Indian Head and Fish Hawk Cliffs on the Adirondack Mountain Reserve Property

NOTE: This hike is on easments on private property. Please respect the AMR rules.

During the last week of September, my friend Jeff and I hiked to a place called Indian Head and Fish Hawk cliffs. This trail is off the Lake Road on the Ausable Club in St. Hubert's. Parking is available across the road to the Roaring Brook Falls trail to Giant Mt. off route 73 just south of the High Peaks sign in Keene Valley.

How can a climb of only 750 feet be as beautiful as a 4000 foot mountain? Taking the Lake road in approximately 3.3 miles, we took the marked trail left and proceeded on a very nice trip. The trail was dry and the weather was perfect.

Just a skip and a hop in we took a side trail right to "Gothics Window," a perfectly framed "window" of Gothics and snapped some pics. Heading back onto the trail we moved right along, climbing a ladder and moving along multiple switchbacks.

A side trail right at 0.9 miles led us to Indian Head and we were not disappointed. A 750 foot hike turned out to be a photographers dream as we snapped photo after photo of the Lower Ausable lakes and the surrounding mountains. (photo)

Taking in the views and roaming the many cliffs, we had more than enough photos, or so we thought... We decided to take the short 0.2 mile hike to Fish Hawk Cliffs and view Indian Head. The shots that we took on Indian Head were only a fraction of what we had at these beautiful cliffs. The shot of Indian Head itself was astounding. (photo) This rock formation has to be seen to be appreciated.

The thing we talked about the most was how such a short hike up had such a great outcome. This hike needs to be taken if you are in this area. The mountains that surround you are beautiful and you can see them all and much much more by taking a little known side step from the Lake road trail and viewing an area that has all anyone would want to see for the little effort involved.

NOTE: For a more complete description of the trail and regulations concerning hiking on the Adirondack Mountain Reserve property, please see ADK's (guide to) ADIRONDACK TRAILS - High Peaks Region 13th Edition, pp 68, 84-85.

Happy hiking!!!
Rick McCorry and Jeff Rock