Good Hiking boots are not merely just another piece of equipment to pack for hiking vacations. Hiking boots deliver views like this, just 30 miles north of Lake Placid. What a treat it is to watch hawks below you! I think anticipation is what the hiking trails are all about… The anticipation of the view, and your hiking boots get you there. The Lake Placid NY area has views like this, and they are earned.

As a lifetime member of the NYS Outdoor Guides Association, I have become familiar with the hiking trails to the ponds and mountains shown in this triptych. When on the hiking trails in the valley, distances seem greater. It took me many hiking vacations to better understand the hiking trails interconnections, but when hiking trails lead to a view like this, I begin to appreciate how close all the ponds and lakes actually are. This particular view is from St Regis Mt., approximately 30 miles north of Lake Placid NY. My wife and I spend our hiking vacations near Lake Placid NY, and the Saranac Lake area. The hiking trails there interconnect, as I suppose all hiking trails do, and present all sorts of destination options. The hiking trails we take depends to a large degree on the weather, and what we had done the previous day. We prefer the Autumn for our hiking vacations, and prefer the less used trails outside of Lake Placid.

Leave Lake Placid using route 86, and pass through Saranac Lake and Harrietstown right into Paul Smiths. At Paul Smiths go right onto route 30, and within a very short distance go left towards Keese Mill. There is trailhead parking there. Total distance is about 30+ miles from Lake Placid New York.

I hope you get a chance to see a view like this on one of your next hiking vacations in the Lake Placid & Saranac Lake area.