St. Regis Mountain- A 6.8 Mile Hike Near Saranac Lake, NY

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St. Regis Mountain was the third peak we hiked as part of the “Saranac 6er” challenge. We completed Baker first, and then Ampersand. Because of its length, we had thought St. Regis might be more challenging than Ampersand- but we were wrong. St. Regis IS a nice, long hike (when you’re doing it with a baby anyways) at just under seven miles long. But since the elevation gain on the trail is so gentle, it’s really quite an easy hike.

The summit of St. Regis is stunning as well, and it has a really cool fire tower at the top, adding to its appeal. St. Regis Mountain, when hiked all the way to the summit counts as a 6er, for those who are working on their Saranac Six, and as part of the ADK Fire Tower Challenge. Which is really unfortunate, because now that I’ve hiked ONE, I’m feeling compelled to look into the Fire Tower Challenge a little more and maybe tackle that one too!

The views from the summit of St. Regis were beautiful, but the views from the fire tower? They were STUNNING!

Dogs are allowed on this trail.

View from the fire tower on St. Regis

Getting There

When we hiked St. Regis, we were staying in Saranac Lake, and the drive to the trailhead was the longest we had taken all week. St. Regis is northwest of Saranac Lake, and it took us about twenty minutes to drive there from downtown.

You can use these coordinates to get there: 44.432089, -74.300021.

When we arrived, we pulled into a parking lot by the side of the road. There was an old logging road running into the forest at the back of the parking lot, and we almost thought that we should drive down it. But then we stopped and checked out the sign at the entrance of the parking lot, which let us know we were in the right spot (for parking).

The parking lot for St. Regis was one of the biggest we’d seen so far, with space for at least twenty-five cars. There were no facilities at this trailhead. Parking was free (yay!).

Park here.

Leaving No Trace in the Adirondacks

It’s important that we, as hikers, do our best to Leave No Trace wherever we go in nature. In places like the Adirondacks, where TONS of people like to head out and enjoy the wilderness, it is extra important that we all do our part to keep these places wild.

Sometimes, it can be hard to know exactly how we do that, or to understand why it’s important that we act certain ways while out in nature.

If you haven’t heard of Leave No Trace, then the first step for you will be really easy (yay!)- find out what it means!

Then it’s time to think about how to Leave No Trace when hiking. For us, we always make sure that whatever garbage we bring onto the trail comes back out with us. We will also pick up and bring out garbage that doesn’t belong to us, because every little bit helps. We ALWAYS stay on the trail, no matter how wet or muddy, to avoid widening it (and destroying plants unnecessarily).

In places like the Adirondacks, there are sometimes special trail conditions that we’re not as used to in Ottawa (where we live). We try to learn about things like this before we go to a new place.

In each season, trails need to be treated differently. “Mud season,” in the spring, can last for a long time in the Adirondacks. During this time trails at high elevation are especially at risk of being damaged. So the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation asks hikers to avoid trails above 2500 feet. That’s part of why we chose to hike the Saranac Six on our vacation (although we made a mistake on Ampersand and we’ll own up to it in that blog post).

And now, back to our hike!

The Trailhead

There was a small sign beside the parking lot that said “trail” with an arrow pointing down the logging road. Being the very clever folks that we are, we headed in that direction. We crossed over a little bridge and walked down the wide, flat road for just a bit.

Follow this sign from the parking lot towards the trailhead.

Soon, we saw a sign on our right hand side, pointing us into the forest for the St. Regis trail. We stopped at the register to sign in, and then we were on our way!

Follow THIS sign to leave the road and enter the forest.

The Trail

We crossed over a small footbridge to start the trail, and immediately came across a set of rock stairs. There was a slight uphill climb at the beginning of the trail, and we walked through beautiful mixed forest. We passed a small pond on our left hand side. Then, at 0.3 miles (0.5 kilometres) the trail veered somewhat sharply off to our right. There was a herd path that had been tracked off to our left, likely from people heading downhill and not paying much attention to where they were going. Fortunately, there was a sign posted for the return trip signalling the way back here.

Rock stairs near the beginning of the trail.

We continued our relaxing walk through the forest, alternating between gentle uphill and level sections. The trail was not very rocky or covered in roots, making it easy for us to move quickly. There were lots of trail markers posted to keep us on track.

The forest was quite dense, with a lot of undergrowth, moss, and ferns in different spots. Combined with the humidity of the day, we were getting a bit of a rain forest vibe and loving it.

So green. So beautiful.

At just under three quarters of a mile (1.15 kilometres), the trail veered to the left. There were logs placed strategically to help cue hikers they should not be going straight. We found ourselves hiking along a slight ridge, with the forest floor dropping off to our left.

We were able to cover the first mile in half an hour.

The Second Mile

After hiking 2.2 miles (3.5 kilometres), we crossed over a short bridge with a low but lively stream flowing underneath it. Beyond this point, the trail started to climb upwards gently but consistently. This was definitely the point where the trail changed from almost completely flat to actually having some incline. But things weren’t too tough just yet. We walked parallel to the stream, with it on our right hand side.

We were able to reach this point on the trail in just over an hour.

