Going Upriver

Because our autumn color has remained rather muted around Saratoga Springs, I drove up north about 25 miles today, hoping to find the spectacular display our part of the world is famous for.  I don't know if it's just too early, or if the recent scarcity of rain has desiccated the leaves, but it seems that the foliage was not the knock-your-eye-out glorious I remember from autumns past.  But that doesn't mean I didn't have a beautiful drive, following the Hudson River to Lake Luzerne and then north a few miles from there, taking the River Road until it turned to a rutted rocky lane and I could go no further.

The view of the turbulent Sacandaga River where it joins the Hudson at Hadley/Lake Luzerne is always dramatic, and the multicolored foliage certainly added to the beauty of the scene.

It's at Hadley/Lake Luzerne where the Hudson falls through a gorge at Rockwell Falls.  The landscape here is beautiful in every season, but never more so than in autumn.

In the center of the village of Lake Luzerne, Mill Creek tumbles down bouldered hills, carrying the waters of the lake to where they enter the Hudson River.

There's a lovely small park surrounding Mill Creek, providing close-up views of the creek as it splashes and roars on its way.

Above the gorge at Rockwell Falls, the Hudson spreads out into a wide shallow river, meandering among forested hills, the Adirondack Mountains rising in the distance.

After a few miles heading north from the village of Lake Luzerne, the River Road's pavement turns to gravel.  Continuing on, with glimpses of the Hudson frequently in view, the wide gravel road becomes a rutted lane that carries my car for some distance through a riverside forest designated as a campground. Eventually, I reach a barricade informing me that a bridge is out, so I turn and go back the way I came.

 At every turn of the road, I am treated to scenic beauty.  And I'm thinking if I return in a week or so, such scenes will be even more spectacular.  Stay tuned.