It is thought that the word “Adirondack” comes from the Mohawk word “ha-de-ron-dah” meaning “eater of trees.” Trees of many varieties densely blanket the hills and mountains in this region, covering about 5,000 square miles of northeastern Upstate New York — that’s bigger than Yosemite, Glacier, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, and Great Smokey National Parks combined. Forty-six mountain peaks, known as the Adirondack High Peaks, each rise approximately 4,000 feet over this region known for fishing, hiking, skiing, boating, camping, and the simple enjoyment of nature and the outdoors.
Day one of our road trip started by driving east on the N.Y. State Thruway as far as Syracuse, then heading north via Route 81 (Exit 36) towards Watertown. It took three and a half hours to reach Watertown, where we stopped for a lunch break at Maggie’s On The River. Located in a remodeled warehouse, formerly home to the Watertown Thermometer Company, it features original brick walls and exposed beams to create a rustic atmosphere, and serves generous portions for lunch. There’s seating outdoors, great for watching the rapids of the Black River that runs at the building’s back.
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Two hours later, we arrived at the Saranac Waterfront Lodge (250 Lake Flower Ave., Saranac Lake, NY; saranacwaterfrontlodge.com), which would be our “home base” for two nights. Located directly on the shore of Lake Flower’s Pontiac Bay and only open since May 2021, it features sweeping views of the Adirondack waterfront, 93 guest rooms, indoor heated pool with hot tub, fitness facility, bike rentals, and water sports rentals (paddle boards, canoes, single/double seat kayaks). Guests have a choice of two on-site restaurants — the Boathouse Saranac Lake Pub which offers casual dining for breakfast, lunch, and dinner indoors, as well as lakeside (weather permitting); intimate fine dining at Harvest, a new chef-driven restaurant that offers a true farm-to-table experience; and the Navigator’s Lounge lobby bar which offers fireside seating for your morning coffee or an evening cocktail. Outdoors, you can relax in Adirondack chairs, which surround a fire pit facing the lakefront. The hotel also has a large event space, seating 150 people, perfect for a family reunion or a lakeside wedding. If driving to the Adirondacks in an electric vehicle, you’ll find ample charging stations on the lodge’s property.
The hotel is a short walk from the downtown arts district of the Village of Saranac Lake where you’ll find art galleries, murals, sidewalk art, restaurants, and shops.
Families will delight in the Adirondack Carousel (2 Depot Street, in William Morris Park, Saranac Lake; adirondackcarousel.org), which celebrates old-fashioned fun for all ages. The Adirondack Carousel carvers were selected based on their skills, carving sophistication, structural characteristics, and quality of trappings and embellishments after careful review of submitted bios and photos of previous work. Each agreed to select an animal found in the Adirondack Park, to decorate with Adirondack-related articles, flora, and fauna — and to include a ladybug somewhere on the animal! The result is a charming collection of out-of-the-ordinary carousel creatures including a large mouth bass, beaver, black bear, blue heron, fox, loon, otter, and more.
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The highlight of our Saranac Lake visit was actually 25-minutes away in Tupper Lake. The Wild Center (45 Museum Drive, Tupper Lake, NY; thewildcenter.org) is a one-of-a-kind destination. This new kind of museum mixes indoor and outdoor education about the natural world in a unique way, for both children and adults. Designed by the same firm that designed the National Air and Space Museum on the Mall in Washington, D.C., and opened in 2006, The Wild Center has been described as “stunning” by The New York Times, while The Boston Globe proclaimed it “the place to see.” We heartily agree!
While there is much to see inside the Center, we saved that part of the museum for last because we couldn’t wait to explore the outdoor Wild Walk, a trail across the treetops that includes a four-story twig tree house and swinging bridges, a human-sized spider’s web hovering 24-feet off the ground, and a 10-foot wide bald eagle’s nest where visitors can climb in and imagine life as one of these majestic birds.
Other trails in the forest include places where kids can burn off that extra energy by trying out a swing hung between two trees, walking a low balance beam, climbing on a huge tree stump, or shimmying through a hollowed-out log in the Pines Wild Play area that allows for imaginative, creative play.
Inside the Center’s 54,000 square foot building, which gets 10 percent of its power from the solar panels on its roof (the rest is generated by Niagara Falls!), you’ll watch fish swim over your head, see a massive, moving glacial ice wall that describes how the last ice age carved the modern Adirondacks, watch the Center’s resident North American river otters play, and learn about many aspects of the natural world, and the more than 2,000 live creatures that live in it, through many hands-on, interactive exhibits. All of the animals at the Center are rehabilitated, having been injured or abandoned.
We received a behind-the-scenes tour of what will become a new permanent exhibit the first week in July — Climate Solutions, designed to help you find your place in the climate effort. At the “Tinkering Studio,” kids will be able to build their own mini electric car and wind turbine. “Creature Feature” will allow guests to meet and learn about different animals twice a day, such as a porcupine or a turtle.
Your family can easily spend an entire day exploring The Wild Center, and we can guarantee they’ll love it, young and old alike!
