Adirondacks

The Adirondack Park is both the largest and the first government-protected park in the United States#Geography|contiguous United States. It covers a vast expanse—bigger than New Hampshire—of rugged, thickly wooded, mountainous terrain in northeast New York State. The Adirondacks are a popular destination for all lovers of outdoor activities, from hiking and skiing to ice and rock climbing. ==Towns and villages== As the Adirondacks are for the most part protected parkland and there are no major city's. The strict restrictions on development do not apply within the various incorporated villages which were already extant at the time of the park's creation, but the largest of these settlements have no more than a few thousand permanent inhabitants ===Eastern Lakes=== Adirondacks_regions_map2 - 600px This region is directly south of Plattsburgh at the southern edge of Lake Champlain, along I-87 or US-9.

• Chester (New York) | Chester GPS 43.677,-73.847 — Chestertown plus several surrounding hamlets and lakeside communities on the other side of the Northway from Lake George.
• Crown Point (New York) | Crown Point GPS 43.950,-73.437 — Ruins of former British fortress (and site of an earlier French fortress) near a bridge to Vermont.
• Elizabethtown (New York) | Elizabethtown GPS 44.192,-73.594 — The Adirondack History Center Museum is a former school house which houses a local history museum.
• Essex (New York) | Essex GPS 44.310,-73.352 — Historic federal town in Essex County, once a War of 1812 shipbuilding facility, now a small agricultural village with well preserved early 1800s architecture, galleries, marinas and access to the Champlain Area Trails network.
• Lake George GPS 43.609,-73.567 — Vacation spot in upstate New York situated on a lake.
• Ticonderoga GPS 43.858,-73.454 — Home of Fort Ticonderoga, a Revolutionary War Site.
• Westport (New York) | Westport GPS 44.184,-73.435 — Cottage country and birthplace of the popular wooden Adirondack chair ===High Peaks===
• Keene (New York) | Keene GPS 44.26,-73.79 and Keene Valley — Great rock and ice climbing, hiker's gateway to the Adirondacks.
• Tahawus GPS ,(aka Adirondac or McIntyre) — An iron and titanium mining ghost town north of Newcomb GPS ,}}; fewer than ten buildings remain, ===Old Forge and Western wilderness===
• Blue Mountain Lake GPS 43.855,-74.438 - A small hamlet in the town of Indian Lake. Midpoint on the Northern Forest Canoe Trail, hosts the Adirondack Museum.
• Old Forge GPS 43.71,-74.97 - A small town which serves as the Western gateway to the area from the Mohawk Valley and is the starting point for the Northern Forest Canoe Trail

Tri-Lakes and Northwest

• Jay (New York) | Jay GPS 44.375,-73.728 - Home of the Covered Bridge
• Lake Placid GPS 44.285,-73.985 - Host to two Winter Olympiads (1932 and 1980), it's now a charming, but tourist town.
• Saranac Lake GPS 44.326,-74.131 - An "All American City", this village is host to North Country Community College and adjoins a tiny hamlet which houses Paul Smith's College.
• Tupper Lake GPS 44.233,-74.466 - Home of the Natural History Museum of the Adirondacks.
• Wilmington (New York) | Wilmington GPS 44.388,-73.815 - Near Lake Placid. Home of Whiteface Mountain and the North Pole (New York) Santa theme park ===Great Sacandaga and Southern Woods===
• Lake Pleasant GPS 43.470,-74.413
• Northville (New York) | Northville GPS 43.225,-74.175}}

More Destinations

• Whiteface Mountain, near Wilmington, is a major Olympic alpine ski destination.

Introduction

{{Cautionbox|The lands of the state, now owned or hereafter acquired, constituting the forest preserve as now fixed by law, shall be forever kept as wild forest lands. They shall not be leased, sold or exchanged, or be taken by any corporation, public or private, nor shall the timber thereon be sold, removed or destroyed.|author=New York State Constitution (1894), Article VII, Section 7

