for: Adirondack Park

The mountains are often included by geographers in the Appalachian Mountains, but they are geologically more similar to the Laurentian Mountains of Canada.Isachsen, Yngvar W. (Editor) (2000), The Geology of New York: A Simplified Account. New York State Museum Press. See also The Andirondack Mountains: New Mountains From Old Rocks They are bordered on the east by Lake Champlain and Lake George, which separate them from the Green Mountains in Vermont. They are bordered to the south by the Mohawk Valley, and to the west by the Tug Hill Plateau, separated by the Black River. This region is south of the Saint Lawrence River.

State park

main: Adirondack Park The Adirondack Mountains are contained within the 6.1 million acres (25,000 km²) of the Adirondack Park, which includes a constitutionally-protected Forest Preserve of approximately 2.3 million acres (9,300 km²). About 43% of the land is owned by the state, with 57% private inholdings, heavily regulated by the Adirondack Park Agency. The Adirondack Park contains thousands of streams, brooks and lakes, most famously Lake Placid, adjacent to the village of Lake Placid, two-time site of the Winter Olympic Games, the Saranac Lakes, favored by the sportsmen who made the Adirondacks famous, and Raquette Lake, site of many of the first Great Camps.

Mountains

The Adirondacks do not form a connected range, but is an eroded dome consisting of many summits, isolated or in groups, often with little apparent order. There are over one hundred summits, ranging from under 1200 to over 5000 feet (370 m to 1500 m) in altitude; the highest peak, Mount Marcy (sometimes also called Tahawus, although that was never its true name), at 5344 ft (1629 m), is near the eastern part of the group.

Other noted High Peaks include:

• Algonquin Peak (formerly Mt. McIntyre); 5114 ft (1559 m).
• Haystack; 4960 ft (1512 m).
• Skylight; 4926 ft (1501 m).
• Whiteface; 4867 ft (1483 m).
• Dix; 4857 ft (1480 m).
• Giant; 4627 ft (1410 m).

High peaks

main: Adirondack High Peaks Forty-six of the tallest mountains are considered "The 46" Adirondack High Peaks — those over 4,000 ft (1,219 m), that were climbed by brothers Robert and George Marshall between 1918 and 1924. Since that time, better surveys have shown that four of these peaks (Blake Peak, Cliff Mountain, Nye Mountain, and Couchsachraga Peak) are in fact just under , and one peak just over 4,000 ft (MacNaughton Mountain) was overlooked.

There are many hikers who enjoy the Adirondack Mountains who make an effort to climb all of the original 46 mountains (and many go on to climb MacNaughton as well), and there is a Forty Sixers club for those who have successfully reached each of these peaks. Twenty of the 46 remain trailless, so climbing them requires bushwhacking or following herd paths to the top.