Sleeping Beauty Mountain is well known to locals in the Lake
George area and to hikers. The ledge
near the summit provides a sweeping view of the lower half of the lake and
probably a 270 degree view overall. On
May 3rd, while Leesa and I were hiking on nearby Shelving Rock
Mountain at sunset and we could see that a fire had started near the summit of
Sleeping Beauty. As we got back to our
car and drove out, we saw lots of fire trucks.
We later read that an accidental fire had damaged about six acres near
the summit. I wanted to return to
Sleeping Beauty to see how the burn area looked.
The trailhead is accessed via Buttermilk Falls Road, off of
Route 149 in the Town of Fort Ann. After
7 miles or so, the road turns to gravel for another 5 miles before reaching
“Hogtown” where you’ll see signage and a large parking lot.
If your vehicle has a little clearance, you can drive an
additional 1.5 miles to Dacy Clearing (if the gate is open). It is usually closed in the winter and
reopens in early May. I was able to make
it just fine in my Volkswagen Jetta by using a little care. At Dacy Clearing there is another parking lot
and 3 designated campsites. This is the location
of the trailhead and trail register.
It is 1.8 miles up to the Sleeping Beauty viewpoint. The trail begins at an elevation of
approximately 1340’ and follows an old carriage road and climbs 300’ in .6
miles before taking a hard right (the carriage road continues towards Bumps
Pond). From the split, it is another 1.2 miles with
an additional 500’ of vertical.
This trip was just a quick up and back for me after work so
I was moving fast. I reached the ledge
in about 30 minutes. I discovered that
the viewpoint area of the ledge had not caught fire. It was rock outcrop just to the north (that
had previously been covered with slash) that had burned. It was perhaps a hundred yards from the
viewpoint.
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| Still looking good at the ledge |
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| Looking SE |
 |
| Looking West |
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| Here's looking at the beginning of the burn area from the scenic ledge |
Various pictures of the burn area below.
I scouted around and thought that the area didn’t look too
bad and should make a pretty quick recovery.
Good news.
On my way down, I came across a luna moth sitting peacefully on a tree alongside the trail. I haven’t seen too many of those. After that is was back to the car and home for dinner.
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| A Luna Moth! |
Hike Stats:
Hike Distance: 3.6 miles
Hike Time: 1.25 hrs
Total Vertical Gain: ~800’
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