How to Hike Dix Mountain Range, Adirondacks NY

The Dix Mountain Range is another EPIC traverse apart of the the Adirondack 46er Challenge. These peaks are located in North Hudson and Keene, New York in the Adirondack Mountains. This range includes 5 AWESOME peaks, which all have AMAZING views of Elk Lake and the surrounding mountains.

There are a couple different ways you can approach this range, you can hike all five peaks in one day, or you can split them up, with three in one day, and two in another. I chose to split the five peaks up, but you can totally hike all five of them in one day. I will explain how to do both.

In this post, you will learn all about Dix Mountain, the Dix Mountain Wilderness, Dix Mountain Range, the slides, the hike in general, and much more.

This post is all about Dix Mountain.

Dix Mountain:

Dix Mountain Trailhead From Elk Lake Lodge

The first and most popular way to hike this range is from Elk Lake Lodge. This parking lot gets full very quickly (especially in the summer months (June-September) on the weekends), so I advise getting there early. My friends and I hiked this range on a Friday, in mid September, and got to the parking lot a little before 5am, and it was about 60-70% full. Thus, keep this in mind if you are planning on hiking this range via Elk Lake Lodge.

Directions to Elk Lake Lodge

To get to Elk Lake Lodge parking lot, you will get on Interstate 87 and take Exit 29 to Newcomb. Coming from 87 North you will turn left onto the road, whereas if coming southbound on 87, you will turn right onto the road. You will then turn right onto Elk Lake Road in 4.2 miles, and follow it all the way to the end. You can also follow these directions from Google Maps. Also, this parking area is only open from late October/November until late March/May. This is a seasonal road, so again keep this in mind if you want to hike the Dix Range this way.

Hiking Dix Mountain From Elk Lake Lodge

To hike this range from Elk Lake Lodge, you will go left towards the trails from the parking area, to the hiker registration book. You can sign in here, then you will want to hike towards the Slide Brook Lean-To. You will hike to the Slide Brook Lean-To camping area. From here, the trail gets a little tricky, especially in the dark, because there are no more trail markers. My friends and I followed the Dix Mountain AllTrails Map, this is the one we used, and it worked out great. We did download it for offline use, which is a Pro feature. However, the Pro version is not too expensive (about $35.99 for a year subscription).

It will take about 2.2 miles to get to the campgrounds. From here you will follow the Slide Brook Herd Path, which will be about 2-2.3 miles until the summit of Macomb Peak. Along your way you will encounter the infamous Macomb Slide. The Macomb Slide and the Dix Slide are the most well known slides of the Dix Mountain slides. The Macomb Slide is full of loose rock and different rock slabs. Macomb Peak has about a 2,000ft of elevation gain until its summit. The summit on Macomb Peak is small, but it has a nice lookout of Elk Lake and the surrounding mountains.

Getting to South Dix/Carson Peak from the Macomb Summit

From the Macomb summit, you can easily go to South Dix/Carson Peak. To do so, continue along the herd path, passed the Macomb Summit plaque. From Macomb, South Dix (Carson Peak) is about .8-1 mile away from Macomb, with some elevation gain. For the most part you stay at the same elevation until South/Carson Peak. The actual summit of this peak is wooded, but there is a yellow trail marker circle on one of the trees that says South Dix. SD for South Dix is also engraved on the tree. There is a nice lookout before the actual summit. It is easy to miss, my friends and I missed it on our way there, but saw it on our way back.

Hiking to Grace Peak from South Dix

After South Dix, you will continue on the same herd path until you get to East Dix or Grace Peak. Grace peak is about .8 of a mile from South Dix and has pretty much the same elevation gain. The summit of Grace was my favorite from these three mountains, it’s nice and open and has almost 360 views. It’s really quite something. We even met a group of people who had just finished their 46er’s on top.

{Related Post : Noonmark Mountain}

Hiking Back to Elk Lake Lodge Parking Lot

After spending some time at Grace, we started to hike back down. To get back to the parking area, you will go the same way up as down. You could also continue onto Hough and Dix Peaks from here. I felt fine when I was at Grace Peak, so this range is definitely doable in one day. However, if you want to split up the five peaks, I would stop here and then hike Dix and Hough together on a different day.

Continuing to Hough & Dix Peaks

If you decide to continue on, Hough will be the next peak on your map. You will have to go back over to South Dix (Carson Peak). Then from South Dix, you will follow the herd path to Hough, which is about 1.3 miles away with an elevation gain of about 400ft. Like I said, the summit of Hough is small but very nice, and it has a small summit sign on one of the trees.

Then finally from here, you will continue onto the final mountain of this range, Dix Mountain. Dix is the 6th tallest mountain within the Adirondacks. Dix is about 1.4 miles from Hough, with an elevation gain of about 400ft and you will continue pass Hough on the same herd path, you have been following the whole time. Towards the summit of Dix you will pass the infamous Beckhorn. There are a couple tricky rock scrambles you will have to navigate through but overall hiking over the Beckhorn is doable.

Dix Mountain Summit & Getting Back Down

The summit of Dix, like I said is also very nice. It has 360 views of all the surrounding mountains, which are beautiful. I recommend spending some time up here to relax if you can, before you start your ascend down. You can follow the Beckhorn trail down, from the Beckhorn. I would follow this map to make sure you turn off at the right area for the Beckhorn trail. You will follow the Beckhorn trail for about 1.8 miles, then get on the Hunter Pass trail, which will lead you to the Slide Brook camp site and then back down to the Elk Lake parking area.

If you want to end here, to get back you will hike back past South Dix, then there will be two different turn offs for the Lillian Brook that you will pass, you want to turn left at the SECOND left turn, NOT the first. This will bring you back to the campsites you first past and the Elk Lake parking lot. This will be a pretty steep descend but only for about a mile to mile and a half. Then it’ll even out.

