Whiteface Veterans Memorial Highway

Sunday August 7, 2011

Whiteface Mountain, in the town of Wilmington and a short drive from Lake Placid, hosted the alpine skiing competitions during the 1980 Winter Olympics. Sunday we drove to the top of Whiteface Mountain on the Veterans Memorial Highway. This highway offers five miles of breathtaking vistas, rock formations, wildflowers, etc. ending at The Castle parking lot.

At the Toll House you pay an admission fee to drive up Whiteface Mountain on Veterans Memorial Highway. The mountain summit has an elevation of nearly 5,000 ft. This highway was funded by New York State and constructed during the Great Depression. It was originally named after America's Great War veterans and later renamed to honor veterans of all wars.




About halfway up, at a scenic turnout, we had this glimpse of The Castle which is where the highway ends.

Behind Rich and me you can see Lake Placid in this photo taken at the same scenic turnout.












Rich and 'the girls' in front of The Castle at the top of Whiteface Mountain.

Behind The Castle is this staircase in the clouds that leads to the summit. The 360° panorama from there affords views of Adirondack Park, Canada to the north, and Vermont to the east. Of course, those views are seen on clear days and you can tell that we visited under heavy cloud cover.






While we were up there, the clouds to the east lifted just enough for us to see Lake Champlain though. It is the light gray/blue strips just under the clouds. We'll be crossing Lake Champlain into Vermont tomorrow which should be exciting...especially if these torrential rains continue!!!






Something about this shot of Veterans Memorial Highway, just before we started driving back down, touches me. Perhaps it's the thought of all the ingenuity and labor that went into overcoming the daunting natural obstacles required to successfully construct this highway.





The weather certainly hasn't been ideal for sightseeing this week, but we've had a great time exploring the Adirondacks anyway. This is a beautiful park.

Lovin' Life ~~ And Memorials to Veterans

Bev