Family Travel › Eastern Region › New York › Adirondack Adventure

Adirondack Adventure (page 2 of 4)

3. Fort Ticonderoga
Nearly every sign of commercialism quickly fades from view as the drive continues northward, offering excellent views of Lake George and its mountainous surroundings. Pulloffs here and there provide motorists with opportunities to pause and enjoy the scenery. Deer's Leap, at the base of steep-sided Tongue Mountain, commands a vista back toward the lake's southern end. Farther along, the community of Hague, snugly situated on the water's edge, has a park that is just right for picnics.

At its northern end Lake George flows through the narrow channel of the La Chute River into Lake Champlain -- a location so valuable in the past that it became known as the Key to the Continent. The French staked their claim on the area by building a fort on Champlain's shores in 1755, but a few years later the British captured the citadel, which they named Fort Ticonderoga. Years later, in one of the Revolutionaries' first victories, a force of independence-minded Americans -- led by Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold -- took the fort in a surprise attack in 1775.

Their victory was destined to be famous, but it was short-lived: the British regained the fort in 1777. Exhibits at Ticonderoga's museum tell the story of its past. (Come summer, a part of that past is reenacted with demonstrations of early soldiering that include cannon firings and fife-and-drum marching bands in period costumes.) As an added bonus, the views from the fort are splendid, looking out across the water to the Vermont shore and the distant peaks and ridges of the Green Mountains.

4. Paradox Lake
Changing direction, the drive next swings toward the west as it follows Rte. 74 to Paradox Lake. (The "paradox" lies in the fact that, in times of high water caused by floods, the lake's outlet, overwhelmed by the Schroon River, becomes an inlet.) Many other lakes, though smaller, are spotted throughout the surrounding countryside, a woodland crisscrossed by hiking trails.

5. High Peaks
Rte. 9 guides motorists northward beside the Schroon River to Rte. 73, a serpentine drive that leads into the heart of the high-climbing Adirondack Mountains. Elevations often exceed 4,000 feet in this area, where the rounded dome of Mt. Marcy -- nicknamed the Cloud -- Splitter-reigns as the tallest of all the state's peaks. Its peak tops off at 5,344 feet. Embellishing the undulating beauty of the High Peaks region are its many waterways. The narrowest of brooks and the swiftest of streams splash down the slopes in all directions. They collect in lakes and ponds, many of which are situated in glacier-carved basins and U-shaped valleys that have become gathering places for wildlife.

Pine trees hem in Rte. 73 as it continues to twist and turn to idyllic Chapel Pond, where you'll drive through the mighty jaws of a deep gorge. Rock climbers come to scale the high cliffs, which also happen to be an important nesting ground for the endangered peregrine falcon. (To ensure that the birds are not disturbed, climbers are not permitted on certain cliffs during the birds' nesting season.)

Farther on, after dipping into a broad valley, the drive heads into the town of Keene. A side detour from there diverts to the west to the High Peaks Wilderness, where travelers can park and then head out on foot to sample some of the scenery afforded by the 238 miles of hiking trails that lace the area.

The trail to the summit of nearby Mt. Jo, a round-trip of less than two miles, is a fairly easy hike that culminates with a panoramic view of the sculpted summits. Lofty Mt. Marcy can also be climbed by trail, a trek -- very difficult in places -- that ascends amid maples, birches, alders, and spruces on its way to the treeless summit. Looking down, hikers can see tiny Lake Tear-of-the-Clouds, the extreme headwater of the Hudson River.