How to Hike New York's Tallest Peak, Mount Marcy, Adirondack Mountains

Mount Marcy is a long and difficult hike, ESPECIALLY if you’re not an avid hiker. This is New York’s highest/tallest peak, REMEMBER this if you decide to hike this mountain. MANY people hike Mount Marcy, thinking it’s a walk in the park, it is NOT. PLEASE, when a hike is rated as DIFFICULT, LISTEN. DO NOT attempt this hike unless you’ve hiked more than 10 miles within one day and the elevation gain was more than 3,000ft. Also, unlike Whiteface Mountain, you CANNOT drive up a road to get to Mount Marcy. You HAVE to hike it, to get to the top.

Okay, thank you for reading that little disclaimer. Now, for all you avid hikers and aspiring 46ers, I’m sure you want to hike Mount Marcy with Mount Skylight and Gray Peak. Well, you are in the right place. In this article, I will be telling you exactly how to hike all three of these peaks.

In this post, you will learn all about Mount Marcy hike, Mount Marcy elevation, Mount Marcy hike time, Mount Marcy NY, Mount Marcy dam, Mount Marcy hike difficulty, Mount Marcy directions, Mount Marcy Van Hoevenberg Trail, and more.

This post is all about Mount Marcy.

Hiking Mount Marcy:

{Related Post : Mount Mansfield}

Mount Marcy Directions

To hike Mount Marcy, Gray, and Skylight (if you choose), you will begin at the Adk Lodge. You will start on Interstate 87 North or South (depending where you’re coming from), and stay here until Exit 30. From the exit, you will take a left (or right if coming southbound) onto Route 73, towards Whiteface & Lake Placid.

In about 2.3 miles you will stay left towards Whiteface, Keene/Keene Valley and Lake Placid. Then stay on Route 73 for 13 miles. Then, take a slight left onto High Peaks Wilderness area, there will be a small sign on your right, informing you to stay left for the High Peaks.

In about 11 miles, you will take another left on the Adirondack Lodge Road. You will stay on this road until the end of it, and you will come upon the Adirondack Lodge. You will come to a ticket window, and pay $15 to park here, or $7 if you are a member (you can become a member, here). Once you have parked, you will head left towards the trails and hiker registration.

Mount Marcy Hike

Hiking Directions JUST for Mount Marcy

Okay, once you get to the Mount Marcy trailhead, you will sign in. Then, you will follow the path to Marcy Dam. Once you are at Marcy Dam, you follow the signs towards the Van Hoevenberg Trail. You will follow this until the summit of Mount Marcy. Just to get to the summit, you will hike a little over 7 miles, with about 3,500ft of elevation gain.

Once you get to the summit of Mount Marcy, you will be standing on the top of New York State at 5,305ft. It is truly a beautiful place to be, however, on weekends, get there early, because it does get crowded. On a weekend, I would get to the lodge no later than 6:30am and on a weekday no later than 8am (this is only for the summer season). On a weekday, it is much less crowded. Here is the Mount Marcy AllTraills downloadable map. To get back down, you will just re-trace your steps.

This hike is a total of 15 miles (give or take). It will take about 8-9 hours, for average to fast paced hikers, and 10 hours for slower hikers. I would allow yourself some time at the summit. So, maybe allow yourself closer to 9-9.5 hours to complete this hike. When I hiked Mount Marcy, I hiked it along with Mount Skylight and Gray, and started around 8am and ended a little after 6pm. However, I did not allow myself a lot of time at the summits at all, maybe 10 minutes top. Also, adding Skylight and Gray makes your hike about 20 miles with about 5,000ft of elevation gain. Again, it’s NO joke.

{Related Post : Algonquin Peak}

Adding Gray Peak and Mount Skylight

Okay, to hike all three of these peaks, which I HIGHLY recommend doing if you are completing your 46ers, or want a challenge, you will begin at the Adk Lodge. All of these peaks have incredible views, especially, Skylight. Skylight is one of my FAVORITE 46ers! Also, there are SO MANY LESS people on Skylight than Marcy, so it’s much more enjoyable. So, to start, you will follow the same driving directions for Mount Marcy to get to the Adk Lodge. Once you have parked, you will sign in, then follow the path to the Marcy Dam for about 2.4 miles.

Then in about .5 of a mile (a little less), you will follow the signs (yellow markers) to Avalanche Lake and Camps. You will stay on here for about a mile, then come to an intersection for Mount Colden and Lake Arnold. You want to take a left and continue to lake Arnold, or the blue trail markers. In about 1.5 you will see a sign for Lake Arnold and Colden to your right, but you want to stay straight, towards the Feldspar Brook Lean-tos (still following blue trail markers).

