Travelogue

We just couldn’t leave Canada without having a donut and coffee at a Tim Hortons, so right before reaching the border, we made this obligatory stop. Also, I figured it would give me a chance to get rid of the Canadian money I had left in my wallet.

The border crossing was a breeze once again, and we soon found ourselves on the familiar Adirondack Highway, pretty much a straight line home for us. However, since it was already dinner time and the rainy driving conditions weren’t great, we decided to find a place to stay for the night and then just finish up the drive in the morning.

I consulted the Woodall’s guide for a campground that wouldn’t take us too far off route. Somewhat subconsciously, I think I was also looking for something that might be fun if the weather cleared the next morning. The Ausable River Campground, just a short distance off Exit 35 seemed about right, and very near to a place I remember visiting when I was a child, Ausable Chasms.

We followed the signs for the campground and eventually pulled down a dark road past a dark deserted campground office. We weren’t sure what to do, but we certainly didn’t want to continue driving any further, so we continued driving along the road past the office into the campground itself. We noticed several empty sites in the woods along the way before coming to a more open area full of happy, partying campers. What a contrast with the deserted and quiet wooded sites we had just passed through. This was the area down by the Ausable River, and I guess it was where all the action was, rather than back in the woods. Eventually, we found the owners’ campsite and asked if we could have a site for the night. She looked in the RV, saw the boys, and suggested that we might want a site down here so the boys could socialize with the other young campers. Herb and I had to laugh, because we knew that was not even remotely on their agenda for the night. We politely declined and took a site back up in the woods towards the entrance.

Unfortunately, the next morning we woke up to more rain, and I knew that my hope of squeezing a little more vacation out of this trip was over. Oh well, it was time to head home.

Description

The Ausable River Campground is located on Route 9, just off I87 between Exits 34 and 35. It is 12 miles south of Plattsburgh, NY.

The 120-site campground is located on 130 acres along the Ausable River within the Adirondack Park. Activities include fishing, boating, and swimming on the Ausable River as well as bicycling or walking along its wilderness trails.

The most popular nearby attraction is Ausable Chasms, a 2-mile-long sandstone gorge through which the Ausable River flows. It is fed by the Rainbow Falls at its southern extreme, and eventually empties into Lake Champlain. There is a 2-mile “Rim Walk” along the edge of the rim looking down into the chasm, as well as low-key raft rides through the gorge.

The following is the website for Ausable Chasms: http://www.ausablechasm.com/assets/pdf/Welcome_map.pdf