The shaping of the Adirondacks was part of a larger process involving the movement of the earth's tectonic plates. The story is a complex one, involving the coming together and breaking up of continents and the appearance and later closing of ancient oceans. The Adirondacks — the product of this lengthy process — are a unique mountain range.
They are not part of the Catskills or Appalachian Mountains. They are new mountains, although made of old rocks, and are still growing, faster than erosion is wearing the surface away.
The second series of events to shape the Adirondack landscape began much more recently, about 1. This era is known as the Pleistocene Epoch or more popularly the Ice Age. The Adirondacks' glacial past is evident in wide range of topographic features and glacial landforms:. Black Pond is a acre glacial pond whose western boundary is an esker.
Black Pond, a glacial pond originally formed by meltwater from large chunks of ice embedded in the retreating glacier, will be on your right, while the esker will be on your left. A kame is a steep-sided mound of sand and gravel. When sediment-laden water flowed over the glacier's surface, it filled depressions with sand and gravel.
As the glacier melted, material from circular depressions was deposited on the landscape as mounds called kames. An examples of a cirque in the Adirondack Mountains is the west-facing valley of Giant Mountain; this cirque continues to erode as massive rock slides expose its steep walls.
Cirques are also responsible for the distinctive shape of Whiteface Mountain. Snow typically begins falling in October or November and can continue through April or May.
Snow production is steadiest between December and March, with 15 to 30 inches of snow falling per month throughout the region. Even during wintertime, the mountain air is crisp and clear. If the thrill of fishing or fly-fishing is what you're after, you guessed it — the Adirondack Mountains also shape the area's watersheds that feed some of the region's rivers and best fishing waters. Water quality in the Lake Champlain Watershed is rated as generally good-to-excellent, which makes it ideal for boaters and fishers.
Bass, trout, walleyes, salmon, and pike are just a few of the types of fish that call the Adirondack Watersheds home. The Adirondack Mountains are the place to experience the thrill of every season and climate, to connect with nature and feel the great power of untouched wilderness. The Department of Environmental Conservation and the Adirondack Mountain Club take great care and pride in preserving the mountains, maintaining trails and structures you can use to hike or camp in the area, and providing important information to explorers.
Each year, hundreds of volunteers take to the mountains to complete specific trail maintenance work and reconstruction projects, motivated by a shared love for the wilderness and adventure found in the Adirondack Mountains. Adirondack Mountains Discover the Adirondacks' unique beauty, diverse ecology, and historic legacy. Adirondack Geology The Adirondack Mountains are more than 5,, years old and are a monument to the shifting, irrepressible powers of the last ice age.
Exploring the Adirondack Mountains One of the first places to receive Forever Wild status in the United States, these mountains have been cherished as an outdoor playground, accessible and open to all, for centuries. Skiing in the Adirondacks If you're a skier or snowboarder, you've come to the right place.
Ski the 'Dacks. Kid-friendly and accessible walkways enable everyone to enjoy the views while learning about this amazing landscape among the treetops.
But you don't have to travel to Tupper Lake to see over the leaves. Over a dozen decommissioned Adirondack fire towers dot the mountainous landscape and provide awesome payoffs for mostly short hikes. Another way to see over the tree-tops is to explore the hiking trails that climb to rocky mountain-tops with panoramic views. The appropriately named Bald Mountain lies just outside the town of Blue Mountain Lake and has stellar views above its tree-line.
Mountains not high enough for you? The bird's eye view is a truly unique experience. Unique Water Features. As water tumbles down the sides of mountains, occasionally there's a rapid drop in elevation where water free-falls through the air before reuniting with land. It's waterfalls like this that are popular among explorers of all ages.
Before heading to the trailhead, you'll want to see our list of the best Adirondack waterfalls and trip planning advice. A special and enduring part of the Adirondack waterways are those not carved by glacial activity, but dug by hand. Every summer paddlers glide the water that fills the hand-dug canal network connecting Osgood Pond to Little Church Pond and Church Pond. These waterways were originally created to allow dry passage to and from the historic Saint John's Episcopal Church in Paul Smiths, especially on Sunday mornings.
These waterways can now be paddled any day of the week from the Osgood Pond Boat Launch. Other water routes have been organized on naturally occurring bodies of water, some stretching for dozens of miles.
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