Every named river in the Adirondack Park — the Hudson, the Moose, the Raquette, the Sacandaga, and the rivers that drain the High Peaks.
Little River winds through the northwestern edge of the Adirondack Park near Tupper Lake — a flat-water system that drains timber country and beaver meadows before entering the Raquette River drainage. The watercourse sees little recreational traffic compared to the Raquette or the Bog River, but it's the kind of place paddlers find when they're looking for solitude over scenery: slow current, soft banks, and stretches where you won't see another boat all day. No established put-ins or maintained access points in the state records, which means this is a river you reach by local knowledge or by following logging roads off NY-3 or NY-30. Check a DeLorme and ask at a Tupper Lake paddle shop before you commit your afternoon.
Little River runs through the northwest corner of the Adirondack Park, draining a network of beaver ponds and wetlands in the Tupper Lake region before eventually feeding the Raquette River system. It's a quiet, meandering waterway — more paddling corridor than destination fishing — threading through mixed hardwood and lowland conifer where you're more likely to see deer tracks in the mud than boot prints on a trail. Access varies by season and water level; local knowledge matters here. If you're looking for backcountry solitude without the High Peaks crowds, this is the drainage to explore — just don't expect maintained put-ins or posted mileage.
Little River drains northwest out of the Saranac chain and winds through lowland forest before joining the Raquette River near the town of Tupper Lake — a quiet, tea-colored flow through mixed hardwood and spruce bog, more paddle route than destination. The upper sections see occasional canoe traffic from paddlers linking the Saranac Lakes to the Raquette, but most of the riverbank is privately held or otherwise undeveloped, making access outside of launch points sparse. It's a connector water — useful if you're moving between drainages, otherwise overlooked in favor of the lakes it threads together.
