Lake Placid — the Olympic Village

Welcome to Lake Placid, and to the Adirondack High Peaks — and welcome aboard. I'm Ranger Quinn, and I'll be with you the whole drive, keeping you pointed the right way and telling you what you're looking at. Riding along is Ranger Boone Merrick, who carries the tales, and this little mountain village has some of the biggest ones in America.

Take a look around before you roll. You're in Lake Placid, a village of barely twenty-five hundred people tucked in the mountains of northern New York — and this tiny place hosted the entire Winter Olympic Games not once but twice, in 1932 and again in 1980. That silver Olympic arena right in town is where one of the most famous moments in all of sports happened, and Boone will tell you that story. The pretty water in the middle of town, by the way, isn't Lake Placid at all — it's Mirror Lake; the actual Lake Placid is the bigger one just north.

Here's the plan: we're driving about twenty miles up to the summit of Whiteface Mountain, the fifth-highest peak in the state — first out along the Ausable River through a beautiful gorge, then up a remarkable old road that climbs two thousand feet to a stone castle near the very top. It's a one-way climb; we'll come back down the same way.

So when you're ready, head out of the village heading east on Route 86, following the signs toward Wilmington and Whiteface Mountain. When you stop and shut the engine off, the tour pauses; tap play to pick it back up. All right, Boone — let's go up the mountain.