A couple weekends ago, S and I took a few days and drove up to the Adirondacks in New York. We somehow tend to end up in the mountains in the fall, and lo and behold, here we were again. It was also the first time we’d been away from C for more than a night since he was born, which was definitely harder on S than him (he’s an independent little kid, and doesn’t display any signs of separation anxiety or the like – if he has food and something to do, he doesn’t care who he’s with). So we had a nice extended weekend of just the two of us. In the end, it wasn’t the best trip we’ve been on, but it was still nice to get away.. The weather was crummy, so we didn’t get to do much of what we had planned, and it definitely put a damper on things.
We left Thursday afternoon and spent the night in Utica, which is right outside the park. The drive was only about six hours from Cleveland, so not too bad. Friday morning we hit the road, and headed up Rt 30, which kind of bisects the park, and is one of the many scenic byways in the area. The weather wasn’t too bad on Friday, at least partially sunny, and probably around 60. We got to do a couple hikes, and were able to climb Bald Mtn. and Mt. Baker. As is always the case, I underestimated the time required to hike them (only 2 miles round trip? Shouldn’t be that bad…), so we ended up running a little behind. The views were nice though – it really is a beautiful area, and I wish we’d had some more time (and nicer weather) to be able to explore a bit more. We ended the day at the Lakeview Inn B&B in Schroon Lake, which was our home base for the trip.
Saturday we awoke to rain, in what was to be a common theme for the rest of the weekend. Because of that, we didn’t do any of the planned mountain hikes for the day. I enjoy climbing, but if we’re climbing into a cloud and can’t see anything, there’s not much point to that. So we checked out a waterfall and covered bridge, and drove some more scenic routes, though we couldn’t really see most of the scenic parts.
Sunday was also rainy, but not as consistent as Saturday. We saw a couple more waterfalls (at least the rain was good for something), some more scenic stuff, and walked around in Lake Placid for a while. It’s a cute little town – definitely the most touristy of the cute little towns that we saw, but it was still nice.
On Monday, as we were getting ready to head back home, it of course started to clear up, and we had a nice sunny drive through New York…
Final verdict: weather-wise, we picked the wrong weekend to go – the following weekend was 70s and sunny, but we worked with the timing we had, I suppose. It was a very pretty area; lots of lakes and streams, the trees were nice, and I always like mountains. I’d definitely go back, and probably for more than three days – it would be a good place to go camping. Much of it was rather secluded, so we didn’t have to deal with a lot of traffic or people. The highlight of the trip was the food – we found some great local restaurants, which I’ll try to review later. In spite of the weather, I’d recommend it.
The last time we saw the sun until the trip home.
That low cloudbank was the recurring theme.
We spent a lot of time in the Adirondacks when we lived in Albany, since the park starts only a couple of hours from there. We haven’t been back since we moved, but I suspect there will be many camping trips in the Adirondacks with Cubby when he’s bigger.
God help me. I do not like camping.
Your pictures are beautiful! I spent some time there during college on the wilderness trips. I’m a little jealous that you can easily drive there for a long weekend.
Beautiful pictures, thanks for sharing!