Lake Placid had never been on our list of ‘places to visit’ but when I was in EMS buying some walking kit the lady serving mentioned she was hoping to visit Lake Placid for her holiday and how beautiful it is. Therefore, we booked a Hampton Inn right by the Lake for 3 nights (before even researching the area) for one of our free weekends.

Lake Placid was a 5 hour drive from our house so we decided to head off on Thursday night once Stu had finished work and drive half the journey so Friday could be spent enjoying the area rather than being a full on travel day.

We left home at 6pm, had a Burger King for tea at a service station and reached our Hampton Inn in Albany at 9.30pm. After a good night sleep Stu went down to reception to pick up our Hampton Inn breakfast bags – an unappetising cold sausage and egg muffin – so we ate our cereals and milk which we had come prepared with! We miss the Hampton Inn buffet breakfasts!

The Wild Centre, Tupper Lake

We were out of the hotel pretty early and on our way to our first stop of the day – The Wild Centre at Tupper Lake. It was a 2.5 hour drive away through forest. And when I say forest, I mean forest, there was literally nothing but trees for miles. We played a game of ‘first to spot’ but coming up with objects where there was a remote chance of them finding was quite difficult. The list tended to include….farm machinery, garden ornaments, a pick up truck etc. At one point I joked about finding a wishing well and we actually found one! We were surprised at how little wildlife we saw, very few birds. We did see a chipmunk which ran out in front of our car but unfortunately Stu hit it as it had come out of nowhere.

We arrived at The Wild Centre, ate some lunch which consisted of bread, ham and american cheese which we’d picked up at a garage and headed in. There was a ‘Wild Walk’ which was a raised walkway through the trees with little activities for the kids to do and information about the animals in the area. They enjoyed playing the migrating birds game, bouncing on the spiders web and running on the wobbly bridges.

^{The Wild Centre}

We then went for a walk through the forest down to the wetlands. It wasn’t a long walk – maybe 1/4 of a km but it was pretty.

^{The Wild Centre}

By 12.30 we were ready to leave. We didn’t have any plans so decided to head to the hotel and see if we could check in. Unfortunately our room wasn’t ready so we did a quick google search of easy hikes near Lake Placid and Mount Jo appeared. It was only 15 minutes away so we thought we may as well give it a go.

Mount Jo Hike

We parked up, and started the trail. A friendly ranger suggested we take the short route up and the long route back although in total it was only about 3km. The short route was difficult. At points we were literally scrambling up rocks. Kids were fine with it but Stu and I found it difficult, especially as it was 30 degrees out and super humid.

We eventually reached the summit and the views were definitely worth the difficult hike. There were also some friendly chipmunks at the top. We couldn’t stay put too long as the midges were attacking us even though we were constantly topping up our bug spray. We headed back via the long route which was supposed to be easier but wasn’t. For a hike classed as easy I would say it is probably one of the hardest ones we’ve done!!!

^{Summit of Mount Jo}

We headed back to the hotel and checked in. The hotel was lovely and set right on the side of Mirror Lake. Downstairs there was a beautiful bar area with views over the lake.

The Pickled Pig

We headed straight out for dinner and ended up at ‘The Pickled Pig‘ partly because I liked the name. Stu went for the shrimp tacos, Tom had 1/2 a rack of ribs, Izzy being adventurous as always opted for chicken and I had the cardio fries (fries topped with chilli, pulled pork, bacon and cheese).

^{Food from the Pickled Pig}

We went back to the hotel for the evening, although at 8.30pm I dragged Stu outside to do some photography of the lake as the light was good.

Whiteface Mountain and the Cloud Splitter Gondola

After an early breakfast we headed to the Cloud Splitter Gondola for a ride up to Whiteface Mountain. We hadn’t put the address into the sat-nav so just drove along the road it was on. It wasn’t until we reached the end of the road we realised we had driven straight passed it!

We had pre-booked tickets but because of Covid it was really quiet. I was a little worried we were not dressed appropriately as in the carpark people were getting changed into full on snow gear! I still do not know what they were doing. We had a gondola to ourselves and it took us up the mountain.

^{Whiteface Mountain}

From the top the views of Lake Placid were beautiful – and it was the first time we had actually seen Lake Placid as it was Mirror Lake we were staying on.

We went for a short walk and that is when I realised we were not on the summit of Whiteface. We were not going to hike to it (I’m not actually sure whether we would have been allowed) but instead we had our picnic admiring it!

Before heading back down we followed another short trail and it took us to the summit of the mountain we were on……Little Whiteface!

Whiteface Veterans Memorial Highway

Our next stop was to drive the Whiteface Veterans Memorial Highway. We had no idea what it was, had just read it was something we should do. We drove to the entrance and paid the toll. We were told the castle was closed and that we were not allowed to hike to the summit so we started the drive with very low expectations.

The road climbed up the mountain and took us all the way to the top. Although the castle was closed you could still park the car and go for a wander. The views were spectacular and it was a really cool thing to do.

Flume Falls

The day before we had noticed an area of river where lots of people had parked up and gone swimming. As we had time to spare we decided we would would stop off on the way back to the hotel.

Tom, Izzy and Stuart all got in the river – I sat on the side and watched them. Further up the river there were some cliffs and people were jumping off them into the pools below – a bit too adventurous for us!

^{Flume Falls}

Lake Placid Pub and Brewery

We headed back to the hotel and decided to go to the bar next door for tea. It was busy and there was a one hour wait time so we put our names on the list and headed into the town to kill time. We saw that there was a kayak rental shop so reserved ourselves 4 SUP boards for the following afternoon.

For dinner Stu and I both had burgers, Tom had the biggest plate of ribs and Izzy had the chicken strips….again! I also had my first ever margarita!

^{Food at the Lake Placid Pub and Brewery}

Audable Chasm

The next morning we headed to Audable Chasm which was about an hours drive away. It was described as one of the best natural features in the area. We had booked tickets and it wasn’t cheap so we were expecting it to be amazing.

When we arrived we were asked whether we wanted to upgrade our tickets so we could get closer to the water. This annoyed us a bit as it was already quite expensive so we declined.

We followed the trail which started in woodland and then went towards the river where the water had cut through the rock. It was lovely but we didn’t think it was amazing. Maybe this was because we had visited Finger Lakes so we were all a bit underwhelmed.

^{Audible Chasm}

SUP Boarding

We travelled back to Lake Placid and went to pick up our SUP boards. We had rented them for 2 hours as a treat for the kids. It was about a 5 minute walk from the rental shop to the Lake with the boards which was quite hard work but we managed.

It was such good fun. We took them into the middle of the lake and Tom and Izzy loved jumping off them and swimming. I had to keep my eye on them as the maximum depth of Mirror Lake is 18m!!! Even Stu was a natural on the SUP board – me not so much!

^{SUP boarding}

We returned to Lake Placid Bar and Brewery for our last evening again as we had enjoyed it the previous night

Lake George

Our final day was a travel day to get home but someone had recommended Lake George so we thought it would be a good place to break up our journey.

As we arrived we parked by the Lake and watched the paddle steamer arrive. It played a song on its whistle which seemed to go on forever. We had a walk and popped into a few of the shops and found a geo-cache. It was nice but we were glad we hadn’t stayed there. It reminded us of some of the UK seaside towns. We bought slices of pizza for lunch which we ate in the car and then carried on with our journey home.