You will stay on this trail for a good 2-2.5 miles, and it will start going down hill, and be VERY muddy. There will also be many bogs and ponds you will have to cross during this section of your hike. If you want to buy trekking poles for some extra balance through the mud and pond crossings, it might be a good idea to do so. I have hiked many times both with and without trekking poles. The only time I really recommend them is when you have a heavy back, such as, when you’re backpacking or if you’re winter hiking. Otherwise, you don’t need them, especially if you have known rock scrambles ahead of you, because they will only get in the way.

{Related Articles : Mount Colden}

Getting to Gray

Okay, after the 2.5 miles, you will come to another intersection, where you will take a left towards Lake Tear or the Tear of Clouds, and start to follow the yellow trail markers. This is about 1.5 miles in length, with a heavy incline. You will see the start of the Tear of Clouds on your left, and on your left in about 1.5 miles, you will see a mound or cairn of rocks. This cairn, is your trail marker, marking the beginning of Gray Peak.

Gray is a trail-less Peak, so be careful on this ascent. It is only half a mile to the top, but has a decent elevation gain. You will know you’re at the top, because there will be a plaque on one of the trees, saying, Gray Peak. That being said, it is pretty easy to follow, because the trail is pretty cleared out. Gray has great views going to the top, but at the actual summit, it has “blocked” beauty. Meaning, the trees hide the view.

Okay, once you have completed Gray Peak, you will head back down the same way you came up, to that same cairn or mound of rocks you saw, indicating the turn-off for Gray. From here, you will take a left and continue to follow the yellow markers you were previously following for the Tear of Clouds. You will continue following the yellow trail markers for about .5-1 a mile to another intersection, called, The Four Corners.

Getting to Skylight and Marcy

From here, you will see signs for Mount Skylight and Mount Marcy. I suggest doing Skylight then Marcy. To get to Skylight, you will take a right, and follow the red trail markers, for another half a mile to the summit of Skylight. Now, the summit of Skylight, is AMAZING!! When I went, the top was very windy so I didn’t stay too long unfortunately, and I was pressed for time. But if you have the chance, try to do this hike in the summer, so you’ll have less wind on the summits, and more time to enjoy it (I hiked this in October).

Getting to Marcy

Okay, once you’ve gotten your views and pictures on Skylight, it’s time for Marcy, New York’s TALLEST peak/mountain! So, you will head back to the Four Corners intersection, and from here, follow the yellow trail markers to Mount Marcy. The climb to Marcy is about .8 of a mile away, with a nice incline. In addition, about halfway to Marcy, you will start climbing on an all rock top for the rest of your hike. Thus, if you do not enjoy rock tops, I would not suggest hiking this loop.

That being said, if you do enjoy open faces and rock tops, this is for you. To put this into perspective, I’m a baby when it comes to open rock faces and I didn’t think this was scary, so it’s fairly doable. If you have hiked Mount Mansfield via the Sunset Ridge Trail, Mount Marcy, is very similarly to the open rock part on Mansfield (via Sunset Ridge). You will follow the yellow markings on the rocks, as well as, the different ropes, informing you where to walk. There are many endangered species of moss, that need protection, and having the yellow markings and rope are a way to stop hikers from walking on the plants.

Marcy has a great summit, nice and open, with tons of space, and obviously, SHOW STOPPING views! I mean, you’re at the tallest place in New York State, standing at 5,344ft, so of course the view is going to be out of this world. The only down side to this summit, is usually there’s a ton of people, which is kind of annoying. If you are interested, here is the AllTrails downloadable map to follow when hiking all three of these peaks.

Hiking Back to Your Car/the Adk Lodge

Okay, now to get back to your car and the Adirondack Lodge, you will go down the opposite side that you came up. You will continue to follow the yellow markings on the rocks, to the other side of the mountain, (just continue past Mount Marcy summit in the opposite direction that you came) where you will then be on the Van Hoevenberg trail. You will follow this trail all the way back to the Marcy dam and the Adirondack Lodge. From the Marcy dam, you will follow the signs back to the Adirondack Lodge. And poof, you will be back at your car. Here is a link to even better directions and more trails.

And that wraps up our Mount Marcy, Skylight, and Gray loop. I hope you enjoyed this, and learned a great new hiking loop you can’t wait to get to. I really loved this trail, even though it was pretty tiring, I would definitely do it again in a heart beat. Below is a video of the footage I got from my hike of the loop, thank you for reading, and get hiking!