The Adirondack Park is a park in northeastern New York protecting the Adirondack Mountains. The park was established in 1892 for "the free use of all the people for their health and pleasure", and for watershed protection. At 6.1 million acres, it is the largest park in the contiguous United States.
The Catskill Park is in the Catskill Mountains in the U.S. state of New York. It consists of 700,000 acres of land inside a Blue Line in four counties: Delaware, Greene, Sullivan, and Ulster. As of 2005, 287,500 acres (116,300 ha) or 41 percent of the land within, is owned by the state as part of the Forest Preserve; it is managed by the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). Another 5% is owned by New York City to protect four of the city's reservoirs in the region that lie partially within the park and their respective watersheds.
Mount Marcy is the highest point in the U.S. state of New York, with an elevation of 5,343.1 feet (1,628.6 m). It is located in the town of Keene in Essex County. The mountain is in the heart of the High Peaks Wilderness Area in Adirondack Park. Like the surrounding Adirondack Mountains, Marcy was heavily affected by large glaciers during recent ice ages, which deposited boulders on the mountain slopes and carved valleys and depressions on the mountain. One such depression is today filled by Lake Tear of the Clouds, which is often cited as the highest source of the Hudson River. The majority of the mountain is covered by hardwood and spruce-fir forests, although the highest few hundred feet are above the tree line. The peak is dominated by rocky outcrops, lichens, and alpine plants. The mountain supports a diverse number of woodland mammals and birds.
The Adirondak Loj is a historic lodge in North Elba, Essex County, New York. It is near Lake Placid in the Adirondack Mountains. The current facility, located on the shore of Heart Lake, was built in 1927 and is owned and operated by ADK. The Loj property hosts the trailhead of the popular Van Hoevenberg Trail, which leads to Mount Marcy and Algonquin Peak, the two highest points in the state.
The New York – New Jersey Trail Conference (NYNJTC) is a volunteer-based federation of approximately 10,000 individual members and about 100 member organizations. The conference coordinates the maintenance of 2,000 miles of foot trails around the New York metropolitan area, from the Delaware Water Gap, north to beyond the Catskill Mountains, including the Appalachian Trail through New York and New Jersey. It also works to protect open space and publishes books and trail maps. The organization's headquarters are at 600 Ramapo Valley Road, Mahwah, New Jersey.
Algonquin Peak is a mountain in the MacIntyre Range of the Adirondacks in the U.S. state of New York. It is the second highest mountain in New York, with an elevation of 5,114 feet (1,559 m), and one of the 46 Adirondack High Peaks. It is located in the town of North Elba in Essex County and in the High Peaks Wilderness Area of Adirondack Park. The first recorded ascent of the mountain was made on August 8, 1837, by a party led by New York state geologist Ebenezer Emmons. It was originally named Mount McIntyre, after Archibald McIntyre, but this name was eventually applied to the entire range. Surveyor Verplanck Colvin added the name "Algonquin" in 1880. This name came from the peak reputedly being on the Algonquian side of a nearby informal boundary between the Algonquian and their Iroquois neighbors, although no such boundary existed in reality.
Mount Skylight is a mountain in the Adirondacks in the U.S. state of New York. Skylight is the fourth highest peak in New York, with an elevation of 4,924 feet (1,501 m), and one of the 46 High Peaks in Adirondack Park. It is located in the town of Keene in Essex County. The mountain was given its name by artist Frederick S. Perkins and guide Orson Schofield Phelps in 1857, due to a rock formation on the peak resembling a window. Phelps would later make the first known ascent of the peak with surveyor Verplanck Colvin and two others on August 28, 1873.
Whiteface Mountain is the fifth-highest mountain in the U.S. state of New York, and one of the High Peaks of the Adirondack Mountains, located in the town of Wilmington in Essex County. Set apart from most of the other High Peaks, the summit offers a 360-degree view of the Adirondacks and clear-day glimpses of Vermont and Canada, where Montreal can be seen on a very clear day. Because of its relative isolation, the mountain is exposed to prevailing winds from the west and frequently capped with snow and ice, making it an area of interest to meteorologists. Weather data has been collected on the summit since 1937. The mountain's east slope is home to a major ski area which boasts the greatest vertical drop east of the Rockies, and which hosted the alpine skiing competitions of the 1980 Winter Olympics. Unique among the High Peaks, Whiteface features a developed summit and seasonal accessibility by motor vehicle. The Whiteface Veterans Memorial Highway reaches a parking area at an elevation shortly below the summit, with the remaining distance covered by tunnel and elevator. The peak can also be reached on two hiking trails.
The Long Path is a 357-mile (575 km) long-distance hiking trail beginning in New York City, at the West 175th Street subway station near the George Washington Bridge and ending at Altamont, New York, in the Albany area. While not yet a continuous trail, relying on road walks in some areas, it nevertheless takes in many of the popular hiking attractions west of the Hudson River, such as the New Jersey Palisades, Harriman State Park, the Shawangunk Ridge and the Catskill Mountains. It offers hikers a diversity of environments to pass through, from suburbia and sea-level salt marshes along the Hudson to wilderness and boreal forest on Catskill summits 4,000 feet (1,220 m) in elevation.
