Open crags on the an overlook on the Blueberry trail system in Elizabethtown. Getting outdoors in the Adirondacks

Recreation in the Adirondacks

A long history of getting outside in the Adirondack Park

In his groundbreaking 1869 guidebook, “Adventures in the Wilderness, Camp-Life in the Adirondacks,” Boston preacher William H.H. Murray wrote that spending time recreating in nature rejuvenates both body and spirit for the city dweller: “I deem the excursion eminently adapted to restore impaired health. I most highly recommend a month’s experience among the pines.”

Since then, millions of people have sought “R&R” in the Adirondack region. With millions of acres of public land, containing hundreds of mountains to hike and thousands of miles of lakes and rivers to paddle, the Adirondack Park is a year-round destination.

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Two hikers in a flat field with mountains ahead

HIKING

Canoeists paddle on Rock Pond outlet in the William C. Whitney Wilderness, which lacks a unit management plan

PADDLING

NIGHT ADVENTURES

Guide Chuck Fries on the Ausable Chasm via ferrata. He’s clipped into the cable visible on the left.

CLIMBING

Getting outside in the AdirondackS

What you need to know

Find your next Adirondack adventure

Crane Mountain Paint Mine features high bluffs and history

Remnants of the Glen Mining Co. paint plant dot the scenic hike between Huckleberry and Crane mountains By Tim Rowland By any measure, 1896 was a very bad year for the Glen Mining Co., which had been tucked into the crook between Huckleberry and Crane mountains south of Johnsburg. In January, its operational works burned,…