We left Syracuse
at 8.13 am. 690-481-90 (freeways we took to get closer to
Adirondacks) Normal and pleasant drive. Into the park. Nice and green
country. It was interesting and in a way strange, there were houses
along the road, however there were great distances between them. Nice
roads. Many small towns and villages (hardly ten to fifteen houses
that we could see). Forest, lakes and rivers. Not many places we
could stop or do something. There was some camping and probably water
activities, unfortunately the sightseeing was not the greatest (in
general the country was really nice looking), there was not many
places to visit easily. The park is collection of state and private
lands. It is well kept (mostly) and very manicured. Town of
Speculator, change the direction. Instead of east we drove south for
a while. Town of Northville on Great Lake Sacandaga. Small town, few
shops (J. visited and was not happy). Small park. Driving along the
lake to the town of Hadley. Some old buildings, water structures and
similar stuff. Lake George, a village, we drove through the main
street and were not happy with the tourist trap setting (shops with
shirts and bunch of trinkets). We tried to take another road to
Prospect Mountain, we found it and were not sure about it. There were
two tunnels underneath the freeway, I walked through to check it and
it looked fine. We drove through and continued for maybe two hundred
yards, the road was horrible and we ended up by small waterfall,
there was a “platform” and pretty much nowhere to go. We turned
around and drove back, Lake George Village again, busy and quite a
bit of traffic, a tourist trap, closed information center. Strange
place. We found the real way to the Prospect Mountain (state park),
had to pay an admission (ten dollars) and drove up to the mountain.
Three vista points (really nice view of the area). Big parking lot,
there was a shuttle running to the top (maybe third of a mile). Nice
views from the top, some remains of hotel and cable train that used
to be there in 1910s. Back in the village, our motel was further down
in town of Lake George which was bunch of shopping outlets. I was
craving a cake, so we drove to neighboring town of Glen Falls, a
river, a paper mill, very similar feel from the town – old and
industrial, some impressive huge houses and parts that seen better
days. I got a cake and we were done for a day. (Tuesday, May 28th
2013)
Lake George
morning, when we open the curtains we saw bunch of rain. The weather
was unfortunately against us. We took it really slow and easy. The
rain just kept going and going. Coffee. Interstate 87 for a bit and
then smaller roads inside the park. Town of Warrensburg. Few stops
along the Hudson river, cloudy and foggy. The rain stopped. At least
something. We decided to take a walk up to the Sawyer mountain, about
1.4 miles one way. It was nice and pleasant to start with, going up
it warmed up and there were more insect. Foggy. Muddy. Top of the
hill, nice views, unfortunately too humid and buggy. Walk down,
sweating and bothered by bugs. It was nice, the weather was not the
greatest. Back on the road. Rainy. Bunch of lakes, forest and time to
time a house. It is hard to describe the landscape or take a pictures
of a whole area. We almost missed the turn to the Buttermilk
waterfalls. It was probably 50 yards from the road. Really wide
falling water, in some way it looked like buttermilk. Nice stop. Rain
on and off. We stopped by Adirondack visitor center, smaller
exhibits, few trails around (we did not do them because it started to
rain again). Unfortunately they did not have many maps or brochures.
Small talk with the girl there (from Syracuse). Apparently the area
is very humid during summer. More driving, similar landscape, we
tried not to miss the turn to get onto interstate 87. For one exit on
the interstate, quick stop by the rest area (they had some maps and
leaflets). Off the interstate and heading to Lake Placid. The country
of High Peaks. Raining again. Few towns, green peaks and bunch of
rivers. Lake Placid. On the beginning of the town, there were two
towers (ski jumping), we turned there got close to it and parked.
There was a chairlift to the top of the ski jump towers. Except one,
all the towers had some type of surface for skiing without snow.
There were four guys jumping, it was pretty amazing. The town itself,
big stadium and some other large Olympics buildings. After that there
was main street with many shops and restaurants. Actually pretty
nice. We drove along and came back to check in into the hotel which
was on the beginning of the main street. We parked behind (even now
the main street was pretty busy) the hotel and walked to the
visitor's center (not much helpful). We walked along the main street
(J. went into few stores). On the way back to the hotel it started to
rain again (seriously). Sixth floor (the top one) of the hotel with
really nice view of the Mirror Lake. Not bad. (Wednesday, May 29th
2013)
Cloudy and foggy
view from our hotel room, probably the best view we ever had in a
hotel room. We were thinking about driving on the top of Whiteface
Mountain, but it did not look good for the views. We left Lake Placid
before nine o'clock. The landscape was even nicer and it was pleasant
to see that the Olympics did not do much damage to the area. About 7
miles north of Lake Placid was privately owned High Falls Gorge
(almost 12 dollars a person). Surprisingly, we seen many privately
run or owned natural places, interesting. Three or four cars there,
not too hot yet. We went in and walked on their bridges and walkways
along the gorge. To some degree it was surprisingly great, the falls
and water running through the gorge. One drawback, there was
incredible number of flies and mosquitoes and other insects that it
was more than unpleasant. Still, we were glad we saw the place (even
it was pretty short visit, as we decided not to take any of their
nature walks). Another 8 miles further north in the town of
Wilmington we had hard time to find Wildlife Refuge. Very narrow
driveway into the woods, small parking area on the dirt (seven cars
and it was already full, they opened at 10.00 and it was just few
minutes past that). We continued and hit the refuge area (few cages,
several houses and shed, pond in the middle), we were allowed to park
between the houses. It was somewhat confusing (the parked people had
about twelve small children) so we ended up with the older guy who
started to tell something about wolves and the place. The place was a
non-profit run by the couple (the guy was one of them, the lady was
walking with the children group). We talked about animals, life and
many other things and it was more than interesting. They had two
wolves as a “pets”, some owls and other birds etc. J. was really
happy to visit that place. It was almost noon when we left. We passed
through Lake Placid and were more less heading home (four hours
drive). For a while the country was really beautiful (Lake Placid and
then Lake Saranac) and afterward it slowly changed into nice and mild
country that we saw when we drove into Adirondacks. We stopped few
time, we had “picnic lunch” on the lake and kept driving. It got
warmer and sun was up and shining. Talk about good timing. For most
of the time the speed limit was 55 and there was not much to see, few
small villages, many lakes, some farms … the same. We drove into
the city of Watertown (just drove through) and got on the interstate
81. We had around 70 miles on that road (forest around the road,
nothing else), really exciting driving. Syracuse (the traffic is nice
– not really busy), unpacked the car and just relaxed. J. took a
bike ride to check the gym near by and enjoy full sun. I went to
sleep and J. had to stay up to switch for her work. (Thursday, May
30th 2013)
