Liquid Assets: Southern Adirondack Waterfalls
The Sacandaga River and its tributaries are strung with so many tumbling, bubbling stretches that strolls along these picturesque waterways make irresistible outings. The region is so waterfall-rich that leapfrogging from one cascade to the next can feel like the best...
Gentle Giant: Remembering Lake Placid’s Jim Tolkan
It’s a soggy March afternoon. The sky spits rain and the roads are slushy, lined in dirty snowdrifts. But inside Jim and Parmelee Tolkans’ Lake Placid living room—more an atrium, with its floor-to-ceiling windows and potted trees—it’s cozy and bright. Panza the Corgi...
Paddling in P.M.
I’ve always been dazzled by the stars; the sheer number, the twinkling, their ability to enchant from an incredible distance. For as long as I can remember, my first order of business outdoors at night is to crane my neck for an unbridled view of the evening’s canvas....
Featured
Liquid Assets: Southern Adirondack Waterfalls
The Sacandaga River and its tributaries are strung with so many tumbling, bubbling stretches that strolls along these picturesque waterways make irresistible outings. The region is so waterfall-rich that leapfrogging from one cascade to the next can feel like the best...
Gentle Giant: Remembering Lake Placid’s Jim Tolkan
It’s a soggy March afternoon. The sky spits rain and the roads are slushy, lined in dirty snowdrifts. But inside Jim and Parmelee Tolkans’ Lake Placid living room—more an atrium, with its floor-to-ceiling windows and potted trees—it’s cozy and bright. Panza the Corgi...
Paddling in P.M.
I’ve always been dazzled by the stars; the sheer number, the twinkling, their ability to enchant from an incredible distance. For as long as I can remember, my first order of business outdoors at night is to crane my neck for an unbridled view of the evening’s canvas....
Nature & Environment
The Tree Guardians
Angello Johnson burns the midnight oil. By day, he works in the land resource department of the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe of Franklin County, of which he’s a member, at the northern edge of the Adirondack Park. On nights and weekends he teaches Mohawk tribe members the art of weaving long, pliable black ash tree strands into intricate baskets.
The River Fixers: How the Ausable Freshwater Center Is Healing a Critical Waterway
By the time Tropical Storm Irene moved on, the Ausable River’s rage had washed away portions of Au Sable Forks, Jay, Upper Jay, Keene and other hamlets. Roads and homes, businesses and roadside attractions, including the actual Land of Makebelieve, a former theme park in Upper Jay, were swamped. A total of $25 million in damages sat on the ledgers…
Bird Notes
Want to go birding in the park? Let guide Joan Collins show you the way Know Before You Go: Learn the birds around your home first. A feeder is a great way to attract them. Most species are habitat specific, so branch out by visiting marshes, bogs, forests (boreal,...
Travel
On the Edge of Paradise
It’s a rite of passage to take a photo of National Park signs at the entrance. But what about the iconic Entering Adirondack Park signs?
Celebrating Tupper Lake’s Wild Center
Today, Tupper Lake’s natural history museum, which turns 20 this year, is a flourishing center of learning, intellectual thought and plain old fun. It is the encyclopedia of the Adirondacks, a guide as essential to understanding the Adirondack backcountry as a map.
The Station
The main intersection in Onchiota has always been memorably quirky, an unexpected wilderness outpost at this one-time railroad stop. The corner is anchored by an old general store and adjacent seven-gabled gas station, which were opened by Hayden Tormey in the 1920s. But it was Tormey’s son “Bing” that gave the bend in the road its offbeat personality. He littered the area with cheeky signs, including the classic “Leaving 67 of the friendliest people in the Adirondacks (plus a couple of soreheads)” and “Don’t ask for directions, we’re still trying to get out of here.”
Recreation
Liquid Assets: Southern Adirondack Waterfalls
The Sacandaga River and its tributaries are strung with so many tumbling, bubbling stretches that strolls along these picturesque waterways make irresistible outings. The region is so waterfall-rich that leapfrogging from one cascade to the next can feel like the best...
