Attractions
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In addition to its spectacular natural beauty, its mountains and lakes and forests, the Adirondacks offers a unique mix of manmade or man enhanced attractions. These include walkways and rafting trips through deep canyons, cable cars to high mountains, cruises across vast lakes, the whole Olympic experience, museums, historic sites, caves, a major amusement park, breweries, cideries, wineries, a log furniture making center, maple farms and scenic drives. There's more to do here than you can do in a week. You either need two or three weeks, or you need repeat visits. You also need to remember just how big this park is. The roads across it are narrow and winding. You should plan carefully so you group two or three attractions in one area and cover them in one trip. Foer example, you should do all the Olympic sites in one day at Lake Placid. You can stop at Whiteface Mountain, High Falls Gorge and Ausable Chasm in one trip to the northeast corner, and Fort William Henry, the Lake George cruise and one of the wineries in one trip to Lake George. |
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Most people begin their first visit to the Adirondacks with a day long visit to the U.S. Olympic Training Center and Museum in Lake Placid. The core of this center is shown at left. The original 1932 Center is the building at right. For the 1980 Olympics they added the center and left buildings which include the Museum and the famous Hockey Rink. The Speed Skating Rink is seen at lower left. The complex seen here is only the core. The Bobsledding Center, Ski Jump Center and Downhill Skiing Slopes are outside town about 5-10 minutes drive. You buy a single ticket at the Visitor Center here, and it includes everything here plus the outlying facilities, a map and schedule. The schedule is needed because it tells you at what time which day the various athletes will be practicing. A ticket allows you to go in and watch. |
A visit to the Museum is worth a couple of hours and concludes with a tour of the famous Miracle On Ice Rink where the American hockey team, mostly composed of college students, upset the greatest hockey team of all time and supposedly unbeatable Russians. The video of the final minutes is shown continually in the Museum and brings tears to the eyes of many viewers. It remains one of the greatest upsets in the history of Sport. Any sport. The U.S. Hockey Team still trains here, as do U.S. figure skaters. You're welcome to sit and soak in the ambience and watch whoever is training at the time. |
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The morning we were there the U.S. figure skaters were using the rink so we sat for about an hour watching. It's a whole different experience from watching their polished performances on TV. Here, they're building their routines step by step, going back and repeating them over and over until they work out any glitches and get their timing down. You get to see them separating out the different maneuvers and polishing them before combining them into the more complex routines. It actually gives you more appreciation for how difficult their skills are, since what to them are the most basic moves are far beyond what average skaters can do. |
| Out at the Ski Jump Center, you can take an elevator to the top of the track. During warmer months they pour oiled water down the slopes to simulate ice. The afternoon we were here the U.S. Juniors were practicing. We watched for about an hour. As many Olympics as we've watched, until this day we never knew the skiiers actually place their skiis in tracks coming down the chute. In the photo the tracks are in the center. So the skiier cannot move left or right until they leave the track and soar into the air. |
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The Bobsled Center also uses oiled water to simulate ice during warmer months. The track is covered so it's not as easy to watch the athletes practicing. But when they're not practicing, you can ride a bobsled yourself. Sort of. One retired bobsledder rides in front and steers. One retired bobsledder rides in back and brakes. You ride sandwiched between them and hold on for dear life while you travel so fast everything is just a blur and you keep leaning from left to right. No roller coaster you've ever ridden equals this experience. This facility is still used for various world competitions. |
They can't simulate snow with oiled water on an entire mountain, so Olympic skiiers train at Park City, Utah. But you can still ride the gondola to the top of Whiteface Mountain, see the ski slopes, and enjoy the views looking out across the entire Adirondacks. You're looking down on both the town Lake Placid and the lake it's named after. You can see most of the High Peaks and many of the other lakes. However, your Olympic ticket does not work here, so you have to pay to ride the gondola. Pay it. The ride up and down is certainly worth it and the view is incredible.
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Only a few miles from the base of Whiteface Mountain is High Falls Gorge. This is a spectacular gorge with an amazing network of walkways and bridges allowing you to view it closeup. You pay a fee to hike it to support the never ending maintenance of these walkways and bridges, which suffer a tremendous beating from ice in the Winter and powerful high water during Spring runoff. They have to rebuild at least some of these walkways every year. This is worth at least an hour and probably two. You can hike partway and return, but we recommend hiking the entire length. It's truly beautiful. |
Ausable Chasm is the ultimate canyoneering experience in the Adirondacks. You walk along swinging bridges and steel staircases above and alongside waterfalls and rapids. You can take just the walking tour, but we recommend the combination walking/rafting tour that finishes with your boarding a raft, passing through the most spectacular part of the gorge, then descending a series of rapids. A guide points out geologic insights and navigates the raft. Figure on several hours here. Ausable Chasm is not only the most unique and spectacular experience in the Adirondacks. It's one of the most unique and spectacular experiences in the nation. Like High Falls Gorge, these bridges, walkways and stairs take a tremendous beating from ice in Winter and raging floods in the Spring, and must be repaired or rebuilt every year. |
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Another Must during your Adirondack visit is a cruise on the Lac du Saint Sacrament. This is a three hour cruise halfway up Lake George on a historic steamboat. It's an incredibly beautiful lake and in October is set against a backdrop of brightly colored leaves. You go as far up as a narrow passage through a series of islands. There is a six hour cruise which goes all the way to the top of the lake, but it only runs a few times a year, requires reservations, and only runs on weekends. Even the Saint Sacrament sells out and requires reservations a day in advance. The cruise departs from the waterfront in downtown Lake George. Go early and wait; as passengers return from the previous cruise they'll open up parking spaces in the public lot across the street. No matter how warm you think it is, take a sweater or jacket. There's a cool breeze blowing down from the mountains and the boat itself is moving fast so creates its own breeze. Remember sunscreen; you'll be out on the lake for three hours and the sun reflecting back up from the water can burn. You might want to take your own snacks and beverages. The best seats are in the bow section up front, but they're also the windiest. |
| You also Must spend a few hours at Fort William Henry at Lake George. This was a key fort in the French & Indian War. James Fenimore Cooper, who vacationed here every year and studied local history, immortalized the fort in his classic novel Last of the Mohicans. There are living history demonstrations of the rifles and muskets of the day, of the cannon, and of other aspects of life at the fort. They show the film Last of the Mohicans on continuous loop. 80 years before the Alamo, "Remember William Henry!" became the rallying cry against the French and the Huron and turned the war in England's favor. |  |
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The Adirondack Museum, officially titled The Adirondack Experience, is in Blue Mountain Lake in the center of the park. This is a very professional and extensive museum and will take all or most of a day. There's a very good lunch restaurant on the grounds. Exhibits cover everything from the history of the canoe and Adirondack watercraft, Native Americans, the logging industry, railroads and early transportation, to the rise of the Great Camps and early Tourism to Adirondack Art. Each of these takes up an entire building. There's also the best gift shop in the park. This is a great place to spend a rainy day. The only criticism anyone has is that the museum does not do an adequate job of covering the Native Americans. But it does a great job of everything else. |
| The Wild Center is a 115 acre, five building museum of Adirondack Natural History. USA Today terms this "the finest science museum in the country." The New York Times and Wall Street Journal call it "stunning" and "an outstanding experience." It contains elevated walkways above the treetops, the National Otter Center, a wide screen theater, guided nature walks, a canoe trip down the river, and live Otters, Beaver, Owls, Eagles, Turtles, Fish and other animals everywhere and many hands on exhibits. Especially if you have kids along, you can spend a whole day here. If you don't you can still spend at least half a day. It's in Tupper Lake in the western part of the park. |  |
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