We knew we were going to be short on time so we cheated, rather than hiking to the glen from our campground, we drove 10 minutes down the road to the South Entrance car park. It probably only saved us 30 minutes but it made us feel more relaxed about having enough time to see the glen properly.
From the car park, we walked down Couch’s Staircase to the Gorge Trail. This trail is awesome! It runs along side the river in the gorge, there are 19 waterfalls, 2 of them you can walk behind, tunnels, bridges and spiral staircases, looks outs and hanging gardens. It didn’t feel like a hike, more like an adventure. We were so early, we were the only ones on the trail and due to the heavy rain the night before, the waterfalls and rapids looked impressive. It didn’t rain on the hike but all the rain dribbling down the rock faces made the path really wet, then there was also the spray from the waterfalls and rapids. Luckily, the sun came out so we soon dried off although our shoes might need a quick go in a dryer somewhere, they were soaked through.
At the end of the Gorge trail, we climbed the stairs called Jacobs Ladder and then returned to the car via Indian Trail which ran along the rim. There wasn’t much to see along this trail but it was a nice easy hike to finish off on.
Back at the campground, disaster struck with the tent! You’ll see in the video what happened. We were so lucky we managed to get a new tent so quickly as we were camping again in 2 nights time.
Although we had a slight detour to sort out the tent, we were soon back on the road and on our way to Lake Placid. We stuck to the Interstate for as long as we could stand just to make up time before jumping off onto the scenic roads through the Adirondack Mountains. This area of New York is beautiful. There are hundreds of lakes and ponds and scattered between them are small towns, marshes and bogs. You could easily spend several weeks here exploring and just relaxing in all that mountain air.
We eventually arrived at our hotel in Lake Placid at around 5pm, just enough time to have a shower before heading out for dinner at the restaurant next door.
What fantastic Waterfalls. If some what wet at times despite the very fetching capes:-)
ReplyDeleteHow come you got a brand new tent was there some sort of guarantee on your tent?
Lovely hotel did I see Lee wearing the sunglasses gift next day? Also noted smart haircut and beard trim! Ending now just in case I manage to mess the sending ;-) XX
quite a bit of Hmmm-ing from Lee at the start but this looks like a day for me, loved the gorge and the falls and the water dripping soundtrack. The rock formation looks great too with its layers of rock. Then going behind the falls was amazing, the noise and the torrenting water, buoyed by the rain was superb. Oh man, I could have stayed and watched the bit where there is a photo of a plateau area down at knee height for hours, shame there was only a pic of this section.
ReplyDeleteBehind rainbow falls was excellent too, this would have been such a trek for me, I would have loved it - photo at 6:27 - just wow!!
How spooky and fortunate that you were 'close' to the camping place, couldn't have timed it better, nice looking snack too.
Some banging tunes in the car and cool photos on your road trip to Blue Mountain lake, the great outdoors is just spectacular in the US.
What a superb view from the hotel balcony too! Great food and bet you wished you were on untappd, looked like an APA possibly