Adirondacks: Mountains and sunsets
I just spent 5 days up in the Adirondack mountains in upstate NY. Normally when I go up to the Adirondacks I focus mainly on climbing as many big mountains as I can, but this times I decided to prioritize photography, particularly sunset/golden hour photography. I actually found a nice rhythm of hiking up a big mountain during the day, and then finding a smaller mountain with a nice viewpoint for an evening sunset hike. This also ended up being a great way to test my new headlamp!
The first hike I did was Ampersand mountain. This hike was recommended to me as a great any season hike. I met a man on my way up, who was on his way down, who has hiked this trail over 800 times! This was an amazing hike with awesome panoramic views from the top. It was a bit hazy, I think they were doing some controlled burns in the area, which was a bit disappointing. But the haze did soften the sun a bit which allowed to shoot right into the sun, and get some shots I wouldn’t ordinarily be able to get. And look at all of that color! This was very easy to follow trail for the hike back in the dark.
Taken from the summit of Ampersand Mountain
The following day I hit some big mountains during the day, and then found another sunset hike at balanced rock. The viewpoint at balanced rock was an amazing place to watch the sunset. The views were incredible! It was very windy, which made it pretty cold and difficult to balance my tripod, but I think made out with a few decent images.
View From balanced rock
View from balanced rock. The haze here really helped soften the sun, allowing me to shoot straight at it without a filter or crazy editing.
The olympic bobsled course as seen from balanced rock.
The following day I hiked up another big mountain during the day. I’ve always avoided Whiteface mountain due to the road up to the top, so when I learned that the road was hadn’t opened for the season yet it seemed like a great opportunity to check it off my list. This was early may, and there was still of lot of snow above 4,000ft, so I’m glad to have had my trekking poles and micro spikes with me. And once I got to the top I had the entire summit to myself!
Lake Placid from the summit of Whiteface Mountain.
For my third sunset hike I decided to head over to Giant Wilderness. I’ve been wanting to hike up Giant mountain for a few years, and Giant Nubble seemed like a potential sunset viewpoint, so I decided to hike up nubble for sunset, spend a night camping in the backcountry, and then hike up Giant in the morning. The views from the nubble were amazing, but it was a difficult spot to find good compositions. I definitely lucked out with the clouds! The clouds were full of contrast and really helped to enhance the color of the setting sun.
Taken from Giant’s Nubble.
Taken from Giant’s Nubble.
Taken from Giant’s Nubble.
Taken along the trail up Giant Mountain.
I would definitely consider this a successful trip to the Adirondacks. Amazing weather, awesome hikes, and a bunch of decent photos. The shoulder seasons can be a bit unpredictable, but the hiking conditions proved to be pretty good this time around. There are so many different hikes to do in the Adirondacks, and on this trip I was really able to explore some of the shorter hikes and smaller mountains, but without totally ignoring the 46er’s. I hope you have enjoyed my photos!