We kept our fingers crossed that the weather would remain dry for a busy second day, which involved more outdoor activities. We checked out of the hotel early in the morning so that we could make the 1 hour and 15 minute drive east to Ausable Chasm (2144 US-9, Ausable Chasm, NY; ausablechasm.com) in order to arrive close to their 9am opening time. The Chasm opened in 1870, just five years after the end of the Civil War, and is one of our nation’s first organized tourist attractions. More than 11 million visitors have witnessed what Mother Nature provided through 15,000 years of formation — a uniquely-carved, vertical-walled canyon composed of 500 million year old rock — Potsdam sandstone.
The gorge is about 2 miles long and the chasm ranges from 20 to 50 feet wide at points, and from 100 to 200 feet deep. With its rapids, waterfalls, and curious rock formations it offers a variety of adventures for visitors of different ages and abilities.
Five different trails are color coded and range from the Rim Walk Trail (easiest), Inner Sanctum Trail (intermediate), River Walk Trail (intermediate, helmet required and closest to the water’s edge), Dry Chasm Trail (more difficult, featuring wilderness style hiking on rugged, natural terrain), and Adventure Trail (most challenging, exploring by via ferrata — a via ferrata is a protected climbing route characterized by a steel cable that runs along the rock, offering a unique and awe-inspiring journey through the chasm. Climbers crisscross over the raging river on a fully-guided, unique via ferrata that features cable bridges, a cargo net climb, and edge walks. Not for the faint of heart (literally, not recommended for guests with a heart condition, back or neck injury, pregnant, etc.) and guests under 18 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian and pass weight and arm reach requirements.
A variety of tours are available, including tubing down the chasm, which had not yet begun for the season during our visit, but we chose the “Classic Tour.” This 2-part tour includes a 1-mile walk along the chasm’s stone walkways, bridges, and stairs, which ends as you descend to the loading dock where you’ll board a bright blue raft and float through the narrowest and deepest part of the chasm.
We were two of the four adults seated at the back of our raft and the four of us were given paddles to help the guide seated at the back maneuver the raft. Three children and a dad sat right up front. Everyone is fitted with the proper life jacket and given instructions on how to float on their back with their arms out to the side and their toes pointed downstream should they be tossed out of the raft. The likelihood of this happening is slim, but it did cross our minds as our raft wound up going down the rapids backwards! Thankfully, the rapids were rather tame, but that can change depending on how much water is in the chasm — storms bring rising waters.
Tickets for the Classic Tour start with children ages 5 and up, so we figured the risk of encountering a problem was minimal. When you reach the end of your raft ride, you can take a trolley back up to the Welcome Center where you started.
Ausable Chasm also has its own campground and cabins. There’s a café in the Welcome Center, as well as restrooms and a gift shop.
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Once we had conquered the chasm, we turned south on Route 9 to reach Fort Ticonderoga (102 Fort Ti Road, Ticonderoga, NY; fortticonderoga.org), another 1 hour and 15 minute drive. It was interesting to compare this fort to our own Old Fort Niagara. We arrived at 2pm, just as a formation of soldiers was marching through the Fort entrance to join other uniformed soldiers in preparing a cannon to fire — a fairly long and complicated process, but intriguing to watch as commands were issued, soldiers worked as a team, and smoke eventually rose as the cannon was fired as if it were the 1700s.
The Fort, originally named Fort Carillon, was built by French forces in 1755, on the shores of Lake Champlain, between New York’s Adirondacks and Vermont’s Green Mountains. Many cannons surround its outer walls. The Fort was important as one of North America’s most strategic strongholds as part of the struggle for the continent in the 18th century.
The fort featured prominently in the French and Indian War, where in 1758 nearly 16,000 British troops suffered almost 2,000 casualties assaulting French positions at the Fort. In 1759, another English advance forced the French to blow up Fort Carillon’s powder magazine and retreat. The fort was then renamed Ticonderoga, which is said to be derived from an Iroquois word meaning “where the waters meet.”
In 1775 Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold’s men, including the Green Mountain Boys of Vermont, captured the fort’s still-sleeping small British garrison in a surprise attack. This Battle of Fort Ticonderoga, though small, was the first American victory of the Revolutionary War.
Today, visitors can walk in the footsteps of these legendary leaders. Tailors and shoemakers demonstrated their skills in various parts of the fort’s barracks. Exhibit galleries showcase the Fort’s world class collections. Special tours and programs take place during the height of the summer season.
Down the road from the Fort, we visited the King’s Garden, the largest public garden in the Adirondack and Lake Champlain region and one of North America’s oldest gardens. A short distance away from the garden, we took a path down to Lake Champlain’s edge to board the Carillon, a 60-foot replica of a 1920s 1000 Island cruise boat, for a 75-minute cruise narrated in great detail by a young costumed soldier.
Although we did not take advantage of it, you can also drive up Mount Defiance to get an impressive birds-eye view of Ticonderoga’s military landscape from high above. If you’ve purchased admission to the Fort, you’ll be given a token to open the gate for access to Mount Defiance.
The Adirondacks is also home to Lake Placid and Saratoga Springs which can be added to your travel route before returning to Buffalo if you have the extra time to explore.
Michele Miller is the founder, editor, and publisher of WNY Family. Photo credits: Gail Root, Michele Miller, The Wild Center, and Fort Ticonderoga.