I love the Adirondack Mountains region of New York. I have never had a bad trip there. Is it even possible to have a bad trip when visiting the Adirondacks? Any kind of adventure you want to have can be had in the Adirondacks. Any and all experiences are possible even the slightly terrifying ones.

There is so much to see and do in the Adirondacks I don’t know if anyone can ever see and do it all even if you live there. I tend to focus my attention on a few specific areas when I make trips to the Adirondacks. My favorite types of activities to pursue in the Adirondacks are Camping, Hiking, and Photographing waterfalls.

I really enjoy camping in the Adirondacks. There are so many different places to camp in the Adirondacks to choose from. They all seem to have their own unique qualities that makes them someplace I want to go and spend time. When I am looking for someplace to camp my two favorite features to look for are a body of water and hiking trails. So far I think every time I have camped in the Adirondacks the park where I am camping has had a small lake or pond within the borders of the campground.

Bodies of water are great places to relax and unwind. I also love photographing landscapes featuring bodies of water. They also make great places to spot wildlife. Two campgrounds I have stayed at hosted common loons and you could either see them and/or hear them singing. At one campground I watched a bald eagle perched in a tree along the pond until it eventually flew away.

I enjoy being active. I like to get up and move around. Being in motion is what I enjoy. Doing something. I don’t necessarily have to go on an adventure or actually go anywhere at all. Finding a campsite with easy access to hiking trails is always important to me. So far I think most of the places I have camped have had at least some form of hiking trails within the campground itself. One campground had a hiking trail that lead out of the campground and to a nearby mountain. Another campground didn’t have its own hiking trails, but literally right across the street from the entrance to the campground was the trail head that lead to a series of trails through a wilderness area.

Base of exploration

My camping usually serves as a base of exploration for other adventures while I am in the Adirondacks as well. I will often choose a campground based on what other activities I have in mind for a given trip. Which mountains would I like to climb? What waterfalls would I like to try to photographs?

I am a runner and my love of running is primarily found in trail running. But my love of trail running is rooted in a love of being out in nature hiking. I love a good hike. I especially love to take a hike to see scenic vistas I have never viewed before. This is hard to beat in the Adirondacks. There are so many options to choose from. It seems every minute you spend driving down a road in the Adirondacks you pass yet another trail head.

I thoroughly enjoy hiking the mountains of the Adirondacks. It is challenging, time consuming, and sometimes scary, but it is always worth it. I enjoy hiking the High Peaks mountains as well as the smaller mountains in the Adirondack region. They are all so different from anything I can hike where I live so I treasure it all. The high peaks are a challenge like nothing else. But the smaller mountains are nothing to sneeze at either and sometimes the views are actually better from closer to the ground.

Waterfalls

I am fortunate to live in an areas rich in magnificent waterfalls. But that does not stop me from chasing waterfalls wherever I am at. The waterfalls in my home region are often easier to find as they are a feature of a large gorge or falling over a cliff along a roadside. Some of the waterfalls in the Adirondacks have been a little more of a challenge to locate. Not sure if it is the simple fact of the size of the region or that I am often there in the summer and some falls dry up, but there have been several waterfalls that even with the aid of a guidebook I could not successfully locate. But that is all part of the adventure of it.

One thing that always amuses me is that one of the most prominent waterfalls that I have seen in the Adirondacks has the same name as one of the most prominent waterfalls in the region where I live, Buttermilk Falls. There are a lot of waterfalls and only so many naming conventions. I don’t know why I find this so amusing but I do.

Many of the waterfalls I photograph most often are parts of gorges. The waterfalls in the Adirondacks are often part of entirely different types of landscapes. There are too many examples to try and talk about them all and I am no geologist so I couldn’t accurately describe it if I tried. But I just love the different feel of the way water is flowing here. Instead of cutting through rock creating a gorge. The water is often flowing downhill in a more open environment from a point of higher elevation to lower. Yes, I know how stupid that sounds because how else would you have a waterfall, but that is the only way I can think to describe it simply. Just water running down a mountain.

If you are looking for beauty in nature or an adventure or some combination of the two I could not more highly recommend a visit to the Adirondacks.

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