Central Park wishes it was this cool

Watch those beaver dams and get some altitude in New York's Adirondack Mountains

The author exhausted on top of Mt. Marcy. At 5,344 feet, it is the highest pointin New York.
Photo by Stephan Lorenz
A typical beaver meadow, these oversized rodents are common in the Adirondacks.
Photo by Stephan Lorenz
On clear days, it is possible to see 30 of the 46 peaks above 4,000 feet.
Photo by Stephan Lorenz
Water abounds in the park. With over 3,000 lakes and thousands of miles ofrivers and streams, it's a paddler’s paradise.
Photo by Stephan Lorenz
Unbroken woods stretch for mile after mile in the heart of New York’s AdirondackPark.
Photo by Stephan Lorenz
The granite peaks of the high country lure peakbaggers from all over the U.S.and Canada.
Photo by Stephan Lorenz

This wasn’t The Big Apple, Long Island, or the Hamptons. And this certainly wasn’t Central Park. It was New York as it should be: raw, rugged, empty woods. This was the New York of 400 years ago.

We carefully picked our way along a narrow trail, following the banks of a boulder-strewn stream that rushed cold and clear out of the woods. The late afternoon sun filtered in in all shades of green through a canopy of interlocking maple, birch, walnut, and ash. Streaks of malachite light snuck through the dense leaves and bounced off dogwoods and hawthorns growing in open patches.

The afternoon air hung thick and still in the hushed woods. We started to sweat as we balanced a canoe over our heads, slowly making our way upstream.

It wasn’t all paradise. Black flies and mosquitoes, frenzied by the heat, swarmed our faces. Deerflies — and the even larger horseflies — took advantage of our hands clamped to the gunwales, and fed eagerly until our fingers bled.

Beware what the beaver built

It wasn’t an easy task, carrying a canoe to navigable waters of an unnamed stream somewhere deep in New York’s Adirondack Park. When the alder thickets became impenetrable, sinking to our hips in muck and peat, we launched the vessel into a stream no more than four feet wide and deep. An annoyed beaver slapped its tail and dove confidently under our boat.

We enjoyed about 10 minutes of leisurely floating among thickets and across a flooded beaver meadow. Spruce fringed the bog and old deciduous forest covered the rolling hills.

Near the terminus of every beaver pond, a beaver dam awaits. We would've nearly been fine, jumping the stack of wood, piled by generations of obsessive rodents. But my companion stood up to get a better view at a crucial moment. Sixteen feet of molded aluminum lurched over the impressive dam, hung in the balance for a moment, and then the force of the water won.

I tore most of my clothes scraping down a wall of sticks chewed to spikes. The overturned canoe hung in the first alder downstream.

Exhausted from both the hike out with an extra 50 pounds and from hammering the dents out of the aluminum back in camp, we swore to stick to flat water. With the large Cranberry Lake within footsteps, that wasn’t difficult.

We were living right at the edge of an immense wilderness area in the western part of Adirondack Park. To put it mildly, we rarely saw anybody in our part of the woods. During the evenings, I’d take a kayak out on the leaden lake and listen to loons yodel at the sunset.

It's kind of a big deal

Adirondack Park in upstate New York was originally created in 1892 to protect the watersheds of the Erie Canal and Hudson River. Over the last 100 years, the park has grown in size, and now dwarfs many major national parks. It is the largest park in New York State, and the largest state-level protected area within the contiguous United States.

Within the park boundary lie more than 3,000 lakes and 30,000 miles of rivers and streams — plenty of elbow room for anglers, paddlers, and picnickers.

The majority of visitors do not drag canoes into the woods to paddle down beaver ponds, but enjoy the forest, meadows and mountains from the more than 2,000 miles of hiking trails, one of the largest trail systems in the nation.

Small but mighty

Peakbaggers will find comrades among the Forty-Sixer Club, which celebrates the 46 summits above 4,000 feet found in the Adirondack Mountains. Four peaks actually fall just below the 4,000 mark, but are still included for tradition's sake.

