July 2016
We follow a blog titled “Snowbird RV Trails”, click here to see their travel blog. They posted a blog on July 10, 2016 about the “Loop” through the Adirondack High Peaks. It looked very interesting, so we decided to give it a go.
This is very close to our campground.
The Adirondack Park is 6-million acres, that is larger than the state of Massachusetts. It is not a federal park, but almost half is owned by the State of New York and the other half is private land including farms, timberland’s, businesses, homes, camps and settlements. It is protected by the state constitution as a “forever wild” forest preserve. The Adirondack Forest Preserve is probably the most protected wilderness region in the nation.
High Peaks North Welcome center. The Adirondack Park consist of 3,000 lakes & ponds, more than 30,000 miles of rivers & streams; over 2,000 miles of well-maintained and relatively easy-to-walk trails and there are 44 mountains that are over 4000′ in elevation.
So I hope you can see this and follow along. We left the welcome center (noted on the map) heading north on I 87. We took the #30 exit on NY-73 and headed to Lake Placid, then NY-86 to Saranac Lake, then south on NY-3 to Tupper Lake, followed NY-30 south to Long Lake, then south again to Blue Mountain Lake, heading east on 30-28 to Indian Lake, to North River, through North Creek, continuing on NY-28 to Warrensburg and on to Lake George. Total trip was around 7 hours.
There is so much to see here. We did not get to everything, but saw a few of the highlights.
The scenery is beautiful.
Look, Elizabethtown…but we headed to Lake Placid.
The highest point in New York and the Adirondacks is Mt.Marcy at 5344′. That is not even as high as Mt.LeConte in the Smoky Mountains at 6593′. But it is so beautiful here.
The first town is Keene Valley. The brown and yellow sign you see on the left points to a trailhead. There are thousands of these signs on the roads in the Adirondacks. This one is pointing to Garden Trailhead.
There are nice houses everywhere up here.
Then into Keene.
You might notice that I sometimes include photos of fire stations and libraries, because I was a Construction Project Manager for building fire stations and libraries and I like to see what other towns are doing.
This place looked cool “Brew Castle”. The sign above the ice cooler is “Craft Beer, Ice, local food, trail snacks, groceries, Firewood”. What more could you want?
There are streams like this everywhere.
We are climbing.
With a river along the side of the road. (Sorry about the photo, too much reflection)
This is the only shot we got of the ski jumps at Lake Placid. Go to Snowbird RV Trails to see better photos. They wanted $7.00 a piece to get closer. We did not want to ride the ski lift up to the top, so this is all we got. Very impressive though, even from this far away. That is CRAZY high.
Lake Placid – home to the 1932 & 1980 Olympic Winter Games.
We missed the Horse Shows by 2 days. I bet it would have been fun.
Beautiful fields for the horse shows.
Lake Placid Winter Olympic Museum. We should have stopped, but we didn’t. Maybe next time.
Adirondack Community Church. It is so pretty, just look at the mountains in the background.
The village has a Swiss Alps kind of feel.
Cute downtown area.
Oh look, the Lake Placid Public Library. I bet it is cute inside.
Swiss Alps kind of feel.
Lake Placid has a lake!
It is very beautiful here. We could spend several days here and not see everything. Sorry we are just driving through. This would be a place I would like to come back to.
Nice place and I took this shot from a moving vehicle.
On to Saranac Lake, the Capital of the Adirondacks.
Beautiful water.
Nice houses on the water.
The capital of the Adirondacks. Cool looking building.
Looking downtown Saranac Lake.
Beautiful water everywhere.
Tupper Lake. We were looking forward to Tupper Lake and it was close to lunch time.
But we got there and all of the streets are torn up, and not just one, all of them.
The lake is beautiful though.
Check out this boathouse with 4 boat doors.
On to Long Lake.
This is still part of Tupper Lake
The center of town of Long Lake. Population in 2010 – 711.
The Lake is 14 miles long.
Welcome Aboard, Long Lake Boat Tours.
They have several float-planes on the lake. This blue one was taking off.
Beautiful canoes everywhere.
We decided to have lunch at the historic Adirondack Hotel.
Cute place and we got to eat out on the patio.
We had sandwiches for lunch and it was very pleasant.
The front desk of the hotel with a large Moose head. The young lady thought it came from Canada. She is from Oklahoma and liked our accent. Her husband is from here and they are working here for the summer.
After lunch we headed south on NY- 30/28 to Blue Mountain Lake.
And discovered the Adirondack Museum.
With a Large Adirondack chair. The map to the left of the chair shows the layout of this museum. 24 buildings and 121 acres. This will have to be another day. It is after 2:00 by now and we still have to get back to Lake George. (We did make it back and that will be the next blog post)
The Steamboat Landing store in Blue Mountain Lake. It would be fun to wander around in there.
This is Lake Durant, not a town, just a beautiful lake
From Blue Mountain Lake, we made it Indian Lake.
I love the metal Moose in the Lake.
Between North River and North Creek, we started to see a lot of whitewater rafting companies. Not much right here, but they must bus them up river.
And then there is a Howard Johnson’s Restaurant. I don’t think I have seen one of those is 45 years.
I hope you enjoyed the trip around the Loop. If you are ever in this area, don’t miss this place. Spend a little time in Lake Placid and the Adirondack Museum. That will be the next blog post.
