Little Ampersand Pond is a 14-acre backwater tucked into the forest north of Saranac Lake village — part of the broader Ampersand drainage but quieter and less visited than its larger namesake to the south. No formal DEC records on fish, no maintained trails advertised on the standard trailhead signs, which means it's either a bushwhack destination or accessed via an unmarked woods road known mainly to locals with long memories. The kind of pond that shows up on a topo map but not in the guidebooks — if you know how to get there, you already know why you're going. Worth a look if you're sorting through the back catalog of Saranac Lake-area waters and you've already done the obvious ones.
No public beaches listed within 7 mi yet.
No bait & tackle shops listed yet.
Closest parking lots within range, ranked by walking distance. Accessibility flags come from Google verified-data; surface and capacity from OpenStreetMap. Confirm hours and seasonal closures before you go.
+68 more on the map above
Free, takes thirty seconds. Yours forever.
Every page on this site gets better when readers contribute. Mark a peak you’ve climbed, drop a photo, file a field note, or flag a correction — every addition makes the next visitor’s page better.
Sunrise on the dock, a cairn at the summit, a bend on the trail. Your camera roll, our archive.
Add a photo →Trail conditions, water level, bug pressure, blowdown. The kind of detail that helps the next person plan.
Write a field note →Wrong elevation, outdated access notes, a coordinate that's drifted. We'd rather hear it than miss it.
Suggest an edit →
What to do, where to stay, and what's reopening across the Park as the snow melts and the calendar fills.
A complete planning guide: difficulty by peak, common combo days, seasonal realities, and a sortable, filterable table of every summit.
Overnight, day, and trip camps in the Park — the camp belt, choosing the right fit, costs and financial aid, ACA accreditation, and the questions every parent should ask before they commit.