It’s a rite of passage to take a photo of National Park signs at the entrance. But what about the iconic Entering Adirondack Park signs?
Travel
Celebrating Tupper Lake’s Wild Center
Today, Tupper Lake’s natural history museum, which turns 20 this year, is a flourishing center of learning, intellectual thought and plain old fun. It is the encyclopedia of the Adirondacks, a guide as essential to understanding the Adirondack backcountry as a map.
The Station
The main intersection in Onchiota has always been memorably quirky, an unexpected wilderness outpost at this one-time railroad stop. The corner is anchored by an old general store and adjacent seven-gabled gas station, which were opened by Hayden Tormey in the 1920s. But it was Tormey’s son “Bing” that gave the bend in the road its offbeat personality. He littered the area with cheeky signs, including the classic “Leaving 67 of the friendliest people in the Adirondacks (plus a couple of soreheads)” and “Don’t ask for directions, we’re still trying to get out of here.”
Sweet Pursuit: Maple in the Adirondacks
In the Adirondacks, maple is embedded in our flavor landscape. Today—from backyard taps and stove-top boiling to networks of tubing and high-tech evaporators—the process of transforming sap into syrup endures, as does our love of that sweet liquid gold.
Flying High with Tate Frantz
Frantz is a boyish-looking 20-year-old who grew up here in Lake Placid. Over the last year, he has emerged as the most successful American male ski-jumper ever to compete on the World Cup circuit.
Adirondack Store & Gallery: The Evolution of a Style Pioneer
Fifty-five years ago Tad and Linda Sturgis’s Adirondack Store was featured in the winter issue of Adirondack Life. By then, the couple’s emporium had been thriving for more than a decade.
The Adirondack Harvest Festival
On a September afternoon at Westport’s Essex County Fairgrounds, a farmers’ market on steroids is underway. People stroll booth to booth and table to table along a loop of growers and bakers and makers.
The Jay Invitational of Clay
July in Jay—a hamlet that cradles the East Branch of the Ausable River—is postcard perfect. Families splash in the rapids below the covered bridge. On weekends, musicians perform by the gazebo on the village green. Every Fourth of July there’s a lively parade, followed by field games, then fireworks. And the past few years another summer event has added an artistic flair to this Rockwellian scene: the Jay Invitational of Clay.
Cover Story
It was a cool, perfect afternoon with fluffy clouds floating over Upper St. Regis Lake. My plan was to spend the day rowing my guideboat around the lake in search of a sunset composition for a photograph I had etched in my mind. I had borrowed a lantern from a friend, and brought along a red-and-black checkered wool blanket I had found on the back side of Colvin Mountain.
The Mill
As an entryway piece it’s stunning: a massive, rotating millstone dangling from the ceiling, made of foam but looking as if its weight could stop Wile E. Coyote in his tracks. The sculpture, A Stone Alone, greets visitors to The Mill, a former grain mill that’s been transformed into an arts center with galleries, a performance space and a speakeasy that slings craft cocktails and small plates.
Light Up the Lodge
“The place is magical during the holidays,” says the Whiteface Lodge’s executive chef Greg Sherman. Festive garlands and twinkling lights dangle from peeled-log beams; miniature mountain villages depict wintry scenes; and shiny wrapped packages ring Christmas trees and are stacked on fireplace mantels.
The Birch Store
Ask an Adirondacker about their take on our region’s signature style and you’ll hear all sorts of things: Tree stumps and twigs. Plaids and earth tones. Rough-hewn accents and stuffed animal heads. But Marion Jeffers’s approach is a little different.
On Sale Now
October 2026
Lost hikers, splintered bones and wildfires—a forest ranger reflects on more than two decades of coming to the rescue. Plus the oldest tavern in the Adirondacks, a trip through James Bond’s Lake George, and new energy in Schroon Lake.
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