The Adirondacks Of Keene Valley

We were traveling homeward down through the Adirondack Mountains, the dogs and I. We were on Route 73 in the high peaks region when I stopped along the road to snap a few photos. You can see what a beautiful November day it was. Just ahead of where my car was parked, the road dropped sharply down into the Keene Valley:

Once down to the valley floor I stopped again to capture the glorious view:

Smaller mountains lined the roads while the taller mountains were a few miles away:

This field afforded magnificent views of the nearby high peaks and the ramshackle old barn in the lower left recalls a time when this was someone's hay field or pasture. It wasn't that long ago really:

I got closer to the barn for a better look:

And then decided, "What the heck, I might as well walk right on down there and see it for myself:"

The inside of the barn showed its old structure where, I supposed, horses or cattle once rested during the cold, cold nights of Adirondack winters. Someone had propped up the sagging hay loft with steel columns:

One wall had caved in. I noticed that someone had begun painting the interior white but never finished. The history of the Adirondacks is full of hunters, trappers, explorers, dreamers, farmers and visionaries (like John Brown, buried at his farm near Lake Placid). What a marvelous place, the Adirondacks - a wonderful park, an amazing and enduring legacy for the people of New York State: