Last Day of the Trip

Today was the last day of our fall colors trip. After hiking at least once per day for over a week, we were completely exhausted. We picked out something easy for the day, which was seeing the highly touristy High Falls Gorge that you pay to get into and only have about a half-mile walk. The falls were uneventful and we felt like they were overhyped by marketing tactics, but they were still neat to see. The afternoon we spent in the downtown area of Lake Placid and did a little shopping for souvenirs, and then in the evening, we did our final hike of the trip: Up Haystack mountain.

This is the second Haystack Mountain that we've hiked on this trip. As our last hike, it was also the longest hike that we did, with a round trip distance of 5.5 miles. It was just over 1,000 feet of elevation gain, so it wasn't the highest hike we climbed, but it still was exhausting particularly since we've been hiking for over a week. The views were pretty good at the top with a few obstructing trees, but the lighting was bad. The hike would have been better in the morning for sunrise golden hour, or to watch the sunset. When we got to the summit (around 4pm), the sun was too high in the sky and washed away most of the views. The hike was still good, but both of us were excited that we wouldn't be hiking for a little bit after we completed this one.