Street and Nye High Peaks
Hiking Trail-less High Peaks
If you live in New York, you’ve probably heard of the 46er High Peak Challenge of the Adirondack Mountains. But, you may not know the names of all the trails yet, that you have to complete along the way. Street and Nye Mountains, are two less popular High Peaks apart of the this challenge, but are great second peaks to tackle on after, the famous, Cascade and Porter peaks.
The trailhead for Street and Nye is located at the Adirondack Lodge. To get there, you will get on Interstate 87 North or South (depending on where you are coming from), and take it all the way to Exit 30. Once you get off at Exit 30, you will take a left (or right, if coming southbound) from the exit onto Route 73, towards Whiteface, Lake Placid, and Keene Valley. In about 2.2 miles you will come across an intersection, where you want to stay left, towards Whiteface and Lake Placid. After that, you will stay on Route 73 for about 13 miles. Then, you will pass through another intersection for Jay and Whiteface (towards your right) and then Keene Valley and the High Peaks to your left. You want to continue left, towards the High Peaks, after this, you will continue straight for another 11 miles, then turn left onto Adirondack Loj Road. You will continue straight on this road until you reach the lodge (about 4.7 miles).
After you’ve driven the road to the lodge, you will come to a ticket window. Here, you will have to pay to park. It is $15 for the day to park at the lodge. You can stay at the lodge and they serve you breakfast, and I believe dinner too. Here is a link to their website, where you can find rates and book your stay. Be aware, that in the summer months (May-September), on the weekends, you want to get here before 5-6am, or you will not get a spot, no joke. On the weekdays, as long as you get there before 7:30am, you’ll be fine, and on the off season, you should be good before 8:30-9am. Now, once you arrive, you want to follow trails towards Mount Jo. So, once you park, you will walk back pass the ticket window you just drove pass, towards Heart Lake and Mount Jo.
Once you’re on your way to Mount Jo, you will see signs telling you where to go for Mount Jo, and this is what you want to follow. Now, I also hiked Mount Jo when I hiked Street and Nye, but you don’t have too. However, Mount Jo does have a great view, even though when I hiked it, it was in the clouds, the other pictures I’ve seen are beautiful. Mount Jo is a total of 1.8 miles with an elevation gain of 692ft. Since, it only adds about 2 miles to your hike, I think it’s worth it. Especially, because both Street and Nye don’t really have views. Thus, Mount Jo will most likely be your best view of the day.
This being said, you can save Street and Nye for a cloudy day, like I did, because again, they don’t have the best views, they are mostly wooded summits. If you decide to hike Mount Jo, you will go the same way down as you went up, and continue along the trail. Then for Nye and Street, you will come upon another intersection on your way down from Mount Jo. And you want to follow the signs towards Indian Pass (red trail markers toward Rock Garden and Old Nye Ski Trail). Then you will come upon an intersection where you can go right to the Old Nye Ski and Rock Garden Trails, and that’s the way you want to go, towards your right and to the Old Nye Ski Trail.
You will follow this for about a mile, to a mile and an half. Then come to a pretty big water crossing of the Indian Pass Brook. ONLY pass this when the water levels are low. I hiked this in October, thus, the water levels were pretty manageable, but I still had to go a ways up the river to find a place I could safely pass from. DO NOT hike these two trails in the Spring, because during “mud” season or when the snow is melting, water levels will be at their highest. And if you hike above 3,500ft in the Spring, you really damage the trails (here is an article explaining more of the dangers and what to do). After I passed the brook, I had to re-find the trail. Keep in mind, once you go on the Old Nye Ski Trail, there are no trail markers. However, the trail is so worn in, you should be able to find the path.
Also, a good way to know you’re on the right path, after you’ve crossed the Brook, is by the elevation gain. If you are on the right path, you will follow a rising elevation gain, that eventually overlooks the river/brook you just passed (a ridge line). Also, after you pass the overlooks of the brook/river, you will start to follow an old, dried up stream bed (may not be dry, depending on the time of year you go), which you will follow for about 2-2.5 miles. Then you will come to an intersection with different cairns and a tree that has Nye and St, for, Street carved into it. It will also have arrows, one pointing straight/right for Nye and the other pointing left, for Street.
From this intersection, again, you will continue straight, or slightly to your right, for Nye Mountain. You will hike this for about .5-1 mile, until you reach the summit of Nye! You will know you’re at the top, by the Nye Mountain Plaque you will see on a tree of the summit. Now, this is a wooded summit, so there will be no views. But, Street has a little view.
To get to Street, you will hike back down to that same intersection, and go to your left this time. Again, you will hike for about .5-1 mile to the summit. At the summit, again there will be a tree with the Street Mountain Plaque. Now, Street has a little bit of a view, as you can see below. Some people say, there is a better view, if you go further down, but I didn’t see anywhere, other than the picture I got, for a view. Since it was a cloudy day when I went, it was a cool summit, because I got to see the clouds move along the MacIntyre Range.
To get back to your car, you just re-trace your steps. In total, these two peaks (without Jo) are around 9.1 miles and have a total elevation gain of 2,634ft. With Mount Jo, it will be a total of 10.9 miles and an elevation gain of 3,326ft. Overall, Street and Nye are two pretty low-key high peaks, compared to some others. These are actually the two high peaks I recommend doing after Cascade and Porter. Even though, they are longer than Cascade and Porter by about 2.5 miles, the elevation gain is not too much more.
While the famous peaks, Giant and Rocky Peaks are double the elevation gain of Cascade and Porter, and 2.5 miles longer. Even though Giant and Rocky are way better marked, you will be TIRED on these two, because of the HUGE elevation gains. Which is why I HIGHLY recommend doing Street and Nye or Wright, Algonquin, and Iroquois, second INSTEAD of Giant and Rocky Peak. I even recommend doing Phelps and Tabletop together (and some others), before you hike Giant and Rocky, because they still have a higher elevation gain than Phelps and Tabletop (and many others).
Thank you so much for reading, and below is the video I made of my hike of Street, Nye, and Jo Mountains. I try to explain and show you how to hike and what to look out for when you’re hiking these peaks. Take care and get hiking!
