After breakfast and a group photo with Susan and Jean, we set out for New York State this morning. We crossed the Lake Champlain Bridge and stopped at the Crown Point Campground, where the Champlain Memorial Lighthouse stands as a navigational aid for mariners and a monument honoring French explorer Samuel de Champlain.
Located adjacent to the campground is the Crown Point State Historic Site, dedicated to the preservation and interpretation of the ruins of two fortifications from the colonial wars between the British and French. Long before the American Revolution, these colonial powers both laid claim to the Champlain Valley and this strategically important peninsula known as Crown Point. The French built Fort St. Frederic here between 1734 and 1737 and used it as a base for raids on British settlements in New York and New England. As a result, the British mounted various expeditions to take control of Crown Point, and in 1759, they were finally successful. They immediately began construction of new fortifications that they called “His Majesty’s Fort of Crown Point”. Enclosing over seven acres, this was one of the largest built by the British in North America. All that remains now are the stone ruins of two barracks.
Our next stop, the High Falls Gorge Park, contains what is known as “The Adirondacks’ Most Breathtaking 30-Minute Walk,” featuring a dramatic deep chasm carved over a billion years ago, where the West Branch of the AuSable River plunges over four majestic waterfalls.
We continued our westward journey across the Adirondack Mountains, stopping briefly at Lake Placid, Saranac Lake, and Cranberry Lake before reaching our destination for the evening, Alexandria Bay. There I did a little drone photography, offering a preview of what we wil see tomorrow. Pictured below is the Boldt Castle Power House and Clock Tower. It rises out of the St. Lawrence River from an underwater shoal and is connected to Heart Island by its one-of-a-kind, arched stone bridge. It once housed two coal-fired steam generators that would supply electricity to the entire island.
