Sleeping Beauty

Not much to share here except some pictures. I try to find as much information about my hikes before blogging about them, but there isn't that much out there on Sleeping Beauty, a mountain in the southern region of the Adirondacks.

Hawk Circling above the summit, Lake George can be seen

Sleeping beauty was a last minute choice to hike last weekend. The weather was gorgeous, not to hot, no rain, mostly blue skies in fact! We made the relatively short drive to Fort Ann, New York to the trail head. We began our hike at Dacy Clearing, named for John "Jack" Dacy, a farmer that once owned the property. The road to Dacy Clearing is sometimes closed, adding a couple miles to the hike, but we were able to drive right to it.

From the trail head we walked to the large boulder that marks the two trails. We took the trail on the right side of the boulder to the summit, which is 1.8 miles in distance, stopping frequently to take pictures of wild flowers, toads, and trees.

Bumps Pond trail to the left, straight to the summit on the right

Wild flowers

"Camoufrog"

We were rewarded, though little effort was involved, by the gorgeous summit with views of Lake George, Bump Pond, the Green Mountains. Hawks made circles above us calling out to each other.

Lake George, and that might be Buck Mountain in front, but I could be very wrong...

Bumps Pond from above

We took the trail to Bump Pond on the way back down. This trail starts of junglish - if that's even a word. Bug spray is highly recommended. Dead tree wasteland was to the left, but there was plenty of green as well. We came little bridge goes over the Bump Pond outlet where we watched the little salamander-like-lizard creatures swim.



Bumps Pond is tiny with an island and an overwhelming number of dragonflies. Voices carry, as we could hear the conversations of the people on the other side. The muddy trail around the pond leads to an area of wild flowers. Look closely behind the wildflowers, there is an old chimney. We would have missed it if not for 'Ansel Blue' and crew who pointed it out to us. Ansel found my Flickr set of Sleeping Beauty and recognized me from the pictures, contacting me to say it was her group that pointed out the Chimney. (Many thanks Ansel and friends).

Bumps Pond from below

I could not find information for sure, but I did come across some speculation online that it was from an old hunting cabin.

Really bad picture of the chimney

The loop meets again at the large boulder and the large hollowed out tree stump and down the rocky path back to the parking lot.

A nice day hike if you are staying in the Lake George area. It's a rather easy trail, only 3.6 miles if you go to and fro the summit, longer if you 'do the loop' as we did. If you can't park at Dacy Clearing, add maybe another mile or two round trip.

See all my pictures from this hike here.