Adirondak Loj & Heart Lake Program Center — Attraction in Town of North Elba

Our family of four camped here for a week in July 2016. The last few years we have camped at many different campgrounds from Georgia to the Canadian Rockies. The Wilderness Campground at Heart Lake was a mixed bag.||||First the positives. The location is amazing for hiking the high peaks with so many trails just a few hundred feet from the campground. We were able to be on the trail at 6am a couple of times, which is great. In the loop with sites 7-15 there is a decent sized field where kids played in the evening and people watched the stars at night. Our neighbors were friendly. Our site #8 was good sized, though sites #7 and #9-11 seemed even bigger. It would be difficult to fit a big tent (we have a Kingdom 8) in many of the other sites in the campground. Despite the activity in the field everyone followed quiet hours. It was generally quiet well before 10 pm--even on July 4 weekend. Being able to walk over to the High Peaks Information Center at 8 am for $1 coffee was nice.||||Despite many positives, they are still some significant issues with the campground. This is an expensive place to camp, with summer rates between $40-45 a night for two people and $5 for an additional adult and $2.50 for children. This is more than you pay for most campgrounds, even ones with equally good locations in other parts of the country. The most disappointing thing here considering the price was what the website called their "Amenities".||||The wash house is entirely inadequate.There are 32 campsites, 6 canvas tents, 16 lean-tos, and a group camping area. While the lean-to areas have a few pit toilets, that leaves one wash house for potentially a few hundred campers (You can also use the High Peaks Information Center bathrooms, but that adds hundreds of hikers to the mix and I saw a line of ten people waiting to get into a bathroom there). The wash house has three toilets for women and two toilets & two urinals for men--each side also has two sinks. People were regularly waiting to use a toilet or sink. They simply need more facilities for the number of people.||||The wash house was also disappointing in other ways. We have stayed in many campgrounds with neither hot water nor showers and are fine when those are the expectations. The Wilderness Campground at Heart Lake advertises showers and hot water, but at best we got lukewarm showers and often they were freezing. A few hundred yards away the High Peaks Information Center showers always had steaming hot water for its pay showers--of course, we were already paying $50 a night for a camp site that was supposed to come with hot showers.||||Many of the issues just seemed to be lack of thought or attention to detail. The soap dispenser in the Women's room was often empty and on both sides the trash cans were regularly overflowing with used paper towels (as an aside, considering how much the ADK talks about environmentalism why are there not hand-dryers instead of paper towels?). The showers have curtains, but the changing area in front of the small showers is open to the public--with $50 and an afternoon it would be easy to install a second set of curtains for some privacy. Likewise, there is a dish washing sink behind the wash house, but no counter to hold dishes making it difficult to clean them, something that could be fixed with little effort or money. ||||There were also other minor annoyances. The fire pit at our campsite was not clean when we arrived and no one cleaned it while we were there. The little dock for the swimming area is nice, but on hot afternoons the six chairs and the little dock were entirely inadequate for the dozens of people there.||||Overall, the Wilderness Campground at Heart Lake is a great choice if you are primarily going to hike the trails in the immediate area. Otherwise, I would look for other options that are cheaper and have...

Our family of four camped here for a week in July 2016. The last few years we have camped at many different campgrounds from Georgia to the Canadian Rockies. The Wilderness Campground at Heart Lake was a mixed bag.||||First the positives. The location is amazing for hiking the high peaks with so many trails just a few hundred feet from the campground. We were able to be on the trail at 6am a couple of times, which is great. In the loop with sites 7-15 there is a decent sized field where kids played in the evening and people watched the stars at night. Our neighbors were friendly. Our site #8 was good sized, though sites #7 and #9-11 seemed even bigger. It would be difficult to fit a big tent (we have a Kingdom 8) in many of the other sites in the campground. Despite the activity in the field everyone followed quiet hours. It was generally quiet well before 10 pm--even on July 4 weekend. Being able to walk over to the High Peaks Information Center at 8 am for $1 coffee was nice.||||Despite many positives, they are still some significant issues with the campground. This is an expensive place to camp, with summer rates between $40-45 a night for two people and $5 for an additional adult and $2.50 for children. This is more than you pay for most campgrounds, even ones with equally good locations in other parts of the country. The most disappointing thing here considering the price was what the website called their "Amenities".||||The wash house is entirely inadequate.There are 32 campsites, 6 canvas tents, 16 lean-tos, and a group camping area. While the lean-to areas have a few pit toilets, that leaves one wash house for potentially a few hundred campers (You can also use the High Peaks Information Center bathrooms, but that adds hundreds of hikers to the mix and I saw a line of ten people waiting to get into a bathroom there). The wash house has three toilets for women and two toilets & two urinals for men--each side also has two sinks. People were regularly waiting to use a toilet or sink. They simply need more facilities for the number of people.||||The wash house was also disappointing in other ways. We have stayed in many campgrounds with neither hot water nor showers and are fine when those are the expectations. The Wilderness Campground at Heart Lake advertises showers and hot water, but at best we got lukewarm showers and often they were freezing. A few hundred yards away the High Peaks Information Center showers always had steaming hot water for its pay showers--of course, we were already paying $50 a night for a camp site that was supposed to come with hot showers.||||Many of the issues just seemed to be lack of thought or attention to detail. The soap dispenser in the Women's room was often empty and on both sides the trash cans were regularly overflowing with used paper towels (as an aside, considering how much the ADK talks about environmentalism why are there not hand-dryers instead of paper towels?). The showers have curtains, but the changing area in front of the small showers is open to the public--with $50 and an afternoon it would be easy to install a second set of curtains for some privacy. Likewise, there is a dish washing sink behind the wash house, but no counter to hold dishes making it difficult to clean them, something that could be fixed with little effort or money. ||||There were also other minor annoyances. The fire pit at our campsite was not clean when we arrived and no one cleaned it while we were there. The little dock for the swimming area is nice, but on hot afternoons the six chairs and the little dock were entirely inadequate for the dozens of people there.||||Overall, the Wilderness Campground at Heart Lake is a great choice if you are primarily going to hike the trails in the immediate area. Otherwise, I would look for other options that are cheaper and have...

This is a very unique place, poised at the base (or as close as one can drive one's car to the base) of Mount Marcy, for nature enthusiasts only.

The service is enthusiastic, chipper, young and healthy. The facilities (with shared hallway bathrooms [with showers], a dining hall, a large lounge) are very clean. The services are thoughtful - including healthy breakfasts, options to buy dinners, as well as packed lunches, a stack of tiny bars of soap near the shower stalls, a cozy lounge.

Just a few tips for the potentially unwary: (1) There really are no locks on the guest room doors. This is not a place to bring luggage - or anything of value. Not that anyone is likely to enter your room. Just that there's no assurance that they can't/won't. (2) If your upstairs neighbors (immediately above) move about at night, you will hear every loud creaky step that they take. (3) If you stay for two nights (or more), your room will not be made up after the first - at least ours was not. Even towels were not replaced. We respect energy conservation and understand that this is a hiking lodge somewhat far from the beaten path (or, town), so this isn't a disparaging statement - just a reminder to treat your towel with care. (4) There are so many bugs! Yes, this is the great outdoors, the woods, even, so this should not be surprising. Just a tip, though - do not underestimate how quickly you will sweat away your insect repellent. Also - do not underestimate how many insect bites can penetrate your clothing.

On the whole, this is a charming "loj" (so named because of Melvil Dewey's penchant for simplifying English language spellings) and a great benefit for hikers seeking an early morning launching pad for the long slog up Mt. Marcy. The Center on the whole is an impressive operation, with a well-stocked information center and knowledgeable...