The hardcore climb the highest peaks during deep winter. While thin air, snow or ice are not an issue in these mountains during summer, long approaches, steep terrain, and sometimes trail-less sections make for tough, worthwhile adventures.

I experienced the long approaches firsthand while hiking Mt. Marcy — the mightiest and highest in all of New York at 5,344 feet.

By the time I reached the base of the mountain — an obvious increase in incline, as the path seemed to shoot straight up into thickening spruces — I was already wiped out. A pre-sunrise start followed by three hours of solid hiking was apparently just the warm up.

When I finally slumped down on the summit, after what seemed an inordinately difficult effort for a wee 5,344 feet, I watched high clouds drift lazily over more than 30 viewable peaks. Ponds and lakes gleamed far below. Except for a distant fire tower and several slumped over peak baggers, there was no sign of humanity.

He'll be coming down the mountain

Splayed on the ground, trying to rest my burning muscles, I was able to get close looks at the minute and unique vegetation of the granite summit.

Plants usually found in arctic latitudes thrive here on the bare peaks, in climates akin to areas much further north. I was able to look at a four-by-four-foot patch of alpine tundra. The plant community is fragile and the scraps of moss, lichens, and miniature flowers had their own warden, who climbed up on a daily basis and educated the exhausted hikers.

On weekends, French becomes the second language on the trails, as hikers from Montréal flood the woods. Eager for some hills, visitors leave flat Québec and tackle the steep trails of the Adirondacks.

Sprinkled among the lakes and high peaks lie the towns of Lake Placid and Saranac Lake, full of tourists wandering from shop to shop, crowding restaurants, and admiring the scenery from the comfort of terraced cafés.

For hikers and anyone returning from the wilderness, it’s a great place to find a pizza joint and reconstitute lost muscle tissue — while looking at the far away peak tackled that day.

Try to catch a cheap flight to New York City (well, maybe enjoy the city for a day), and make the five-hour drive to the Adirondacks for a long, long weekend or weeks of hiking, paddling, and wilderness exploring. There are plenty of lodges, hotels, and endless camping opportunities available within the park.

The park overall does not have a traditional feel, as many small towns and lots of private lands are interspersed with preserved lands and wilderness areas. There are no entrance fees, but visitor centers can help with planning.

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Preservation efforts

South Texas mission makes list of America’s most endangered historic places

Facebook/Friends of the Ruidosa Church

El Corazon Sagrado de la Iglesia de Jesus in Ruidosa, Texas is considered an endangered place.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A historic South Texas mission joins the Stonewall National Monument, the President's House Site, and the Women's Rights National Historic Park among 11 sites on this year's annual list of the most endangered historic places in the United States compiled by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

The 2026 list, announced Wednesday, May 20, marks America's 250th anniversary with the foundational principle that everyone is created equal as the theme, said Carol Quillen, president and CEO of the nonprofit organization. The 11 sites offer examples of how, over time, Americans have fought against injustice and for equality, she said.

“We wanted to think about those ideas, especially this notion that all human beings are created equal and find places, sometimes unsung places ... that not all Americans routinely think about," Quillen told The Associated Press.

The sites are spread across the United States — from New York and California on the East and West Coasts, to Alabama and Texas in the South, to Michigan in the Midwest and the Four Corners of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah in the Rocky Mountain West.

At least three of the sites — Stonewall, the El Corazon church in Texas, and President's House in Philadelphia — have been endangered by Trump administration actions.

“We want to save these places," Quillen said, “not just because the bricks and mortar is important but because the stories these places hold are important."

For the first time since the list debuted in 1988, each site on the 2026 list will receive a one-time $25,000 grant to help highlight their connections to the principle that all people are created equal and address the threats they face.

The 11 sites are:

Ruidosa, Texas: El Corazon Sagrado de la Iglesia de Jesus
The more than century-old adobe church served as a refuge and place of worship for Mexican and Mexican American farming communities on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border along the Rio Grande River. Vacant since the 1950s, the structure has benefited from continued restoration provided by the nonprofit Friends of the Ruidosa Church but remains threatened by proposed construction of a U.S. border wall that could come within a few hundred yards of the property. (The nonprofit has posted an official statement and more information about the border wall here.) Ruidosa is in far west Texas, roughly 35 miles northwest of Presidio and 46 miles southwest of Marfa, near the rugged Chinati Mountains.