Look Before You Leap
Adirondack swimming holes can look mighty inviting on a warm spring day. Before you take the plunge, though, take note of conditions that can lead to hidden dangers:
School of Fish
There is no better salve for post-traumatic stress, A. J. Beaudoin believes, than the call of the loon and the morning mist rising from an Adirondack pond.
History
Big Three-Headed River
The Moose River makes its schizophrenic reach for the Black River from three headwaters. The North Branch sulks out of Big Moose Lake, perhaps mourning still the Grace Brown tragedy. Chaining through Darts and Rondaxe lakes, this lazy stream makes its way with so little effort it often forgets to go forward and retreats upon itself.
Some Like It Prefab: Marilyn Monroe in Warrensburg
In 1949, before Marilyn Monroe cooed and shimmied her way to becoming a screen goddess, she was just another shapely blonde starlet trying to get noticed. Which is why, one hot June day, she appeared in the little Adirondack town of Warrensburg, a few miles north of Lake George, to stand on the lawn of a brand-new prefabricated house.
Storms of the Centuries
Ever since Adirondackers began keeping track, they’ve recorded hamlet-swallowing blizzards that socked folks behind snowdrift-jammed doors, downpours that ravaged river valleys, and hurricanes with jet-speed winds that uprooted chunks of forest.
On Sale Now
October 2026
Lost hikers, splintered bones and wildfires—a forest ranger reflects on more than two decades of coming to the rescue. Plus the oldest tavern in the Adirondacks, a trip through James Bond’s Lake George, and new energy in Schroon Lake.
Home & Camp
Morel and Wild Leek Soup
To learn how to sustainably harvest wild leeks, also known as ramps, see “To Take a Leek” at www.adirondacklife.com. Use a reliable guidebook to identify any foraged food before consuming.
Addition and Subtraction: Are Mergers the Answer for Adirondack Schools?
On a Friday morning in March, Devon Harris—one of the original members of the Jamaican national bobsled team—addressed a group of about 100 K–12 students in Minerva Central School’s gymnasium. A motivational speaker, Harris told the story of his improbable journey from the streets of Kingston (“I was just a kid from the hood,” he said) to the national stage. And of course the team’s immortalization in Cool Runnings, a 1993 film starring John Candy.
Frankie’s Chicken Riggies
Chicken riggies—mouthfuls of chicken, sweet and hot peppers, onions and rigatoni smothered in a white-wine marinara—is an upstate favorite born in Utica’s deep-rooted Italian community. Start your own love affair with the dish at Frankie’s Taste of Italy, in Old Forge, where owners Frankie and Tina Zammiello—now joined by their son, Julian—serve up meals inspired by their family’s Sunday feasts.
From The Archives
Heavenly Hiking: On the Trail with Father Allen
"I love Algonquin,” says Reverend Philip Allen. “I’d like to do that again. It’s all business and the views are great, and it’s the first mountain I ever did. I did go up barefoot at that time. That was 1958.” From his couch in St. Mary’s...
The Adirondack Store
As you approach the rustic log and glass front of the Adirondack Store on Route 86, in Ray Brook, between Lake Placid and Saranac Lake, a glance through the window promises memorable browsing. Once inside, you find yourself surrounded by things...
The Man Who Would Be King
Roger Jakubowski: I decided that I can't work for nobody. They're liable to find out how dumb I really am. Never educated or nothin'. What can I do? A guy'll tell me to take out the trash, I won't even do that right. I have to be the boss. James...
An Au Sable Forks Pulitzer: The Life My Father Chose
The author with his father atop Whiteface in 1998, courtesy of Susan Pulitzer Spike Pulitzer (1941–2013) was a paradox, even to those who knew him well. He was complex yet simple, tough but tender, guarded and private, yet genuine and...
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