This is my fourth and final (I promise) post about our trip to Lake Placid this summer. But it was such an interesting place! We wanted to visit all of the Winter Olympic sites, and even though it was mid June, they were great sites to see. If you want to catch up on the rest of the trip, visit my Five O’Clock Shadow Travel section.

Who visits a ski slope in the summer?

We did. Whiteface Mountain is about a 30 minute drive from Lake Placid, and it’s where the Olympic skiing events took place back in 1980. Granted, the visit only consisted of a brief look at the grassy slopes from the parking lot. But that’s ok because it gave us plenty of time to explore the backside of the mountain.

All of the visitor information suggested we drive the Veteran’s Memorial Highway to the top. It’s not a highway in terms of traffic, but it definitely is a high way, rising over 2,000 feet in about 5 miles. The road is not treacherous by any stretch, no single lane cliff-huggers around sharp curves like you see in the movies.  Instead, it’s calm enough that the driver can catch some good views without fear of going over the edge.  The “scenic vista” pull-off sites are outnumbered only by the bugs which, take about 3 seconds to locate humans once they step out of their car.  Bug spray is definitely recommended!

Here are a few pics from the drive up.

An early stop along Veteran’s Memorial Highway.
A little higher and a bit more impressive.
You can see the ski slopes far below. But they are not at all small as they look here.
At a certain point closer to the top, all of the trees look like this-needles replaced by what looks like some sort of fungus, but only on one side. Did I mention the bugs? They were worse here than down below.

The road ends near, but not at, the top of the mountain. To get up the rest of the way, you can choose between the natural (short trail) and the man-made (tunnel & elevator).  The area was closing for the day not too long after we arrived, so we opted for the man-made approach just to make sure we had enough time at the summit.  

The tunnel is very cool, literally! It’s also very damp, and to me, a tad spooky. Built in the 1930’s, it leads about 400 feet down a stone hallway to an elevator, which takes you up the equivalent of 27 stories to the summit. When you step out of the elevator, you’re inside a castle-like structure, which leads outside to the most stunning views of the mountain.

A look back down the tunnel from the elevator area.
The mini castle.
My favorite pic from Whiteface- a look at Lake Placid from way above.
A view from another side of the mountaintop.
Not far from Whiteface was this cool-looking, old school ice cream place. We can’t resist stuff like this- look at that hot dog statue!

We topped off the evening by going on a wild GPS goose chase in search of the state prison that now sits on the site of the 1980 Olympic Village. We eventually found it, but were not able to drive too close due to prison security. We did, however, see a few deer, including this one.

There’s plenty to do in Lake Placid over the summer besides chase down Winter Olympic sites. We did some hiking and exploring the town as well and it’s just a really nice place to relax and get closer to nature and a simpler way of life.

I definitely recommend visiting whenever you can. I’d like to head there again during the winter so I can experience the sites we visited in their most famous season.

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