History

Tourism to the Adirondacks was initially spurred by the 1849 publication of Joel Tyler Headley's Adirondack; or, Life in the Woods and by rail travel in the United States|passenger rail travel. Thomas C. Durant's 1871 Adirondack Railway and the first of multiple lines into the region in an perioid of wildly-speculative rail construction, is now the Saratoga and North Creek Railway (a legacy railways|legacy railway). Because of the relative ease by which rail brought New York City and Albany's wealthy elite northward, by 1875 there were more than two hundred hotels in the Adirondacks and the well-to-do were building "Great Camps" along the lakefronts as recreational property. A Dr. Ed Trudeau, great-grandfather of Doonesbury cartoonist Garry Trudeau, opened a tuberculosis clinic (the Adirondack Cottage Sanitarium) in Saranac Lake in 1884, believing the cold, clear mountain air of the region to aid in medical recovery. Hundreds of "cure cottages", houses with large, glass-enclosed porches where patients would take in the mountain air, were constructed in this era. Robert Louis Stevenson, author of 'Treasure Island' and 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde', spent the winter of 1887-88 in Saranac Lake writing 'The Master of Ballantrae.' Sixty-three of the cottages still remain on the National Register of Historic Places, although the introduction of suitable antibiotics in the mid-1940s largely eradicated tuberculosis a decade later. In the immediate post-Civil War era, logging caused extensive deforestation in the southern Adirondacks, with the topsoil runoff fed directly into the Hudson Valley|Hudson River and Erie Canal watersheds. Adirondack Park was created by New York State in 1892 to protect key natural resources, including freshwater and timber. Waterways which fed from the park into the Erie Canal system and to the Hudson were seen as vital to the continued contribution of the canal to New York's commercial shipping industry. The Adirondack Forest Preserve (the part of the Adirondack Park under state control) was listed as a National Historic Landmark in 1963 and attracts several million visitors annually Landscape=== Giant's Washbasin - A small mountain lake east of the High Peaks The Adirondack region is mountainous with about three thousand small lakes, many streams and extensive old-growth forests. Forty-two of the 46 Adirondack High Peaks are above 4,000 feet (1,219 m), with the remaining four (Blake Peak, Cliff Mountain, Nye Mountain and Couchsachraga Peak) just under four thousand feet in height. Whiteface Mountain, near Wilmington and Lake Placid, served as a winter Olympic ski venue in 1980; in summer, a trail is open for mountain biking ===Flora and fauna=== There are 53 known species of mammals in the park; various attempts have been made (with varying success) to introduce or re-introduce beaver, elk, fishers, American marten, moose, Canadian lynx and ospreys. Deer are plentiful. Hawks, owls, fox and weasels have been known to prey upon many species desired by hunters. Wolves and cougars also prey upon other species in the park. Hunting and fishing are allowed in some portions of the Adirondack Park, but are strictly regulated. Some portions are protected from human encroachment as wilderness areas.

Weather in Adirondacks

Climate during the winter months can be severe, with temperatures occasionally falling below −30°F. The air is cold and clear.

Travel to Adirondacks

Southeastern High Peaks from Giant Mountain - The High Peaks from Giant Mountain ===Travel by vehicle to Adirondacks=== From New York City|NYC, Albany and Montraal: The main route along the eastern edge of the Adirondacks is Interstate 87, commonly known as "the Northway." There are no tolls north of Albany on I-87; the highway continues north through Montraal (as Autoroute 15) into the Laurentians. The Northway has stunning vistas of the mountains, but limited services north of Lake George. From North Country|Northern New York: From Watertown (New York) | Watertown, take NY 3 (Arsenal Street, Watertown's main street) through the park to Saranac Lake. It's also feasible to reach the park from the north side by taking US 11 to Malone (New York) | Malone and then turning south on NY 30. From Utica -Rome (New York) | Rome: NY 28 runs north into the park from Herkimer; to pick up NY 28 from Utica use NY 12 northbound, from Rome use NY 365. From Vermont: The Green Mountain State is largely separated from the Adirondacks by Lake Champlain. This means crossing by ferry, but there is a Lake Champlain Bridge between the Chimney Point state historic site (on VT 17) and the Crown Point (New York) | Crown Point historic area (in the park, on NY 185). Another option is to head south and miss the lake entirely (so Fairhaven and Rutland (Vermont) | Rutland VT to Lake George is overland). Traffic originating at the northernmost edge of the state (St. Albans, Jay Peak) takes the US 2 bridge at the north end of the lake to Champlain and Rouses Point and then follows I-87 or US-9 through Plattsburgh to the park.

See also: US without a car There is limited Trailways intercity bus travel in the US|bus service from Rochester, Syracuse and Albany to points north including Keene Valley, Lake Placid, Tupper Lake and Plattsburgh.

Travel by train to Adirondacks

See also: Amtrak

Amtrak's aptly named Adirondack train runs between Montreal, Quebec and Penn Station in New York City. Stops in-region include Port Kent (seasonal, Burlington VT ferry dock), Westport (New York) ]], [[ Westport (connection to Lake Placid bus), Port Henry, Ticonderoga and Whitehall. The train leaves Montreal at 9:30AM daily and New York at 8:30AM. The trip takes roughly 10 hours but expect delays at the border crossing. It used to be one of the most delayed in the whole Amtrak system, but recently some of the issues causing delays have been addressed, notably improving on-time performance ===Travel by boat to Adirondacks=== The main Plattsburgh-Burlington ferry crossing runs from Grande Isle VT (west of Colchester across the US 2 bridge) directly to Plattsburgh; from there, take I-87/US-9 south to the park. There are also Vermont/Lake Champlain ferry crossings within the park:

• A ferry crosses from Burlington (Vermont) to Port Kent, near Keeseville
• A ferry crosses from Charlotte VT to Essex (New York)
• A ferry crosses from Larrabees VT to Ticonderoga

Travel by plane to Adirondacks

• Cape Air provides subsidised Essential Air Service twice-daily to Saranac Lake from Boston and a similar service to Plattsburgh.
• Additional flights are available in Burlington, Montreal/West Island]], [[ Watertown in the west. The primary streets around the High Peaks region are Route 73 to the north and east which runs through Lake Placid, routes 3 and 30 through Tupper Lake to the West and route 28N and Boreas road to the South. Fuel stations are available about every 20 miles in these areas.

Travel by train to Adirondacks

The Adirondack Scenic Railroad runs a tourist trains]], -74.3