To do this full range in one day it is about 15-17 miles. When my friends and I hiked it, like I said, we split these 5 peaks up. We hiked Macomb, South Dix, and Grace peaks together which were about 12 miles total and it took us about 8 hours with break time to complete. Then we hiked Dix and Hough (from Route 73 & Round Pond) which took about 11 hours plus breaks, and was about 17.5 miles in distance.

Dix Mountain Trailhead From Round Pond Parking Lot

Hiking Dix Mountain from Route 73 via the Round Pond parking lot is also another way to hike this range. This parking lot is VERY tiny, I would say only about 6 cars maximum can fit here at a time. Also, people like to camp here, so their cars will stay there overnight, again making it harder to find a parking spot. Usually later in the day (except for Fridays) the parking area has at least 2-3 spots open.

And again, you really only have to worry about the crowds from late June to early October, then it starts to die down. My friends and I hiked Dix and Hough via this route, and we got to the parking lot at 5am, again mid September on a Saturday, also when the weather was predicted to rain. And my friends got the last spot, so they let me double park behind them.

Directions to Round Pond Parking Lot

How to get to Route 73 and the Round Pond parking lot, you again, will get on Interstate 87 and take Exit 30 towards Keene Valley, Whiteface, and Lake Placid. You will take a left onto Route 73 (if coming from 87 North, take a right onto Route 73 if coming soundbound). In about 2-3 miles you will come upon a wacky intersection, where you want to stay left towards Whiteface and Lake Placid.

Then in another 2-3 miles you will see signs for the Round Pond parking lot, which is where you want to turn into and park. This parking area will be on your left. You can also follow these directions from Google Maps. Once you’ve parked you will have to walk a little bit down the road to your left (going towards the direction you just came from, while driving). Then you will see a sign for the Dix Mountain Wilderness. This sign will say it’s about 6.8 miles to Dix Mountain, but I would say it’s more like 7.2 until the summit of Dix.

Dix Mountain Hike From Round Pond

You will continue to your left pass the sign, shortly after seeing the hiker registration book. You can sign in here, then be on your way to Dix Mountain. Then, you will follow the blue trail markers and the signs for Dix Mountain the whole way up, or until you reach Dix Mountain slide. It is about 5.5 miles, to get to the slide. I recommend staying to your right when you go up the slide. The cairn of rocks, which indicates where the trail goes back into the woods is on that side. And when we hiked it, the right side was also the driest side. This is also something to keep in mind, that the slide gets easily wet, so maybe hike this after a couple days of no rain.

Getting to the Cairn of Rocks

The cairn of rocks to get back on the trail is not that far up, so be on the lookout for that pile of rocks, on your right. After the Dix Mountain slide, it’s probably about a mile to a mile and a half until the summit. And this part of the trail is VERY steep. If you’ve climbed other high peaks, you won’t be phased by it’s steepness, but if this is one of your first high peaks, be warned, you will gain about 2,000ft of elevation in about 1.5 miles. Anything over a 1,000ft of elevation gain within a mile, is a STEEP incline, which is what I usually reference when I see the amount of elevation gain. So, yes, this has a HIGH elevation gain.

Videos of the Dix Mountain Range

About .4 miles from the summit, you will see signs for Dix Mountain and a couple other locations. This is a pretty easy .4 miles to the top, and it’s pretty much on a rock top/ridge line once you get to this point. You will know you’re at the summit of Dix when you see the foot marker indicator, at one of the rock boulders at the summit. My friends and I stayed here for awhile, it has great views, with no surprise, as it is the 6th tallest high peak within the Adirondacks.

Getting to Hough Peak from Dix Summit

After breaking at the summit for a bit, my friends and I started making our way to Hough Peak. Getting to Hough is very straight forward. You will continue pass Dix Peak to the infamous Beckhorn, which is about a tenth of a mile away. From the Beckhorn, Hough Peak is about 1.5 miles away. The first part to Hough has a lot of down to go through, with a lot of sketchy obstacles. Getting down the backside of the Beckhorn has one very tricky spot, that on our way back, we had to bushwhack up. Then the middle to last part of hiking to Hough has some more uphill. Overall, it’s not too bad to get to Hough from Dix, and the walk goes pretty fast.

The view of Hough is pretty nice as well. The summit is smaller than Dix, but it does have a summit sign. It will be a little yellow trail marker on your right of the summit, with Hough written in the middle, on one of the trees. After Hough, my friends and I went back down the way we came up. Round trip this hike was about 17.5 miles. Here is the route we followed for these two high peaks. If you want to continue on from here to South Dix or Carson Peak, it will be about 2.3 miles. Then from South Dix I would continue on (your right/down) towards Macomb Peak, then make your way back up to East/Grace Peak.

Adding On Grace, South Dix, & Macomb Peaks

Then from Grace Mountain I would go back down to South Dix, then return back to Hough and Dix, then finally back to the Round Pond parking area. I would NOT advise doing the whole range this way, because it’s annoying to have to go back up and down several different peaks, and doing it this way adds about 8.7 extra miles, turning this hike into a 26 mile hike instead of 15-17 mile hike from the Elk Lake Lodge.

Overall, this range has definitely become one of my favorites, and a range I definitely want to re-hike in the future. To be honest I enjoyed the view on Grace Peak the most, however, I did hike Dix on a cloudy day, and Grace on a clear day. Thus, maybe if the days were reversed I would feel differently. I still really enjoyed the view on Dix and it’s amazing to see, but the one on Grace is awesome! Also, getting to Grace is SO MUCH EASIER than getting to Dix Mountain. Anyways, I hope this article helped you if you’re trying to hike the Dix Mountain Range, thank you for reading, and get out there!