The Adirondack almanac.

By the numbers.

The Adirondack Park is the largest publicly protected area in the contiguous United States — bigger than Yellowstone, Yosemite, Glacier, and Grand Canyon combined, and the only one carrying constitutional protection since 1894.

The high country.

Forty-six peaks above (or, as the 1925 Marshall survey mismeasured them, around) 4,000 ft. The country wraps a million acres of state Wilderness around them, and the trail system that climbs them is older than most of the trees.

Three thousand lakes.

More than half of the Hudson’s flow originates inside the Blue Line, including the source itself — the strangely named Lake Tear of the Clouds, on Marcy’s south shoulder, 4,322 feet above sea level.

How the state lands are classified.

The 1972 State Land Master Plan (administered by the APA) sorts every acre of the Forest Preserve into one of these classes. Each carries a different rulebook — what you can build, ride, and harvest, and what you can’t.

• Wilderness
  the strictest APA land-use class — no motorized use, no permanent structures except lean-tos. ~1.1M acres.
• Wild Forest
  the largest classification — non-motorized recreation primary; some snowmobile + administrative road use. ~1.3M acres.
• Primitive
  Wilderness-equivalent management with site-specific exceptions (e.g., a non-conforming road to be phased out).
• Canoe
  specifically managed for canoe-access waterways. The St. Regis Canoe Area is the marquis example.
• Intensive Use
  developed sites — campgrounds, ski centers, day-use areas (Whiteface, Gore, Mt. Van Hoevenberg).

Highest, deepest, oldest, coldest.

• 5,344 ft
  Highest summit

  Mt. Marcy (Tahawus) · Town of Keene · USGS
• 4,322 ft
  Highest natural lake in NY

  Lake Tear of the Clouds · source of the Hudson
• 32 mi
  Longest lake straddling the Park

  Lake George (boundary; partially in Park)
• ≥400 ft
  Deepest water in NY

  Lake Champlain (boundary; partially in Park)
• 1894
  Oldest Forever-Wild constitutional protection in the US

  NY Article XIV §1
• 1932 + 1980
  Only two-time Winter Olympics venue in the US

  Lake Placid (until 2034 SLC)
• −52°F
  Coldest recorded temperature in NY

  Old Forge, Feb 18 1979 (NOAA)
• 200+ in
  Highest average annual snowfall in NY

  High Peaks region; even higher on Whiteface upper

Speaking Adirondack.

Vocabulary the Park insists on. If you’re reading a High Peaks trip report and the writer says they bushwhacked the col below the slide on the way to the krummholz, this section is for you.

ADK

Two things, both common: (1) the Adirondack Mountain Club, founded 1922, the principal advocacy + recreation organization; (2) shorthand for the region itself (license plates, hashtag, common usage).

Blue Line

The boundary of the Adirondack Park, drawn on early state maps in blue. Today it encloses ~6 million acres of mixed public Forest Preserve and private land.

Bushwhack

Travel off-trail through unbroken forest. Required to bag the trailless 46ers (Couchsachraga, Allen, Cliff, Marshall, Redfield, Gray, etc.). Map + compass skill assumed; GPS now common.

Col

A saddle between two peaks. The Adirondack High Peaks have famous ones — the col between Marcy and Skylight, between Algonquin and Iroquois, between Saddleback and Basin.

Forest Preserve

The state-owned public lands inside the Park (and the Catskill Park). Protected by Article XIV §1 of the NY Constitution since 1894 — 'forever kept as wild forest lands'.

Forever Wild

Shorthand for Article XIV §1 of the New York State Constitution: 'The lands of the state, now owned or hereafter acquired, constituting the forest preserve as now fixed by law, shall be forever kept as wild forest lands. They shall not be leased, sold or exchanged, or be taken by any corporation, public or private, nor shall the timber thereon be sold, removed or destroyed.'

Great Camp

Late-19th to early-20th-century private wilderness estates built in the Adirondacks by industrialists — Sagamore, Santanoni, Topridge, Pine Knot, Kamp Kill Kare. The vernacular (peeled-log columns, twig railings, stonework chimneys) was largely invented by William West Durant.

Hardwood line

The elevation (~2,800–3,500 ft in the Adirondacks) above which northern-hardwood forest (beech, birch, maple) gives way to balsam fir + red spruce. A hike that crosses it usually feels noticeably cooler and quieter on the upper side.

Heath bald / alpine zone

The treeless or krummholz zone above ~4,000 ft on the High Peaks — Marcy, Algonquin, Skylight, Wright, Whiteface, Cascade, Haystack, Gothics. A vanishingly small habitat (~85 acres total in NY) and very fragile; ADK summit stewards police rock-hopping during the busy season.

Herd path

An unmarked route worn into the land by hikers' feet. The standard way to summit the trailless 46ers. Often unsigned, sometimes braided, occasionally lost — getting comfortable on a herd path is most aspiring 46ers' hardest skill.

Krummholz

German for 'crooked wood'. The gnarled, wind-stunted spruce/fir zone just below the alpine. On Marcy and Algonquin the krummholz makes a knee-high tunnel for the last quarter-mile to the summit.

Lean-to

Three-sided log shelter on DEC trail systems. First-come, first-served, no reservations, free to use. About 136 stand inside the Forest Preserve; the trail crews maintain them.

Slide / slide path

An exposed rock face on a peak's flank, scoured clean by a debris-flow event. The High Peaks have many; some (Wright, Macomb, the Trap Dike on Colden) are climbing routes, most are scars.

Trailhead steward

A volunteer or paid staff member at a busy trailhead who checks weather forecasts, hands out maps, demonstrates Leave No Trace, and reminds people to wear actual hiking boots. Run by the 46ers Club, ADK, and the High Peaks Strategic Planning Advisory Group.

46er

A hiker who has summited all 46 official High Peaks. Maintained by the Adirondack Forty-Sixers organization since 1937; ~14,000 registered as of 2024. Winter 46er, Single-Season 46er, Trailless 46er are sub-titles.