Last month, me and my wife went on a weekend ride to the Adirodacks park in Upstate New York. It is the largest park in the USA and home to some of best riding roads with beautiful views from its numerous mountains.

Its not too far from where I live, about 330 miles(500km). I had been there twice earlier this year(by car) during winters as it is the winter sports capital of the country. The main objective was to go on the summit of Whiteface mountain, which we could not visit last time as it was closed during winters. Also, the winding roads were all the more inviting that I had to come back again on the bike.

Here are a few teasers:










So, the ride was planned to coincide with fall foliage viewing as well as the last day of the year when the road to the summit is open.

The original intent of leaving early saturday moring 7AM was foiled by the wedding party we went to on Friday night. We returned back at 4AM and woke up at 10AM. So much for precision planning...

Anyways, we somehow managed to leave at 12 noon and immidiately hit traffic as we approached Tappan Zee bridge.



After crawling at speeds of 5 - 10mph for about an hour, the New York State Thruway (I-87) opened up.




First stop at a rest area at 100 miles.





After another 100 miles, we reached the town of Lake George, which is the beginning of Adirondacks park and a huge tourist destination. We had been to the lake many times but only on the shore. This time we wanted a different view of the lake, from the summit of Prospect mountain. We got off the thruway and headed straight to Prospect Mountain highway. This is right after the toll both that the road starts going uphill.



There are many scenic viewpoints of the way to the summit, we stopped at the first one with barely a glimpse of the lake.



On closer inspection..



Then we stopped at the second viewpoint, also time to give the backside some rest after riding 125 miles.




A better view of the lake...






Going uphill a little more...




Stopped at the third viewpoint. Here we can see the southern end of Lake George along with the town.









As we get ready to move on to go to the summit...






A group of Harley riders stop by on their way down....





And we continue towards the summit...










Finally, we are at the summit of Prospect mountain. After parking the bike in the parking lot at the end of the road, we hiked up to the summit.





View of the parking lot from the summit...spot the bike in the picture...



Here's the answer:


The leaves had not started changing yet but getting there...







The remains of the ropeway that used to operate a 100 years ago to bring tourists to the summit before the road was built.



Northbound views of Adirondack mountains and lake George.








As the sun was setting, it was time to get back and find a place to stay.
Getting ready to leave....





"Lets gooooo...!!!"



As we descend downhill...



Now all we had to do was a find a place to stay for the night. Not a problem... Lake George has numerous hotels, we'd stay in one.

We went to the first one of our choice..."sorry sir, we are sold out"
We went to the second one.."sorry sir, no rooms available"
The third, fourth... same answer... we were like WTF..????
We found out all the hotels in Lake George and nearby towns were all sold out.

It was already 9 PM by now and still we could not find a place to stay.
We decided to go to Plattsburgh 110 miles further north where we would definitely find a room. The only problem was that we had to drive through Adirondacks park where the chance of crashing into deer or any other animal was quite high during the night as they all come out after dark. Some of them graze next to the road and panic when you are approaching and jump right in front of you causing numerous crashes and quite a few biker fatalities every year.

But we said what the hell....we decided to go to Plattsburgh anyway. We reached there in a couple of hours and landed directly in the Hotels parking lot. there also the same story... all hotels - no vacancy. We had dinner at a Subway and asked the attendent there if he knew about some non-chain hotel/motel that might have a room available. He was kind enough to call up a few hotels but even he was surprised that there was no rooms available. We get the Yellow book and started calling all the places listed. We were told that there is nothing available in a 2-hour radius of Plattsburgh. it was the Columbus day weekend and with Oktoberfest events going on all over the place, this weekend is always sold out with tourists.
It was now past midnight and we were exhaused and sleepy. I thought of getting a tent & sleeping bags from a nearby 24-hr Walmart and camping out somewhere. So we set out on the road again and came to Valcour Visitor center/rest area on I-87. Inside the visitor center, there were two benches. I said, "this is it... just drop your stuff and go to sleep".

So these were our beds for the night:


Though it looks like, I'm in police lock-up... I'm not.
A lot of cops came by, but no one disturbed us






Our "suite"



So that was the first part of the travelogue...Hope you enjoyed the pictures.

In the next installment we ride up the Whiteface mountain.