After hiking 2.4 miles (3.8 kilometres) we finally (finally?) reach a section of trail that had the rocky terrain we’ve begun to associate with the Adirondacks. The trail also got just a bit steeper here. There was water running over the rocks, so we began to step more carefully.

This section of the trail, despite its steepness, was still providing us with a few little breaks here and there, as there were some small dips in the path. There were also sections where the trail wasn’t rocky, and reverted to being an easy to hike dirt path. Don’t get me wrong though, everything was still going up!

Now this is easy hiking!

Trail at Higher Elevation

At 2.8 miles (4.5 kilometres) the trail started to get… Annoying. I feel terrible saying that because we should appreciate this land we’re able to travel, but it’s true. It was obvious that these higher sections of the trail experienced a lot of run off in the early spring months, because there was tons of smaller stones, leaves, twigs, and other debris running down them. This made for very annoying hiking, as we had to place our feet really carefully, and the trail felt extra choppy. Plus, the black flies really started to show up there, and I swallowed one. Annoying!

Choppy section of the trail.

Despite our minor grievances, we carried on. We traversed a few sets of stone stairs. At just over 3 miles (5 kilometres) a huge rock face rose up on our left hand side (perhaps attached to the summit? Excellent!). We followed it for a bit, then scooted between it and a large rock on our right. Beyond this, we caught our first glimpse of faraway mountains through the trees. This was the first view we had gotten, so we stopped for a minute to soak it in.

Let me just… squeeze through here.

The Summit

At the 3.25 mile (5.2 kilometre) mark, we noticed the treeline thinning out on our right hand side, and soon after we noticed an arrow carved into a little birch tree, pointing to the left. We headed right instead, and stepped out onto an open rock face where we got our first beautiful view.

Follow the arrow to the summit, or ignore the arrow for a good view.

Back on the trail, almost immediately after, we came up over open rock face, and saw the St. Regis fire tower right away. It had taken us almost two hours to get there.

The views from the summit were beautiful! Plus, we really lucked out and ended up having the whole place to ourselves. We were able to see tons of High Peaks in the distance, including some we’ve climbed before (like Big Slide), and some we still have to climb (like Mount Marcy).

The approach to the summit.

Fire Tower

I put on my brave face and climbed up the stairs to the top of the fire tower. My husband brought our daughter up in her back and was able to JUST squeeze through the opening to get into the fire tower.

The climb up, despite my fear of heights, was totally worth it!

Stairs up the fire tower.

From the top of the Fire Tower, we got views in every direction. Plus, where there were tons of blackflies down near the ground at the summit, there were fewer up high. So we decided to set up camp for a bit, practice crawling, and eat our lunch.

After a bit of a break, we decided to head back down. It would have been tricky to get her back out of the opening, so we decided to just carry her down. There was chicken wire attached to the handrails to close off gaps below them, but this only came waist high. Since a fall or a drop from any height on the tower would be absolutely devastating, I decided I would just scoot down the stairs on my bum the whole way, with her on my lap. After a lot of bum scoots, we were back on earth safe and sound.

“Thanks for bringing me up here Mom!”

We headed back the way we had come, making pretty good time on the way down. Our daughter had taken a nap on the way up, but she wasn’t going to let that stop her from taking another one on the way back too!

When we reached the register, we made sure to sign out. We made it back to the parking lot having hiked 6.8 miles. We were able to cover that distance in four hours and twenty minutes.

Survey marker on top of St. Regis- more proof we made it to the summit!

Trail Thoughts

Despite the blackflies and the choppy trail near the end, St. Regis made for a great hike. The distance was a bit intimidating to us at first. But with how easy and flat most of the trail was, we were really able to move quickly and cover a lot of ground pretty easily. And I can’t say it enough: the views were amazing. Especially from the fire tower!

As it relates to the other “6ers” we’ve done, we found St. Regis quite a bit easier to hike than Ampersand. It’s only slightly more challenging than Baker because of the much longer distance required to get to St. Regis’ summit.

This is a hike that is perfect for all ages. It’s a great one to challenge yourself with if you’re new to hiking in the Adirondacks, or wanting to figure out if completing the Saranac Six is manageable for you. That being said, the sign at the trail registry poses a good question- “are you prepared to stay overnight?” Despite the relative ease with which we climbed St. Regis, it’s important to remember that anything can happen while you’re out on the trail, and to prepare accordingly.

St. Regis- a great family hike.

St. Regis makes three out of the six Saranac 6ers for us.

I hope this trip report has enough info to get you there too. Let me know in the comments, or share and tag a friend to start planning your next adventure!

Map and Elevation Gain

Our GPS tracked route on the St. Regis Mountain Trail.

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 on St. Regis.

Gear We Brought

*We talked with our doctor about bringing our baby out hiking in the Adirondacks. We can’t know yet if our daughter is allergic to things like wasp stings. So we wanted the doctor’s opinion on our options to help keep her safe, since it can take longer to get to help or have help come to you on the mountains. Our doctor felt comfortable prescribing the EpiPen for us to use in the case of an emergency, and we’re lucky enough to have good insurance that covers it.

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