Tag Archives: hiking

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Lake Willoughby.

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The undiscovered country is always the best.. and when we travel, we love nothing more than stumbling upon a place we never knew existed.

Enter Lake Willoughby in Vermont.

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Imagine randomly picking a road to travel home and finding this.

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Not being in any hurry, we stopped.

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And groaned at the bad grammar.

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But bad spelling aside…. wow.

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There was a path that ran alongside part of the lake and though I wasn’t dressed for hiking, I happily headed out.

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This is a glacial lake and every part of it was glorious.

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My pictures don’t really do it justice, but in spots the colors were positively surreal.

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The wind was ripping and I couldn’t feel my nose, but we pressed on.

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Being careful not to trample any seedlings.

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Mountains, rocks and a glacial lake.

Yes please.

To be continued…

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The awesome Ausable finale.

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Yes, there really was an end to our visit. Much as I didn’t want to, we had to leave eventually.

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And leaving meant walking the rim trail.

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Which follows the edge of the chasm but from a much higher level.

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The grand flume.

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Most of the trail was through the woods with a few peaks of the water like this.

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When a tree falls in the forest? Doesn’t matter if you hear it or not… let it be. The critters will thank you.

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One more scenic vista..

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One more cross walk…

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And you’re back on the main road bridge.

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Which affords one last beautiful view.

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If you’re ever in Keeseville, New York visit the Grand Canyon of the East at Ausable Chasm.

It really was awesome!

👍

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I forgot the moss!

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You thought you were done looking at rocks?

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Not quite.

I forgot one of the best parts of the Inner Sanctum trail at Ausable Chasm….

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The wall of moss.

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The husband went in for a close up… so you know it had to be good.

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A solid wall of perpetually wet moss. It was amazing.

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I loved it.

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Me.

Loving it.

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Thankfully it was a warm late October day and the bridge wasn’t iced.

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And though I didn’t want to leave, we’d reached the end of the trail and it’s giant knee pain inducing stairs.

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A final look at the trail from above.

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Still awesome…

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Are you tired of rock filled posts?

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Then you’ve come to the wrong blog.

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The Inner Sanctum trail at Ausable Chasm is well named as we were surrounded by cliffs and rushing water …. blissfully alone with the grandeur. A veritable rock sanctuary.

But all good things must end and this staircase was the beginning.

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One last look around before we climbed up.

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And I won’t lie, it was hard to leave this fabulous trail.

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Spending the day here made us feel small, in a good.. we’re just tiny specks in the universe… way.

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Mother Nature is a marvelous architect.

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And we enjoyed every minute.

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The awesomeness continues…

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I know it feels like I took picture every time I took a step, and okay… maybe I did. But I’m not posting all of them, I promise.

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The rock faces and cliffs were just too spectacular not to share.

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Thankfully we didn’t have to cross this bridge.

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Though my husband sure wanted to.

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I’ve often thought he was part mountain goat.

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The power of water and erosion is hard to miss at Ausable Chasm.

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It’s literally everywhere.

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As was I.

Shown here loving on some rocks… with the sun’s rays giving me a high five.

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A truly glorious place.

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Have I mentioned how awesome it was?

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Ausable Chasm is awesome, no doubt about it.

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And the Inner Sanctum trail is one of the most awesome I’ve ever taken.

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It literally hugs the edge of the rocks and affords some fabulous views.

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Bridges cut back and forth across the canyon..

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And even my non picture taking husband was happily snapping away.

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It was stunning.

Gorgeous.

Impressive.

Remarkable.

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And yeah, most definitely awesome.

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Me. Enjoying the rocks and awesomeness.

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Visiting off season was perfect. We almost had the whole place to ourselves.

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Rocks!

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There’s the husband, still upset he couldn’t do the rope bridges and rafting adventure part of the chasm.

😳

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More awesome Ausable…

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We were really enjoying this hike alongside the chasm.

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There was something stunning around every corner.

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Though at times my knee strongly disagreed.

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Here’s the husband.

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He might be a senior citizen, but he was still upset he couldn’t cross that rope bridge.

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The path that’s cut into the rock alongside the chasm is spectacular.

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And I was loving every minute of it.

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Surrounded by towering rocks. How could I not?

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This open metal bridge was a little hairy. And while I’m not afraid of heights, looking straight down through it was a tad stomach flipping.

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Onward…

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The Chasm… part two.

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Continuing on the marked path, we came to a fork. We could take the easier, stairless Rim Walk on the left…

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Or the harder, your bad knee will be screaming and make you pay, Inner Sanctum trail to the right.

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You knew there was only one right answer.

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Stairs? Oh yeah. Hundreds of them.

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But the views were totally worth it.

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The farther down you go, the louder the roar of the water.

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And once again I was glad the adventure trail was closed. I love to climb on rocks… but generally need a little more than string when it comes to a bridge.

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Me. Loving the rocks.

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The Inner Sanctum is the only way to see this chasm up close and personal.

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It was truly stunning.

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Ausable Chasm… it was awesome!

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Our day trip destination in New York was the little town of Keeseville, home to the Grand Canyon of the East.

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We’d driven by this place on a previous vacation and vowed if we were ever back in the area we’d stop and explore.

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In case you can’t zoom in, one of the best tourist attractions of the Adirondacks is under the C in Lake Champlain. Au Sable directly translates to “of the sand” which makes sense since the chasm is a giant sandstone gorge.

Looking forward to taking some good pictures, I was extremely glad cameras are smaller and lighter than they used to be.

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After buying tickets and taking a quick look at the little history museum, we headed out over the bridge which was impressive in and of itself.

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Entering the site, it felt like they knew I was coming.

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There are multiple paths and trails but they all start here.

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And like good tourists, we followed the yellow brick road.

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Okay, we followed the yellow wooden squares… so sue me.

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The first open outcropping looked back toward the bridge. And after that?

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I knew my knee would not be happy.

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It’s a shame they even have to post warnings like that, but you know some bozo bonked someone on the head down below at one time or another.

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This was our first look at the chasm.

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And I have to say I was hooked.

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I was also glad it was off season and the “adventure trail” was closed.

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Because that’s a bridge I had no interest in crossing.

😳

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Sabbaday Falls, part three.

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Everywhere I looked there was a beautiful picture waiting to be taken.

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Not to mention videos.

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I love these kind of places. Easy hiking with railed bridges and paths that criss cross over the natural splendor.

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And these were extremely well made, designed to withstand water and rough weather. I can only imagine the force of the falls in the spring, it must be epic.

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For those who are interested:

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And for those of us with bad knees?

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Random benches to take a break.

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While I agree with the ❤️ sentiment, I dislike the defacement.

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The return path when you’ve had your fill.

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Onward…

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