines — Protestant refugees fleeing war and religious persecution in what is now Germany — came to this valley seeking the kind of opportunity that only America could provide. They cleared farms and built churches in the fertile bottomlands along the Schoharie Creek.

One such church, built just before the American Revolution, became the Old Stone Fort when the war reached the valley. Here and elsewhere, the revolution was really a civil war as families and neighbors split over what side to support.

After independence, the building reverted to church use, though by the late 19th century it was preserved as the county’s history museum.

The Palatine story is personified in Adam Vroman. One of the early settlers, his family survives in Vroman’s Nose, a striking rock outcrop that rises abruptly from the valley floor.

A moderately easy trail climbs through hardwood forest to a broad, flat ledge at the summit. The view in October looks as though it were painted by Cole himself: a patchwork of blazing red, orange and gold stretching across the valley; farm fields below still dotted with pumpkins and corn.

About 12 miles away is Cobleskill, which, with a population of 4,173, is the closest thing to a city in Schoharie County. Here, I picked up the Schoharie County Eagle Trail.

Over the years, I have followed wine trails, cheese trails and even historic church trails, but this was my first eagle trail. Launched a few years ago by local nature photographer Bill Combs with support and funding from the state, the route includes 18 designated stops where visitors can watch for America’s national bird.

Bald eagles — revered by the Iroquois long before the United States adopted the bird as a symbol — are often visible against the same brilliant foliage that draws leaf peepers.

Another highlight is the Landis Arboretum, located in the far northeast corner of the county. Its gardens, old-growth forests and 8 miles of trails are worth the detour.

Fall distills the essence of this region: vibrant colors, rich history and the enduring spirit of small-town America. For those seeking beauty and meaning beyond the baseball diamond, Otsego and Schoharie counties are the perfect destination this fall.

If you go

If you want that upscale hotel experience, then the only place to stay at is The Otesaga Resort Hotel, which carries a four-diamond rating from AAA. For something different, consider the Landmark Inn or one of the other old-school inns. Both are within walking distance of everything in Cooperstown.

Parrott House, a historic hotel dating back to 1870, will reopen with 19 rooms in downtown Schoharie after its ongoing renovation is complete. As of this writing, there’s no date set for the grand opening.

For restaurants, eat at the farm-to-table Farmers Beef and Brew in Schoharie, the 223-year-old Bull’s Head Inn in Cobleskill and Bocca Osteria and 1909 inside The Otesaga in Cooperstown.

The Old Stone Fort Museum is open through the end of October and then closed until May. A modest admission fee is charged.

Visitors can bundle admission to the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, the Fenimore Art Museum with its notable American art collection and Fenimore Farm and Country Village, which is like taking a time machine back to the mid-1800s, by buying the so-called Triple-Play Pass at the first museum visited.

The Landis Arboretum is free and open daily.

Dennis Lennox writes a travel column for The Christian Post.