Ever hear of Whiteface Mountain? It’s in the Adirondack Mountain range. It’s also where the 1932 and 1980 Winter Olympics were held. I am madly in love with Whiteface Mountain. We went up to the summit last week.
It’s the only ADK mountain you can drive up (near to) the summit. Franklin Delano Roosevelt apportioned funds for the highway, called the World War Veterans’ Memorial Highway, when he was governor of New York State. The highway is very steep with several hairpin turns.
Because FDR was in a wheelchair, he could not climb to the summit. In his dedication speech, he hoped that someday a path would be made for people with mobility problems. Several years later, an elevator was built. You walk through a 480-foot pathway into the mountain, and take the elevator up 271 feet!
This takes you to an observation tower. You can walk out of the tower and go right out on top of the summit.
It was one of the most exhilarating moments in my life. I wish we could have stayed all day up there.
Eventually, we walked down the 1/5-mile nature trail, a steep, rocky path built onto one of the ridges of the summit.
We sadly made our way back into the valleys. While in Lake Placid, I experienced a strange physical sensation. I felt marvelously strong. My muscles seemed to adore the mountain air, and I felt invigorated in a way I hadn’t felt in many years. No wonder people in Lake Placid are so healthy and active.
On that note, I’ll leave you with an interesting Ripley’s Believe It or Not comic we saw at the Lake Placid Olympic Center Museum. I can certainly understand this, now!
Life is never dull, and exciting things just seem to always happen to me... why me... when I'm not running around the house fixing things, I'm a freelance writer for national media outlets like USAToday.com, Salon.com, and others. I've even been interviewed by TIME and The Wall Street Journal about blogging. Can you believe it?! Here is where I express my zany, creative, motherly side. 
September 24, 2012 at 6:30 am
What an exciting adventure! That elevator in a mountain sounds pretty scary to me. My first thought was what if it got stuck!
September 26, 2012 at 8:51 am
Karen and Rena — The elevator has been there since … 1948 or so, I think. I don’t think it’s ever gotten stuck. But even so, there’s lot of space outside the elevator, as I could see it behind the gate. I think there’s more of a chance a person would get hit by a car crossing the sidewalk than getting stuck in an elevator! It was fun to go up, but it was a little stuffy and cramped inside. Still, the ride up only takes about 2 minutes. And once you get to the summit, the elevator ride is quickly forgotten! 🙂
September 24, 2012 at 10:42 am
Oh wow I didn’t know there was an elevator! How long does it take to get to the observation tower in the elevator?
I was thinking the same thing as Karen mentioned above…what if the
elevator got stuck? I am such a wuss when it comes to things that move
or involved heights. 😯
September 25, 2012 at 12:13 pm
If the idea is to make us want to visit, it worked. 🙂