FAMILY OUTINGS
ADIRONDACK RAILROAD HEADQUARTERS AND DEPOT
To make your first outing educational as well as fun, start with the Adirondack Railroad. To begin, set your GPS to 117 Grand Avenue in Saratoga Springs. You’ll find this High Gothic Victorian building constructed by Thomas C. Durant as the headquarters and depot of the Adirondack Railroad.
ADIRONDACK RAILROAD AT DANIELS ROAD
A mile north of downtown Saratoga Springs, Thomas C. Durant opted to steer the tracks of his railroad to the west before resuming its northerly route toward Corinth and beyond. At Daniels Road, you can see the start of this bend, shown clearly in the map of the Adirondack Railroad below. (Courtesy of the North Creek Depot Museum.)
NORTH CREEK DEPOT MUSEUM
Thomas Durant wanted to his railroad to go all the way to Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River, but he ran out of money at North Creek. The original depot is now a museum with several exhibits that celebrate the history of the Adirondack Railroad.
RAILROAD RUN
Connecting West Circular Street to Congress Avenue in Saratoga Springs, this half-mile trail sits on the site of the city’s old rail yard, which operated from the 1850s through the 1950s. That’s when the city’s downtown station was razed and a new station was built on West Avenue.
KING’S STATION CABOOSE AND DEPOT
Although the Delaware & Hudson Railroad decommissioned this rail car in 1981, it was not restored until a group Greenfield residents took on the job in 2007. You’ll find it in Greenfield at the corner of Porter Corners Road and Route 9N. The station is estimated to be about 130 years old.
JESSUP’S LANDING AT PALMER FALLS (CORINTH)
Driving north on Route 9N from Saratoga Springs, you’ll get your first view of the Hudson here as it winds through the chasm between the Luzerne Mountains to the north and the Palmertown Range to the south. A hydro dam has wiped out what once was the impressive 70-foot drop of Palmers Falls, which interrupted the transport of logs down the Hudson to Glens Falls. Here at Jessup’s Landing — named for — the logs were coraled and transported by wagon around the falls and put back in the river for the remainder of their journey. The quiet water of Jessup’s Landing followed by the turbulence of Palmer Falls can be clearly seen in the illustration below.
HADLEY STATION
With its 20-mile section from Saratoga Springs to Hadley completed in 1865, the Adirondack Railroad brought summer visitors to hotels on Lake Luzerne and Lake George and received all the freight of the Sacandaga valley, While the original station was closed in 1958, its replacement serves today as a starting point for railbiking trips hosted by Revolution Rail. You’ll find this near the intersection of Stony Creek Road and Rockwell Road.
DEAN FARM HERITAGE TRAILS
Continue north on Stony Creek Road, following the path of the Adirondack Railroad, which you’ll see intermittently to your left and right. On Lanfear Road, you’ll find this beautiful 227-acre site, regarded by Warren County planners as a signature First Wilderness project. On the west side of Murray Road is a ten-acre site on which is located a 1.3 mile wheelchair accessible trail and boardwalk that leads visitors through open meadows and woodlands and ends at an overlook on Stony Creek. On the east side of Murray Road are four miles of trails through a 217-acre woodland deeded to SUNY's College of Environmental Science and Forestry.