A historic photograph of El Corazon Sagrado de la Iglesia de Jesus.Facebook/Friends of the Ruidosa Church

Montgomery, Alabama: Ben Moore Hotel
The hotel was a refuge for Black people living under laws that enforced racial separation in the South. Prolonged vacancy has caused structural deterioration and the historic Centennial Hill neighborhood surrounding it faces pressure from development. The hotel housed key players from the Civil Rights Movement, including the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rev. Ralph Abernathy. The Conservation Fund announced in November that it would help preserve the hotel.

Modoc County, California: Tule Lake Segregation Center
Initially known as the Tule Lake War Relocation Center, it was set up as a camp but later became a segregation center where Japanese Americans who were thought to be disloyal to the United States were imprisoned. The site is now a national monument managed by the National Park Service. Only 37 acres of the 1,100-acre site is protected. Most of it is at risk of permanent alteration from a proposed nearby construction project.

California: Angel Island Immigration Station
It was the largest immigration port on the West Coast between 1910 and 1940, particularly for immigrants from Asia and the Pacific. Hundreds of thousands were processed, detained and/or interrogated there because of their race. The station currently is threatened by physical, environmental, political and economic factors. Additional funding is needed for structural repairs and programming to increase awareness.

Somerset, Massachusetts: Swansea Friends Meeting House
Recognized as the oldest surviving Quaker meeting house in the state, it was built in 1701 to serve as a refuge by a congregation fleeing religious persecution and looking for a safe place to worship. The building has been closed for years and needs significant rehabilitation.

Michigan: Detroit Association of Women's Clubs
Founded in 1921, the association was one of the first Black organizations in Detroit to own their headquarters building, which was purchased in 1941. But the building has been closed since 2024, when water pipes burst and damaged the interior. Money is needed to help the association reopen the building.

New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, Utah: Greater Chaco Cultural Landscape
The landscape is an ancestral homeland sustained for over a millennium by the Pueblo and Hopi people, but is threatened by changes to federal land policy that could open up significant portions to oil and gas development. Permanent protections and tribal consultation are needed to protect its cultural integrity.

Seneca Falls, New York: Women's Rights National Historical Park
The park tells the story of the first Women's Rights Convention, held in Seneca Falls, in July 1848. It faces a deferred maintenance backlog of over $10 million. Additional funding and support are needed to help preserve the park as a place to teach visitors about the history of women's rights.

New York: Stonewall National Monument
The first and only U.S. national monument dedicated to LGBTQ+ history was the subject of administration actions that saw the rainbow Pride flag removed from its flagpole earlier this year before it was restored. The National Park Service had removed the flag in February, citing federal guidance that limited the agency to displaying only the American, Interior Department and POW/MIA flags. But the administration reversed course in April as it agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by advocacy and historic preservation groups that sought to block the flag's removal at the Manhattan site.

After Trump returned to office, he ended diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, and many references to transgender people were excised from the Stonewall monument’s website and materials. The Republican administration similarly has put national parks, museums and landmarks under a messaging microscope, aiming to remove or alter materials that it says are “divisive or partisan” or “inappropriately disparage Americans.”

Philadelphia: The President's House Site
The administration abruptly removed exhibits on the lives of nine people enslaved at the site in the 1790s under George Washington, the first U.S. president, who lived there when Philadelphia served as the nation's capital. The exhibits were taken down as part of a broad effort by the administration to remove from federal properties information it deems “disparaging” to Americans. The issue is currently the subject of litigation between the city and federal government.

Heath Springs, South Carolina: Hanging Rock Revolutionary War Battlefield
The Battle of Hanging Rock was a key battle in the Southern Campaigns of the Revolutionary War and is considered a Patriot victory that helped boost morale and ultimately weaken British control in South Carolina. Only portions of the core battlefield are protected and open to the public, with the area anticipating population growth and increasing development pressures.