Hiking NY: Backpacking in the Adirondacks (Indian Head and Rainbow Falls)

Early Sunday morning my best bud Jessica and I loaded up our packs again and hit the road east for a few days in the Adirondacks! Our itinerary included Indian Head and Rainbow Falls, as well as Upper and Lower Wolfjaw mountains. We arrived to the parking lot around 3pm and suited up to hit the trail!

We took the scenic trail of course!

At this junction we headed toward Colvin because our campsite was on that trail. 

Home sweet home! It was quite chilly and gloomy by the time we got to our campsite around 6pm. I ran down to the creek to refill all of our water bags (about 3.5L) then we got dinner going and started moving stuff inside the tent. The temp by then was probably down to around 40 degrees, and by the time we had dinner cleaned up we were ready to get warm! We got inside our bags around 8:30pm and we eventually figured out how to stay warm enough to sleep. We heard freezing rain start shortly after, so I'm guessing the nigh temp was in the low 30s.

The next day we packed up and hit the trail again to see Indian Head!!! Lots of beauty along the way.

A peak at the view! Almost there.....

And there it is!! The infamous view from Indian Head of Lower Ausable Lake. The clouds cleared just enough so that we could enjoy a snack on the rocks with some sunshine.

 

After that we headed toward Rainbow Falls. We had to cross a bridge that was being actively dismantled for reconstruction at the dam, and we were literally the last people to cross it! Perfect timing.

Rainbow falls was just past the dam, and whoa it was amazing!!!! Pictures don't do it justice. Just fantastic.

A bit further up the trail we came across another large waterfall where we decided to have our lunch for the day, as well as refill on water. My feet were sore so I took off my shoes/socks to soak my feet in the water for a minute. It was COLD.

Just shortly past these falls my friend Jess ended up twisting her ankle on the trail. We were at a critical spot in our location where we had to quickly decided to continue up to the next campsite, or abort the trip and head home. After a bit more walking, I made the decision to pull the plug--safety first!--and we took the trail junction that would lead us back to the car.

We saw some beautiful sights, and thankfully she was able to get back to the car safely without further injury. We are both saddened that we couldn't see everything we had planned because there was a lot of prep that went into this trip. We hope to get back soon and try again!