Azure: The Magic Mountain

Last Saturday I began my foray into the Adirondack Mountains with a short but sweet hike up Azure Mountain. Azure sits in the northern part of the park where the mountains glide into the foothills, and holds a special place in my heart. A friend once referred to it as 'Magic Mountain' because you can hike it, ski it, rock or ice climb it, love it...the list goes on. It's where I learned how to ice climb, but I had yet to actually hike to the summit and climb the 93-year-old fire tower that sits up there, and so it felt like the perfect place to kick off the summer.

The trail head lies at the end of Blue Mountain Road in Waverly. We parked next a pile of fist-sized rocks bearing a sign urging hikers to take a few to the top to help fight erosion. For a mountain that gives so much it was an easy decision to stuff some rocks into our backpack and pockets. It was really the least we could do to give back. 

Evan fighting erosion at the summit

The High Peaks from the Azure Mountain Fire Tower 

The trail is exactly a mile up, gaining just under 1,000 feet of elevation and topping off at a summit of 2,518 feet (give or take a handful of rocks). It was warm in the woods, and a torrent of spring melt water was still running down the trail, enough of it to be audible on the steep parts. Where the trees thinned a cool breeze kept the hike at a perfect temperature. There is a large boulder pile of almost perfectly rectangular blocks sitting off the trail about half way up, and we indulged in some scrambling. At the summit the mountain opens up to a perfect view of the high peaks, and from the fire tower the view is a completely unobstructed 360-view of upstate New York. We turned our gaze from Marcy to the St. Lawrence River Valley and into Canada and back again, and it struck me how happy I was to be back in the good ol' North Country.

Sneaky Woodpeckers