Recently I was looking for “mud season” hikes in the Adirondacks and came across Little and Big Crow Mountains. After realizing that Big Crow Mountain was part of the Lake Placid 9’er hiking challenge, I decided to add it into my day – and it was awesome!
Mud season is a time of year in the Adirondacks when the spring melt is happening and the trails are vulnerable to erosion. Trails at high elevation are MORE vulnerable to erosion so I looked specifically for lower elevation hikes and found some great lists here and here.
The route we decided on had us hiking up to Big Crow, and then we decided to add on Little Crow for fun, making the hike a little longer and a lot more technical.
Big Crow, in my opinion, is worth the hike just on it’s own. It’s a short (but steep!) round trip that gets you to the top of a mountain with some amazing views. But read on to decide if you want to add on Little Crow too!
Somewhere between Big Crow and Little Crow!
Quick Facts
Length: 4.1 km (when you include Little Crow)
Difficulty: Hard
Trailhead Coordinates: 44.261436, -73.733408
Washroom at Trailhead: No
Dogs Allowed: Yes
Cell Reception: Spotty
Wheelchair Accessible: No
Parking: Right at the trailhead.
Cost: Free
Open in Winter: Yes
View from the top!
Getting There
The trailhead for Big Crow Mountain is at the end of O’toole Road. When you put the coordinates into Google Maps you’ll see that it says “Hurricane Mountain.” There’s also a trail from this parking lot that can take you out to Hurricane Mountain so fear not, you’re still in the right place!
O’toole Road is a long, winding dirt road. It was in pretty good shape when we drove up it. In the winter, it’s plowed to about 1 km before the trailhead.
The road ends at the parking lot so there’s no way you can miss it. There’s a small loop with parking for about 20 cars. On the north side of the parking lot is the trailhead for Big Crow. On the south side is the trailhead for the Soda Range Trail, which is a big loop that connects back to the Crows trailhead, as well as Hurricane Mountain. There are signs up, so just look for them and you won’t be confused.
There were no bathrooms or garbage cans at the trailhead, so be prepared to pack out anything you bring in!
Make sure you’re following red trail markers- these are the ones leading to Big Crow!
The Trail
After a quick lunch we set out on the trail to the Crows. At first it was fairly flat. We hopped over a tiny stream after a few hundred metres, and got to see a tiny snake taking a drink! After this, the trail began to head uphill. It wouldn’t stop heading uphill until we reached the summit of Big Crow.
The footing was a bit rocky, so we just made sure to step carefully. After 650 metres we reached the trail split that could have taken us out on the Soda Range Trail. There was a sign here so it was really obvious that the Soda Range Trail headed off to our right, and the trails for the Crows was off to the left.
Follow the trail signs at the split.
We continued uphill! Then at the 800 metre mark the trail became steeper. We found ourselves hiking over big open rock faces, but they weren’t so steep that it felt like a scramble.
The entire length of the trail had been well-marked, and also so well-worn into the dirt that it was really easy to keep on track.
On our way to Big Crow.
Big Crow’s Summit
Then, after hiking only 1 km, we arrived at the summit! The top of Big Crow was open rock face with views from half of the summit, while the other half was wooded. The views were quite lovely, and definitely worth the short trip up the mountain!
We enjoyed them for a while, and then decided to continue onto Little Crow. Where, let me tell you, the views were no more impressive. But the trail to get there was a LOT more technical. So Little Crow could be worth skipping, depending on what you’re looking for!
It was a tiny bit tricky finding the trail to Little Crow. At first we headed back into the woods but quickly realized we needed to stay closer to the part of the summit where the views opened up. The trail continued along the open rock face, which was why it was a bit tougher to pick out right away, but we eventually spotted a trail marker as the trail left the summit and brought us back into a more forested area.
The views from the top of Big Crow are lovely.
Little Crow
Just a hundred metres past the summit the descent began to get quite steep. On one section of open rock face it was so steep that I decided to sit down and scoot down the rock instead of bothering to find my footing down.
The trail through this section was also slightly more overgrown, proving that a lot of people do decide just to summit Big Crow and call it a day!
Eventually we made our way down to a small valley through the woods, having hiked about 450 metres from the summit of Big Crow, and 1.45 km in total. Immediately, the trail began to head back uphill, in order to get us to the summit of Little Crow.
This next section of trail wasn’t as tough or technical, and we caught another good view at the 1.7 km mark. Just after this we spotted a blue trail marker and a trail heading off on our right hand side. Since you can also approach the Crows from Hurricane Road, we assumed that’s where the blue-marked trail would take us. We continued following the red trail markers until we had hiked 1.9 km, to another nice view and a pile of rocks that we assumed were designed to mark the summit.
Heading back to Big Crow from Little Crow- you can see how steep it is through this section!
Trail Thoughts
We headed back the way we had come, finding the section between the Crows easier on the way back than it had been on the way out!
By the time we arrived back at the parking lot, we had covered a total distance of 4.2 km. We hiked that distance in just over 2 hours.
I think by now I’ve made it pretty obvious that for me, hiking Big Crow on it’s own would be just fine. BUT on a busy day it will definitely be quieter on Little Crow, so it really just depends what you’re looking for! Really, both the Crows were lovely little mountains, and now having hiked Big Crow I can cross another summit off my list for the Lake Placid 9’er hiking challenge. Little Crow was just a bonus. 😊
Hiking up to Big Crow is steep but not too technical.
Map and Elevation Gain
My GPS tracked route to Big and Little Crow.
Whenever I’m hiking somewhere new, I tend to wonder about who was on, and who took care of that land before me. I’ve enjoyed using this website as a place to start learning more about the Indigenous people whose land I’m on: Native-land.ca.
Elevation gain along the trail.
Gear I Brought
Links in this section are affiliate links which means if you buy something after clicking Adventure Report receives a small commission!
All gear linked is gear that we own, and use consistently.
- Keen Hiking Boots
- MEC Hiking Poles
- Fjallraven Hiking Trousers
- Polyester/Merino Long Sleeve
- 35L Daypack from Decathlon
- Hydro Flask Water Bottle
- Headlamp
- Compass
- Map
- Rab 4-Person Superlite Emergency Shelter (this link is for the 8 person, just to give you an idea of the shelter- they sell out of the smaller ones all the time!)
- Garmin inReach Mini (since buying mine Garmin has also come out with the inReach Messenger, which also has the function of sending an SOS signal even when there’s no cell coverage, which is really the only reason I bring mine everywhere. Plus it’s less expensive!)
