Adirondack Mountains
Our summer 2019 family vacation is now in the book. This time we explored part Northeastern America. We flew to La Guardia as it offers the cheapest flight in the region and drove to the Adirondack Mountains, then to Ottawa and Quebec province in Canada. It was an easy relaxed short drives in between our stays in the major cities.
The Adirondacks
The Adirondacks book ended our whole trip as we spent our first 2 days and last day of the trip in the NE region. Our first stop was at Lake Placid and Saranac Lake area. Lake Placid is famously known as the home of the “Miracle on Ice” in which the underdog US men’s hockey team stole the gold medal from the four-time defending champions Soviet Union, which was the crowd’s favorite at that time. Lake Placid is the home of 1932 and 1980 Winter Olympics and has preserved historic memorabilia of winter athletics that will bring you back in time as you explore the Winter Olympic Museum. The downtown area is touristy and busy as offers shops, restaurants and hotels, yet it’s closely the Mirror Lake. We opted to spend the night at Saranac Lake around 9 miles west which is a serene and quaint downtown area with good selection of shopping and eating places. We stayed at the Saranac Lake Hotel which offers a great view of the town and good proximity to the lake. A trail is also connected from the shopping strip downtown to the river side and to the lake for a relaxing stroll. We had breakfast in the restaurant onsite and choose a pizza place close by for dinner. The hotel has a firepit next to the bar where we spent few hours to relax at night.
Lake Placid
Saranac Lake
Lake George
We spent our last day passing by the Ausable Chasm and spending early evening at Lake George. Ausable Chasm is a must see for first timers in the area. It has a breathtaking view of a very picturesque canyon and the river back drafted by a grand falls. We spent about 3 hours hiking at the gorge and rafting down the Ausible river. Lake George is the oldest most popular summer destination in NY. We missed the museum which offers a great historic literature about the area but we enjoyed soaking in the beach, dinner and music in the park.
Although Adirondack mountains is a popular destination on winter time, the activities and adventures it offers in summer time do not disappoint. We enjoyed the luscious natural resources from the pleasantly green waves of trees in the mountain ranges, thousand of lakes, rivers and falls. It offers great list of hiking, biking and driving adventures aside from the water sports. We proudly can say that we completed three recommended trails from the top list of Adirondack Hikes:
- Cobble Lookout in Wilmington Wild Forest and listed as one of the High Peak Trails – Its a 2.6 miles roundtrip hike in Cobble Hill near the gate entrance of the Whiteface Mountain Park. There is small parking lot couple of meters from the start of the trail. With tall trees all around, its shaded all throughout the foot trail. Some part are muddy but avoidable. There is a short climb on some ascending rock steps which are fun and easy. The end of the trail is an amazing view of unending mountain ranges with various shades of green until it turns to smoky gray shadowy mountain range far far away on summertime when we visited. We spend couple of minutes to enjoy the amazing view of Whiteface Mountain, Giant Mountain and Lake Champlain Valley. Few meters from the other side of the parking lot is another serene lake to enjoy. Be prepared to put in mosquito repellant as they abound in the woods. As they say, no pain to gain!
- Whiteface Mountain Summit in Wilmington, NY. This is #5 on the list of Adirondack 46er’s High Peak Trails. Its around 8-12 miles roundtrip hike depending on the trail you follow. Okay, we did not walk the full trail but we still enjoyed the scenic route drive and park at the summit castle. We even took the elevator crossing a tunnel going up to the peak. Yes, the peak is accessible by wheelchair. The highway and the elevator to the peak is a project of President Franklin Roosevelt (governor of NY at the time of construction) who wants to give accessibility to this amazing view to the disable, who himself was disable from waist down. This is one of the highest elevation in NY state the only high peak where you can enjoy the 360 degree view overlooking the Whiteface Mountain, the Green Mountain in Vermont and White Mountain of New Hampshire. It was a little cloudy when we were there so we missed to see the skyscrapers of Montreal which can be seen on a very clear day. Although we choose the easy way up, we opted to take the mile trail going back to the foot of the summit. It was man made trail but it is the most challenging, rocky and steep climb down all throughout the mile walk. The castle at the end with small cafe with nice view and restroom to use.
- Ausable Chasm Hiking Trail in Keeseville, NY. This is known as the little Grand Canyon at the Adirondacks and one of the oldest natural attraction in the US. The place offers a variety of family outdoor activities from hiking, rafting/tubing, camping and rock climbing that you can choose from. Refer to the website. We opted to do hiking and rafting and we spent about 3 hours in the afternoon. We hiked at the upper rim of the gorge on a well-maintained trail, a good length of rocky trail with several viewing lookout to the most scenic and picturesque gorge that runs a total of about 2.5 miles. I can spend more time taking pictures on all directions from north to south and top to bottom. We passed through Rainbow Falls, Elephant’s Head, Column Rock, Hyde’s Cave and relax on the eerie quiet of Mystic Gorge. The trails leads us to Table Rock where we hopped on a raft to get up close and personal with the river. You can also opt to do tubing but be ready to have a close water shoes on. The raft if about 1.5 miles of passing between the towering cliffs of the Grand Flume, the narrowest and deepest section of Ausable Chasm, admiring stunning rock formations such as the Sentry Box and Broken Needle before navigating through the rapids and around the Whirlpool Basin. I was so amazed that the exact place sits where the Canadian tectonic plate and the North Atlantic plate collides which was pointed out to us during the tour. Yes, it is a rare sight to see the plate above ground.
