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The Adirondacks – ADK
- Kayla Marker
- Jul 13, 2022
- 6 min read
Well, if you haven’t heard already, Dakota and I had to make some adjustments to our East Coast Road Trip. Ultimately, the cost of gas got the best of us, and we just couldn’t swing it anymore – comfortably and anxiety free anyways. But, luckily for us we are flexible and used some of our traveling tips (that you can read about on our page) to make some adjustments. It wasn’t easy (it was like a little kid being told she couldn’t go to Disney), but we still had a great time and made lots of memories.
We made our way from Ohio to New York where we visited my family for a few days and attended my sister’s high school graduation. From there, we drove to Plattsburgh, New York (AKA North Country) where we visited my friend Emily for a few days. We had planned to do this originally, but now that we changed our plans, we were able to add another night with her and then we went back to Kent instead of continuing on to New Hampshire.
Let me tell you, that drive was soooo beautiful. Although I’ve lived in New York for 21 years, shamefully, I’ve never driven (myself) past Syracuse. I’ve been to NYC a few times, and to the Adirondacks once (10 years ago), but I don’t remember much, and have never myself driven on I-90 past the Finger Lakes region exits. I was pleasantly surprised once we got on I-87 North at Saratoga Springs by the sight of mountains and crisp air (for a 90-degree day that is), and the more North we drove the prettier it got. I was also surprised to see French translation on the highway signs! This road takes you straight into Canada. There was about 40 miles of the drive where we didn’t see a single soul.
We got to Emily’s, she showed us around Plattsburgh, and we had a great lunch at The Pepper where we may or may not have had to walk off that last bit of margarita. Luckily though, Lake Champlain (a lake that boarders New York and Vermont and is about 60 miles long) was just minutes away and we got some great views of the water. And you can bet your a** that Dakota and I were looking for Champy (Champ)!
If you are unfamiliar with this legend, Champy is essentially Lake Champlain’s Loch Ness Monster. First clearly (or not so clearly) documented by a photograph taken by Sandra Mansi in 1977, the legend spiraled, and many people (300+) seem to believe that they have seen Champy themselves. Dakota and I recently watched an episode of Expedition X where they went to Burlington, Vermont to investigate Lake Champlain for Champy. But to no avail, they (just like ourselves) did not find him. Feel free to take a better look at my pictures and let me know if you see anything strange!
Anyways – (we really enjoy legends and conspiracies if you can’t tell; don’t get me started on Bigfoot), we stayed at Cumberland Bay campground. We had a beautiful view of the water from our campsite, and we had a great dinner (ribs and corn on the cob on the grill) that was prepared by The Grill Master himself, Dakota. We had a late start and didn’t eat dinner until 11pm but it tasted just as good!
I’d like to talk for a moment about campground etiquette. If you are a novice to camping, listen up. I’m sure some of this you’ll think to yourself “well, duh” but trust me, it happens. Do not, for any reason other than some sort of emergency, walk through someone’s campsite! Just don’t. That campground is basically like their home for the night and it’s an invasion of privacy. Sure, you can probably still see everything just going around their campsite, but it’s still rude, and disrespectful. Also, don’t let your pets run around without a leash through everyone’s campsite! They are your responsibility, not the whole campground’s. And finally, the best for last, please, again unless its an emergency, do not scream monkey noises at 1 in the morning. Yes, this really happened.
Despite the mid-night disruption, we all woke up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed ready to get our first experience of the ADK. The ADK is massive. It is approximately 6 million acres, both publicly and privately owned. The ADK is bigger than the Everglades, Grand Canyon, Glacier, and Yellowstone National Parks combined. It was established in 1892 to protect the water and timber in the region. Our first full day we went to Ausable Chasm (Aw-sable K-asm; I do this because it took me forever to learn how to pronounce it properly).
Ausable Chasm is unlike anything I have ever seen before. For my NY people, if you’ve been to Watkins Glen State Park (rated the best state park in New York), imagine that times ten. Ausable Chasm is labeled the Grand Canyon of the Adirondacks, and for good reason. The Chasm was formed by being carved into a vertical walled canyon that is made up of 500-million-year-old rocked, called Potsdam sandstone. Our tour consisted of a hike through the canyon (there are a few to choose from at varying levels of difficulty), and then a white-water like rafting tour. You don’t have to do this though. You can tube down the river, or you can head back after your hike. We loved our rafting tour. It was a bit scary for 30 seconds, but we got to learn a lot and it was a lot of fun. We also got to hear a lot of unique stories about the area as well. From here, you can hike two miles back, or you can take the trolley back to the Welcome Center. It was 90 degrees that day, I’m sure you can guess what we did. The trolley was nice!
At the Welcome Center, we got our final pictures, some souvenirs, and we headed out to get lunch. I’d definitely recommend getting to the Chasm as early as you can, especially on weekends with nice weather. For lunch, we stopped at Clare and Carl’s where we were served at our car. They are famous for their Michigan-style hot dogs. We also were able to get poutine fries since we were so close to Canada, score! We took our food to go and ate at the Peru boat launch where we had a great view of Valcour Island in Lake Champlain.
Later that day Emily showed us a bit more of the area, and we stopped at Lake Alice a little north of Plattsburgh. Lake Alice is also part of the ADK, its beautiful. We spent some time here looking at the different fish in the water. The next day we went to Burlington, Vermont, you can read more about that, along with more Champy(!) information, next week.
Unfortunately, the next day it was time for us to leave Emily and Plattsburgh, but Dakota and I had one more stop to make before heading back to the Finger Lakes region of New York. We were heading to Whiteface Mountain in Wilmington. I’m pretty sure this is where I went on a school trip about ten years ago, but I can’t say for sure. I was so excited for this. Panoramic mountain views are practically what I live for. We checked the weather for weeks and that particular day was supposed to be absolutely clear. Well. Mother Nature has mood swings just like us and that morning we woke up and it was like we were living in Seattle, Washington, which I typically enjoy, just not on days I plan to be outside. Dakota and I typically let things roll off our back, so we headed that way anyways.
Roughly 45 minutes later we got to the base of the toll road, and they told us there was zero visibility at the summit. Zero. Zip. Zilch. None. Honestly, I wasn’t that surprised, but I was still super bummed. Especially because at the base things were clear and dry, but we were about to climb roughly 2,000 feet in elevation. We decided to take the chance and we stopped at practically all nine of the pullouts along the drive. As we got closer to the summit it got foggier and foggier and eerier and eerier. It was super creepy but honestly, we had a great time, and it was just as pretty oddly enough, and is where I think I have taken my best photography yet. We went back down the same road (in low gear because you don’t want your breaks to start on fire), and we headed back home.
We had a great time visiting Emily and getting to experience the ADK. Shout out to my best friend Emily for being our tour guide, dealing with our shenanigans, and just being the greatest!!
If you can’t find us at home, you can find us in the parks!
With safe travels and love,
Dakota & Kayla
Lots more to see! Including Lake George and Lake Placid. Maybe next summer!