Everything You Need to Know about the Adk Lodge in the Adirondack Mountains
The Adk Lodge is a GREAT place to hike, camp, backpack, backcountry ski, cross-country ski, snow-shoe, and loads of other fun outdoor activities. The Adk lodge offers overnight stays, parking, lakes, campgrounds, and offers a couple of different locations. The two main locations are in the Adirondack Mountains, in Lake Placid, and in Keene Valley, at the John Brook Lodge (about 40 minutes from the Adirondack lodge Lake Placid). And there is also an Adk Lodge Old Forge in New York (about 2 hours from the other lodges, in the western Adirondacks).
This lodge is apart of the Adirondack wilderness, in upstate New York. The Adk Lodge in Lake Placid and Keene Valley, are located in the heart of many different high peaks (apart of the Adirondack 46er Challenge). The Adirondacks are actually the largest mountain reserve area in the country, which most people do not know.
In this post, you will learn about, the Adk lodge Lake Placid, the John Brook Lodge, Adk lodge camping, Adk lodge parking, Adk lodge hiking, and so much more.
This post is all about the Adk lodge.
Adk Lodge:
Getting There : Adirondack Lodge Lake Placid
To get to this parking area, you will get onto interstate 87 North or South (depending on where you are coming from), if you’re coming north (from Plattsburgh) then you will take interstate 87 South. You will stay on the highway until exit 30. You will get off at exit 30, then take a left onto route 73 (if coming southbound, you will take a right onto route 73). In about 2-3 miles you will come to an intersection, where you will want to keep left towards Whiteface/Lake Placid and route 73.
You will continue onto route 73 for 13 miles, then continue or verge to your left, right after the town of Keene Valley or right after the High Peaks sign (it is small, so beware of this left verge). You will then continue again on Route 73 for 11 more miles. Then, take a left onto Adirondack Loj Road. You will continue on this road for 4.7 miles (until the end). Also, this is a SUPER pretty road, so you might want to stop and taking some pictures.
Pay to Park
Also, even if you are just going to the Adirondack loj in Lake Placid for the day, you will have to pay $15 for parking, or $7 if you are a member of the Adk lodge. Now, Adk loj parking/Adk lodge parking can be quite tricky in Lake Placid from June throughout September, sometimes into mid October as well. On WEEKENDS, during the months listed above, you want to get there BEFORE 7am.
Also, bring exact change, because there won’t be any attendant at the window, before a certain time in the morning, so you will need to take an envelope from the box. The envelope has your parking sticker for the day, that you can put on the inside of your car dashboard. Many Adirondack 46ers, try and get to the lodge at 5-6am, and there are MANY. So if you want to hike here, get there EARLY or in the afternoon, around noon-1ish for shorter hikes, i.e. Mount Jo.
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Adirondack (Adk) Lodge Lake Placid Camping
Now, I have never stayed at the Adk lodge, but I’m assuming, you would tell the attendant at the booth, that you are staying at the lodge, and they can tell you where to go. You can easily make Adk loj reservations at this website, for either the Lake Placid or Keene location. Now, if you are backpacking or camping, you will walk towards the building or walk to your left-ish, towards the hiker registration area.
You can sign-in here, then continue on the hiking path, towards the Marcy Dam. After the Marcy Dam, you will follow signs towards Colden Camps, there are a bunch of camping sites and lean-tos here. Just make sure you camp at a yellow sign with a tent on it, that means you can camp there.
Accessible Trails from the Adk Lodge Lake Placid
There are SO MANY trails you can access from the Adk Lodge in Lake Placid. Some hiking trails/high peaks you can ONLY access from the Adk Lodge in Lake Placid. For example, Phelps and Tabletop Mountains are ONLY accessible from the Adk Lodge in Lake Placid. You can access A LOT of different high peaks or Adk 46ers in addition to Phelps and Tabletop. Some peaks include, Algonquin, Wright, Iroquois, Marcy, Gray, Skylight, Colden, Marshall, Redfield & Cliff, Street & Nye, and MacNaughton (not technically a high peak). Also, from the Adirondack lodge, you can hike to heart lake.
Getting There: John Brook Lodge
To get to this parking area, you will follow the same directions as above, except, you will only stay on Route 73 for 8.4 miles, then once you see the Ausable Inn, you will turn right before the inn, onto Adirondack Street. Then, in .6 of a mile, you will take a right onto Interbrook Road, where there will be a bridge. Then in a little less then a mile, you will arrive at the parking area, there is a dirt road for about .3 of a mile, but it’s very manageable for all cars.
You will also see the attend window, where you will pay $10 for parking. However, sometimes, there won’t be an attend, so you will have to have exact change. There will be a white mail box, that you’ll open, and inside there will be a yellow/orange parking card, and an envelope where you will enclose your money in.
This parking area, the Garden parking, is full most of the time. On weekends, it’s VERY hard to find a space, unless you arrive before 5-6am, depending on the time of the year. If you are hiking during prime season (May-October), I would arrive no later than 6am, for weekends. However, Monday-Thursday, as long as you arrive before 8am, you should be able to find a spot. During the winter, parking is not as big of an issue, but I would still arrive no later than 9am, depending if it’s on the weekend or not.
Hiking to the John Brook Lodge
After you have parked, you will walk forward, to the hiker registration area, where you will sign in. Signing in, helps the ADK club, know how many visitors they are receiving and how they can better accommodate people and the trails. After signing in, you will see signs for Big Slide, Mount Marcy, John Brook Lodge, and a couple other trails, however, you want to stay straight for the John Brook lodge (if staying or camping near here).
This lodge is one of the places/areas you can stay if you are backpacking/camping for the weekend or couple of days. If you wish to stay at the lodge, there are some fees you will have to pay, plus the $10 parking fee for the Garden parking lot. Pricing does vary, depending on the size of your group, but meals are included while staying at the John Brook Lodge. You can find pricing here. Also, if you don’t want to pay any more fees, there are many different camping sites and lean-tos that you can stay at instead.
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Camping in the Adirondack Mountains
If you are camping, there are some strict rules to follow. Such as, leave no trace (carry in what you carry out), BURY your waste, and DO NOT camp above 3,500 feet (there will be signs saying, no camping beyond this point). Also, you can only camp where there are camping signs. You will find these, where you find trail makers, on different trees throughout the trails. They will be yellow with a tree, and have tiny words, saying, camp here. A good campsite near the John Brook Lodge is the Slant Rock lean-to, which is good to stay at if you are hiking to Marcy, HaBaSa or the Great Range/Lower Great Range.
Now for hiking, you will have to hike about 3.1 miles to access the John Brook lodge and the various other campsites. To get to the lodge, after you have signed into the hiker registration book, you will want to stay straight, towards the signs for the John Brook Lodge.
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Accessible Trails from the John Brook Lodge
Some of the other trails you can also access from the John Brook Lodge are, Big Slide, the Wolf Jaws, Upper + Lower, Gothics, Armstrong, Haystack, Basin, Saddleback, and Mount Marcy. All of these hikes are apart of the Adk 46er high peak challenge, which you can find more information about, here.
If you become hooked on the Adirondacks, there is a club you can sign up for. The Adirondack or ADK Mountain Club, is an organization that helps preserve the wilderness, as well as, allows its members to meet-up and go on group hikes and various other activities. They have different meet-ups and outings that their members can go on, as well as, some cool discounts. You can register to become a member, here.
And that wraps up our post about the Adirondack Lodge. Thank you for reading and I hope this article gave you some new insight on where to stay when you hike the Adirondacks. And some new ideas of places to visit within or near your state, thank you again and take care.