Lake Tear of the Clouds is a small tarn located in the town of Keene, in Essex County, New York, United States, on the southwest slope of Mount Marcy, the state's highest point, in the Adirondack Mountains. It is the highest pond in the state at 4,293 feet (1,309 m). It is often cited as the highest source of the Hudson River, via Feldspar Brook, the Opalescent River and Calamity Brook.
Mount Colden is a mountain in the Adirondacks in the U.S. state of New York. It is the eleventh-highest peak in New York, with an elevation of 4,714 feet (1,437 m), and one of the 46 High Peaks in Adirondack Park. It is located in the town of Keene in Essex County. The peak is named after David C. Colden, an investor in the McIntyre Iron Works at Tahawus. The mountain is known for the Trap Dike, a large crevice that runs from a point near the summit on its west face to nearby Avalanche Lake. The summit of Mount Colden can be reached by two hiking trails, which are frequently combined to form a circuit through Avalanche Pass, or by climbing the Trap Dike. The summit is in an alpine tundra zone above the treeline, and offers views of surrounding mountains and lakes.
Mount Jo is a 2,832-foot-tall (863 m) mountain in the heart of the Adirondack Mountains of New York. It is in North Elba, New York on land owned by the Adirondack Mountain Club. The Adirondack Loj and Heart Lake are at the foot of Mount Jo. There are two trails that lead to its summit.
Gothics is a mountain in the Great Range of the Adirondacks in the U.S. state of New York. It is the tenth-highest peak in New York, with an elevation of 4,736 feet (1,444 m), and one of the 46 High Peaks in Adirondack Park. It is located in the town of Keene in Essex County. The mountain is named due to the resemblance of its three arched peaks and large rock slides to Gothic architecture. Although the name has been attributed to Orson Schofield Phelps and Frederick W. Perkins, who named several peaks during an 1857 ascent of Mount Marcy, other evidence shows the name Gothics in use at least as early as 1850. The earliest recorded ascent was made on October 11, 1875, by Verplanck Colvin, Roderick L. McKenzie, and Ed Phelps, although an unrecorded ascent was likely made earlier by James J. Storrow and Orlando Beede. The summit of Gothics is an alpine tundra zone, and on clear days views of 30 nearby peaks are available, as well as the Upper and Lower Ausable Lakes.
The Great Range is a mountain range in the Adirondack Mountains, near Keene Valley, New York, United States. It rises in the heart of the High Peaks region between Ausable Lakes to the southeast and the Johns Brook Valley to the northwest.
The High Peaks Wilderness Area is the largest wilderness area of the Forest Preserve in the U.S. state of New York. It is located in three counties and six towns in the Adirondack Park: Harrietstown in Franklin County, North Elba, Keene, North Hudson and Newcomb in Essex County and Long Lake in Hamilton County.
The Northville–Lake Placid Trail, also known as the NPT, is a lightly traveled foot trail that runs 138 miles (214 km) through Adirondack Park in northern New York State. It was laid out by the Adirondack Mountain Club in 1922 and 1923 and is maintained by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. From 2014-2016 the southern section of the trail was re-routed to remove most of the road leading into the village of Northville. The southern terminus is Waterfront Park in Northville, NY and the northern terminus is Averyville Rd in Lake Placid.
The Moose River Plains Wild Forest is a 64,322-acre tract in the Adirondack Park in Hamilton and Herkimer counties in the state of New York in the United States of America; it is designated as Wild Forest by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.
Noonmark Mountain is a 3,556-foot (1,084 m) mountain near St. Huberts in the High Peaks region of the Adirondacks in New York, United States. The prominent peak provides 360-degree views, including the Great Range, the Dix Range, Giant Mountain, the Ausable River valley, and the village of Keene. When seen from the nearby hamlet of Keene Valley, where it dominates the view, the peak of Noonmark Mountain is more or less directly beneath the sun at mid-day.
The Van Hoevenberg Trail is a hiking trail that leads southward from Adirondak Loj to the peak of Mount Marcy, the highest point in New York State. Located in the High Peaks Wilderness Area, it is the shortest and most frequently-used route to get to the peak of Mount Marcy. It spans 7.4 miles (11.2 km) to the summit, a lengthy 14.8-mile (22.4 km) roundtrip. A large section of the trail is suitable for alpine skiing and snowboarding. Hiking the trail is considered at least moderately difficult. The trail passes over Marcy Dam.
Adirondack Fire, the Great Fire of 1903, was a wildfire comprising 643 fires in Adirondack and Catskill region, New York, that started on Monday, April 20, 1903. The fire lasted for six weeks. It burned a total area of 600,000 acres, mainly in Adirondack Forest. There were no human deaths, but it killed fish, trees, and deer and damaged properties.
