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A 5-mile drive to the top of the world V ISITING THE W HITEFACE V ETERANS M EMORIAL H IGHWAY By Lee Manchester, News Staff Writer WILMINGTON — The timing road was paved up Pike’s Peak in Colo- rededicated to the memory of all Ameri- couldn’t have been better for the annual rado. can veterans. opening last weekend of the Veterans The prospect of constructing a new Built in the 1930s, the highway itself Memorial Highway up Whiteface road through the Wilmington Wild For- has been nominated for the National Mountain in Wilmington township. The est split the membership of the Adiron- Register of Historic Places. weather was perfect, and the fact that it dack Mountain Club and was opposed “It was really an amazing feat of en- was Memorial Day weekend made a by other leading conservationists, but it gineering to put this road up the moun- drive up New York’s fifth-highest peak won support from one highly influential tain,” observed Steve Engelhart, execu- on a roadway dedicated to the memory group of Empire State voters: the net- tive director of Adirondack Architec- of America’s servicemen and women work of American Legion members all tural Heritage, “and there’s a certain just that much more appropriate. across New York. aesthetic to the road, to the retaining From Lake Placid, the trip up White- The owner of the four acres at the walls, that sort of thing, that’s of the era. face Mountain starts with the 10-mile peak of Whiteface contributed them to Even the very idea that there should be drive north on Route 86 to the little the project with the proviso that the road an aesthetic element to a road-building hamlet of Wilmington. At the Wilming- be dedicated to the memory of Amer- project was a reflection of the time.” ton stop sign (yes, there’s only one), ica’s Great War veterans. It was later The construction project was dedi- take a left — you’ll see the marker pointing you up the mountain to the Memorial Highway. Climb past Santa’s Visitors tips Workshop, America’s oldest theme park, on your right and past the road to • Dress for the weather — On the day our reporter drove up the Memorial the Atmospheric Sciences Research Sta- Highway, the temperature was in the upper 70s in Wilmington but close to tion on your left. When you get to a fork 40 degrees Fahrenheit at the top of Whiteface Mountain. Just because it’s in the road, bear left (there’s another spring down here doesn’t mean it’s spring up there! To check weather sign, so you’re not likely to lose your conditions before you set out, call (518) 946-7175. way). • Observe highway signs — You’ll see several signs on the drive up and down the Veterans Memorial Highway: the 25-mph speed limit, for one, The tollhouse, and the history and the suggestion that you use your low gear to help save your brakes Just ahead, you’ll see what looks like on the downhill trip. Both signs are well worth observing. a Swiss alpine chalet. That’s the 1934 • Visit the Castle first — Whether you plan to climb the 26-story staircase, tollhouse that marks the beginning of the which starts from the Castle driveway, or take the elevator to the top of 5-mile-long Veterans Memorial High- Whiteface, stop at the Castle first. In addition to the grill and gift shop way. It’s more than just a toll gate upstairs, it has the only restrooms you’ll find on the mountaintop. where you’ll pay your part for the up- • Elevator up, staircase down — Once you get to the parking lot at the keep of this amazing feat of civil engi- top of the Veterans Memorial Highway, you have a choice as to how you’ll neering — it’s also a visitors interpretive get to the summit of Whiteface: by elevator, or by stairway. Our center highlighting the historic and natu- suggestion: Take the elevator up, and take the staircase down. Neither is ral significance of the area. to be missed, but the steep, rocky staircase is best experienced as a The center has been run since 1999 downhill journey. by the Whiteface Preservation and Re- • Bring a picnic lunch — There are plenty of tables on the drive up, or you source Association, and it’s worth a stop can lay out a mountaintop luncheon at the summit. The menu at the inside before heading up the highway. Castle grill isn’t especially pricey, but the selection is quite limited. On display are exhibits highlighting area • Essential equipment: map, compass and camera — The view from the geology, flora and fauna, along with top of Whiteface Mountain is truly unique, because Whiteface stands apart maps, aerial and satellite images, and from all the other Adirondack High Peaks. To get the most from the view historic photographs depicting the plan- you can only get atop this mountain, bring a good topographic map and a ning and construction of the Memorial compass to help you identify the geographic features laid out below. (The Highway and its associated buildings. map that comes along with the Adirondack Mountain Club’s hiking guide A road up the mountain was first to the High Peaks region suited our purposes just fine.) To bring home a suggested over 100 years ago by a Lake record of the stupendous views you’ll see up there, make sure you take Placid entrepreneur, but it was not until along a camera, too — even a disposable camera with a fixed lense is the 1920s that a highway up Whiteface better than no camera at all. was promoted with real vigor — after a cated in 1929 by New York Governor impossible to distinguish features in the pretive markers along the trail describe Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Six years very far distance, but there below lay some of the features you’ll find there. later, Roosevelt returned as the Ameri- Taylor Pond, lying like a dark blue Before you embark on the walk can president to cut the ribbon opening blanket across a valley nestled against (make that, hike!) up the 26-story sum- the highway. It was the suggestion of a the next range of mountains north. mit staircase, here are a few things to wheelchair-bound FDR that led to the Higher still, past the 3,300-foot ele- consider: blasting of an elevator tunnel to carry vation marker, Taylor Pond could be 1) Though the “staircase” starts with visitors from the parking lot to the seen even more clearly below — and cut-stone steps, and though there are summit of Whiteface Mountain, rising looking up over their shoulders, visitors stone, metal or wooden steps built into 4,867 feet above sea level. could get their first glimpse of “the Cas- many segments of the trail, there are tle” above, a cut-stone-and-concrete also long stretches that climb across The memorial drive structure erected at the end of the Veter- smooth, bare rock. Granted, the iron The drive up the Veterans Memorial ans Highway. guardrails that line both sides of the trail Highway takes visitors from 2,351 feet Despite the lateness of date, fossil are a great help — but still, the climb to above sea level at the tollhouse to 4,602 snow banks still lay in shaded curves the summit is much more than just a feet at the Castle driveway, 5 miles along the Whiteface roadway over the long walk up a staircase. away, an increase in elevation of 450 Memorial Day weekend, becoming 2) If you are going to climb the stair- feet per mile. Besides the steady climb, more common the higher visitors drove. case, make sure you’ve worn a sturdy the narrowness of the road, and the hair- At about 3,900 feet, visitors caught pair of shoes. pin turns, there’s one more good reason another hint of just how alien the 3) Remember that upward climbs are for the 25-mph speed limit: frost heaves, weather of the Adirondack High Peaks also downward climbs — it just depends the washboard-like deformations left by could be: The road swept past a thin upon where you start from. You can water freezing beneath the macadam layer of ice draped like a transparent avoid a strenuous hike while still partak- surface through the long, cold Adiron- curtain across a northern rock face cut ing of the stairway ridge trail by leaving dack winter. into the mountain, the snow melting in the Castle and heading down through the Information posted on the chalkboard the direct sunlight above it dripping parking lot to elevator tunnel entrance. at the tollhouse last Saturday said that down into the shade and freezing again. Take the elevator to the summit, and the clear skies allowed for up to 80 At 3.7 miles along the mountain walk back down the Castle staircase. miles of visibility. Visitors had a chance highway, just past a hairpin turn, drivers to test that boast in about a mile when should slow down, preparing for a big The ride to the summit the first big view sprang up through the surprise: the first fabulous view from Beneath a cut-stone archway is the trees at the Union Falls overlook, eleva- Whiteface to the south and west, where entrance to a 426-foot tunnel cut into the tion 2,700 feet. A light haze made it Placid Lake with its southern peninsula living granite.

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