Sounds like our kind of place!In our quest to follow the autumn leaf color south from
the Canadian Maritimes to
Florida we decided to go a little farther west of New England to the six-million acre
Adirondack Mountain Park in north central New York. This is our first time in this area of
the state -- and we like it a whole lot better than the
more populated eastern seaboard part!
Yesterday we drove from Twin Mountain RV Park
in Twin Mountain, NH to the North Pole Resort in Wilmington, NY.
Here's our route, for those seeking a scenic route in this area:
US 302 west to I-93 north. North on I-91 at St. Johnsbury, VT. West
on US 2 to I-89 north through Burlington, VT. West on US 2 over the Lake
Champlain islands. South on I-87 in NY to 9N at exit 34. South to Jay,
then west on NY 86 to Wilmington, NY.
Traffic on a weekday was moderate, the road surfaces were mostly good
for hauling a 5th-wheel coach, and the weather was mostly good. We ran
into fog into the morning that limited the photos I could take through
northern Vermont but I was able to get a few good shots along the way.
The scenery through the northern part of New Hampshire, Vermont, and
New York was a beautiful as you'd expect in mountainous terrain. We were
so far north we got within a mile of Canada at Rouses Point.
It's located at the northern end of Lake Champlain, on the VT-NY state border.
One of the most scenic parts of the drive was past Lake Champlain
Islands. This looks like an idyllic place to live or vacation:
Driving along the eastern shore of Lake Champlain above Burlington,
VT, around the northern end of the lake, and back down the western side
we felt like we were on the coast again. Even though this is an inland
fresh water lake, it's a very LARGE one. OK, it's not as big as the
Great Lakes, but it's the largest lake we've circled in recent memory.
While we were loading up on supplies at Walmart and Sam's Club in
Plattsburg, NY there were seagulls in the parking lot -- and
French-speaking shoppers in the store.
NORTH POLE "RESORT"
The
North Pole Resort, which includes two separate campgrounds,
an inn, several cabins and cottages, and a wine shop borders on the
AuSable River. The river is wide at Wilmington, apparently dammed up
into Lake Everest.
This is the view of the river from the picnic area a couple hundred feet
from our site:
Rarely do we stay anywhere called a "resort" but
this one is more our style. Our site is in the section designated
"resort" but I'd put it in the "RV park" category.
We are in a back in site with 50-amp electric service, water, sewer,
cable TV, and WiFi. Our Verizon phone and MiFi signals are adequate. We
have a long, wide site with a picnic table, fire ring, small trees, a
gravel pad, grass on either side, and trees/shrubs behind us:
Our rate with a 15% "September Special" discount is $273.70 for seven
days. This site is regularly $46/day.
The door faces east toward the river (can't quite see it from our site,
but it's close) and the south side is shaded with tall maples, pines,
and other trees.
Even though we are at a lower elevation than we were in Twin Mountain,
NH the leaves are quite pretty here, too. From the campground we have views
toward several mountains and colorful hillsides:
This is a very attractive RV park that is about 1/2 full at mid-week. We
didn't have any close neighbors until the weekend.
We enjoy going down
to the river at different times of the day to see the scenic views in
different lighting conditions.
This tent site is
close to the water:
The cabins are behind the RV park:
There is also a nice path through the
woods where we can walk the dogs:
There are more hiking-biking paths in the larger section of North Pole that is located
down the road about half a mile. It's called the 100 Acre Woods Campground.
I believe most sites in that section have
full hookups and some can accommodate big rigs. They are arranged more informally in the
forest and have more space between them. If we'd known the difference we probably
would have reserved a spot there:
North Pole Resort sells wine and beer so I stopped in the office/general
store to check out their wine selection. I ran out of my favorite
Chateau Morrisette wine from Virginia before we left Prince Edward
Island. I've heard New York produces some excellent wine and I wanted to
try some.
New York law forbids the sale of wine and beer in the same building
(pretty odd, if you ask me) so the owners had to build a separate small
building next to the office to sell wine. They just built it three
months ago. They have a good selection of wine, which cost more to stock
than the cost of the building. They hope to recoup the cost of the
building this year.
The owner showed me about 15 wines produced in New York. I purchased two
red wines from the Finger Lakes area. The one I opened first, a red
table wine called "Game Bird Red" from Heron Hill Vineyards in
Hammondsport, NY, tastes good for a $9.99 bottle of wine; others
were more like $18-20. The second bottle, also just $10, is a blush red
called "Sweet Gus" by Hunt Country Vineyards. (It was good when I drank
it later during our journey toward Florida.)
We enjoyed our week at North Pole Resort. We did some interesting day
trips, hikes, and bike rides, which I'll describe in subsequent entries,
and we made some new RVing friends.
If we ever go back to this area we'll stay at this "resort" because
of its convenient location to Whiteface Mountain and nice hiking-cycling
venues but we'll stay in the more informal 100 Acre Woods camping section.
Next entry: hiking to the summit of Whiteface Mountain,
with views of scenic Lake Placid
Happy trails,
Sue
"Runtrails & Company" - Sue Norwood, Jim O'Neil,
Cody the ultra Lab, and Casey-pup
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© 2014 Sue Norwood and Jim O'Neil
