Lake Champlain Loop - The Most Scenic Drives in America: 120 Spectacular Road Trips - page 882

darkness,thelakegrowsstillasgranite,andifthenearbycommotionpermits,thetiniestof
sounds—the soft ping of a halyard, the cry of a loon—travels for miles across the surface.
3. Willsboro Point
For much of the journey north to Plattsburgh, the drive skirts the eastern slopes of the Ad-
irondack Mountains, a region that embraces one of the East Coast's grandest tracts of wil-
derness. Taller and more rugged than their cousins across the lake, the Adirondacks amass
in a great, brooding jumble near the lake's western shore. The mountains are so immense
and densely forested that it's not always easy to get a clear view of them when one is in
their midst. Be assured that just as you are able to look east and take in Green Mountains,
you'll have a terrific view of these stony giants when you reach the Vermont side of the
lake.
Beyond Essex the highway follows the lakeshore for a stretch before veering inland to
Willsboro, where New York State's first fish ladder affords migrating salmon the chance
to overleap Willsboro Dam en route to their fall spawning grounds upstream—and enables
visitors to witness this ageless, often repeated struggle.
Farther on, take the turnoff to Willsboro Point, a fingerlike peninsula that shelters one
ofChamplain'slargestandperhapsmostscenicinlets.Reminiscent ofaNordicfjord,four-
mile-long Willsboro Bay is walled on the west by sheer cliffs that tumble to the water's
edge. To sample accommodations as they existed here some 200 years ago, visit the Adsit
Cabin, a modest log structure built in the 1790s.
4. Ausable Chasm
This deep, tortuous gorge was one of America's first tourist attractions, and its grandeur
has hardly paled over the years. Come early in the day to avoid the crowds, and take
a leisurely stroll along the path below the chasm's beautifully textured, sheer sandstone
walls—sculpted over millennia through Cambrian rock formed over 500 million years
ago by the Ausable River on its way into Lake Champlain. In places these magnificent
walls—between 100 and 200 feet high—stand as close together as 20 feet. On bright au-
tumn days flaming foliage ignites the chasm's clifftops as well as patches along its walls,
making for an especially breathtaking spectacle.